Ireland extension or Iceland Layover: We are doing the 2-week Rick Steves Best of Ireland tour, Dublin to Belfast. It seems very comprehensive. We want to add 5-7 days to our trip.

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

We are doing the 2-week Rick Steves Best of Ireland tour, Dublin to Belfast. It seems very comprehensive. We want to add 5-7 days to our trip. Question: add time in Ireland——where? OR return to Iceland and do a couple of day tours to more remote areas we did not see 2 years ago on our self-drive Ring Road trip? We will fly Iceland Air. Thanks for suggestions.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Oie, such a conundrum.

I might opt for Iceland, I loved that place.

Good luck deciding!

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

Longshadow wrote:

Oie, such a conundrum.

I might opt for Iceland, I loved that place.

Good luck deciding!

We did too! The airlines layover option makes it easy, too. Hate to short-change Ireland, but the tour really covers the highlights well. Thanks.

kotography4u

dbfalconer wrote:

We are doing the 2-week Rick Steves Best of Ireland tour, Dublin to Belfast. It seems very comprehensive. We want to add 5-7 days to our trip. Question: add time in Ireland——where? OR return to Iceland and do a couple of day tours to more remote areas we did not see 2 years ago on our self-drive Ring Road trip? We will fly Iceland Air. Thanks for suggestions.

BIG vote for the SouthWest quadrant of Ireland, especially for photographs. Your Dublin to Belfast leg won't give you nearly the beauty there is to see in the Ring of Kerry and other locales in the SouthWest quadrant. Rent a car so you can go where your whimsy takes you.

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

kotography4u wrote:

BIG vote for the SouthWest quadrant of Ireland, especially for photographs. Your Dublin to Belfast leg won't give you nearly the beauty there is to see in the Ring of Kerry and other locales in the SouthWest quadrant. Rent a car so you can go where your whimsy takes you.

Thanks. Appreciate your comment. I might not have been clear---the tour does make a big loop from Dublin south and west, then north along coast and past Giant's Causeway to Belfast. One full day in Belfast. I'll watch for great photo opps in Ring of Kerry for sure!

kotography4u

Got it! If you get the opportunity, go to the Aran Islands and/or the Blaskett Islands - they're both jaw-dropping. Also, the Beara peninsula. The beaches there look crystal blue like the Carribean...

APSHEPPARD

You have two great options so there is no bad decision. I would prefer the extra days in Ireland. There is an easy ferry over to Hollyhead UK if you wanted to vary a little more by a few days in Wales and thereabouts.

therwol Loc: USA

[quote=kotography4uRent a car so you can go where your whimsy takes you.[/quote]

I've done Ireland twice in a rental car. It's the only way to go. My advice is:

1. If you've never driven on the left, be VERY careful. Your brain will try to make you turn into the wrong lane.
2. Rent a car with an automatic transmission. Most people over there still drive cars with standard transmissions.
Shifting with the left hand can be a distraction if you're not used to it.
3. Look both ways before a turn. The cross traffic will be on the opposite lanes from the U.S.
4. Yield to cars coming from the right at a roundabout.

kotography4u

therwol wrote:

I've done Ireland twice in a rental car. It's the... (show quote)

Not just driving - SOOOO many pedestrians are hit by cars and buses when they look left and step off the curb....

photoman43

kotography4u wrote:

BIG vote for the SouthWest quadrant of Ireland, especially for photographs. Your Dublin to Belfast leg won't give you nearly the beauty there is to see in the Ring of Kerry and other locales in the SouthWest quadrant. Rent a car so you can go where your whimsy takes you.

I vote for extra time in Ireland, in Dingle or thereabouts. My mother took a typical tour of Ireland with a lady friend. When it was over, my mother opted to stay by herself in a short term rental near Dingle for a week or 10 days. She said it was on of her best travel adventures ever. She just walked to town when needed and acted like any other local. I do not think she had access to a car rental for her extension. She was in her 70s when she did this.

JFCoupe Loc: Kent, Washington

You will enjoy either option. I spent two weeks in 2023 in the West of Ireland. One week with a photo workshop in the SW. Amazing area, great coastal areas, very narrow, winding roads. The second week I spent more to the NW, Galway and Westport and day trips from those two locations. All of it was amazing.

My neighbors spent five days on Iceland, August 2023 and loved the area.

goofybruce

Driving in Ireland for us 'muricans, will be tough...not only is the traffic coming from the opposite direction, but the roads are very narrow and in many cases on sidehills with ocean on your left when you are driving on the left (and the 'dropoff' is on the other side of the car from what you are accustomed.) If you are the driver, you will spend more time un-clenching your hands from the steering wheel than looking at scenery. (Just riding in the tour bus was unnerving).... And, I would vote for Iceland to maybe get some pictures of the lava flows depending on how close you are allowed to get to them.

MJPerini

Taking nothing away from Iceland, but if the choice is a single day there vs a week or nearly so to see the Southwest of Ireland, that seems like a no brainer to me.

Jsykes

dbfalconer wrote:

We are doing the 2-week Rick Steves Best of Ireland tour, Dublin to Belfast. It seems very comprehensive. We want to add 5-7 days to our trip. Question: add time in Ireland——where? OR return to Iceland and do a couple of day tours to more remote areas we did not see 2 years ago on our self-drive Ring Road trip? We will fly Iceland Air. Thanks for suggestions.

We did a seven day driving tour in and out of Dublin last year. Might be worth looking at, in case Steves (I assume self drive?) tour doesn't include some of the following:
* Cobh; Cork
* Ring of Kerry; Ross Castle (we were based in Killarney). Note. Take a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry, not the car. Cars and buses have to drive the ~ 120 miles in opposite direction.
* Cliffs of Moher; The Burren: Castle Doonagore (we were based in Limerick)
* Galway city (great at weekends); Kylemore Abbey; Connemara National Park (we were based in Galway)

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

kotography4u wrote:

BIG vote for the SouthWest quadrant of Ireland, especially for photographs. Your Dublin to Belfast leg won't give you nearly the beauty there is to see in the Ring of Kerry and other locales in the SouthWest quadrant. Rent a car so you can go where your whimsy takes you.

Dingle peninsula, Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Quiet Man tour, Galway, Westport, Donegal.
Eat when you’re hungry; drink when you’re dry; music in most every pub along the way.