Seeking Advice

UNI4MER

I plan on a 25th aniversity surprise for my wife a once in lifetime trip in May. She is a McCord and my familiy came from Monaghan and for 5 days RURAL we want to see areas and pubs starting from Dublin to Monagham down to Galway and to Dingle, Cork and back to Dublin. Any advice?

mikedragon32

You'll need to be a little more specific. First up, where are you travelling from? I'm guessing you're not already in Ireland anyway!

To be honest, on a five day trip like that, most of what you'll be seeing is our fine national route network if you're driving. Obviously Monaghan is core to the trip, so why not focus on spending your time in Monaghan. There is plenty to see/do in Monaghan over a couple of days before setting off for Galway perhaps for a couple of days and then back to Dublin.

Co. Cork is beautiful, Dingle is even more so, but you'd spend the guts of a day just getting there.

An alternative, if it's available (and again making assumptions on where you're coming from) might be to fly into Shannon, seek Dingle, then head up to Galway and over to Monaghan, returning home via Dublin. You'll still be spending a fair chunk of your time travelling, however at least it's not a giant loop that sees you spending all of your time either in cars or hotels/B&Bs.

Balmed Out

Change you plan or youll spend all your time travelling. You could spend 5 days doing just west cork not to mind everywhere else.

P. Breathnach

I'm with the other respondents: it's simply too much travel.

If Monaghan is a core requirement, I suggest that you omit SW Ireland from your itinerary (you can save it for a future trip). It's much simpler to target Donegal for the scenic tourism ambition you seem to have.

Gemma01

With so little time you would be better off concentrating on Monaghan and if you want to see some of the countryside then there are lots of things to see in County Wicklow which isn't far from Dublin. Howth would also be a good day trip idea from Dublin.

UNI4MER

I really appreciate all your replies thus far and in trying to see as much as possible I am cramming way too much travel time on my agenda. I will try to do some more studying of the areas and try to narrow it down. I am from California and have never been to Europe and with the way things are here it will be difficult to afford more than one trip in my lifetime. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

P. Breathnach

It would help if you were clearer about what you really want. Is Monaghan important to you?