I'm just going to update in the original text for each day to keep it organized.

My wife and I will be going to Ireland in mid May for 10 days. Below is our itinerary:

Day 1: Fly in to Belfast, spend day touring around the city. Review: We did a taxi tour, which was pretty interesting. It's surprising to see that in a country like Northern Ireland, they still need a wall separating the city. We stayed in the city center, not wanting to venture too far out (warned by hotel workers and taxi driver about going to the wrong part of town), but we were able to see some pretty neat areas.

Day 2: Giant's Causeway (probably only half a day, so the rest of the day will probably be filled driving back down the northeast coast looking for other coastal stops). Review: This was a lot of fun. We drove the Causeway Coastal Route. Awesome scenery. We stopped in a few towns, saw some castles, abbeys, etc. If you like driving, I would recommend renting a vehicle and hitting some coastal roads. We were in a crappy little Citreon C4, but it felt like we were on a go-kart track. Being a geologist, I really enjoyed the Giant's Causeway, but be prepared to rub elbows with a lot of other tourists. There were also people there making sure you didn't climb too high or go out too close to the water (I'm sure it's necessary with all those people, but I like to crawl around when I'm out in places like this).

Day 3: Drive southwest to Dromoland Castle, spend the night there. Review: Dromoland was pretty neat, but our mistake was getting there late and only staying one night. There are some pretty neat activities there (falconry looked cool), but you need to book them in advance. In the end, all we had time to do was ride bikes around the grounds for a couple of hours.

Day 4: Cliffs of Moher, then drive south to Killarney. Review: The cliffs were by far my favorite thing on the trip. The views were spectacular. We started at the visitor's center, then hiked north to Doolin, spent a little time in the pub, then caught a bus back to the visitor's center to see a couple of more spots with the afternoon sun on it. We didn't bother stopping at O'Brien's Tower along the way, it was crawling with people. About the hike: There are signs everywhere suggesting you stay to the gravel trail. Some people do this. Most people don't. My wife and I followed a well-worn path that ran next to the trail (much better view, the gravel path had a big 4-5ft tall shoulder next to it blocking the views most of the time). However, at one point, we didn't notice the gravel path veer away from the cliffs. Some property owners didn't want people walking through their land, so they fenced it off right next to the cliff. As a result, the worn path gets very VERY close to the edge of the cliff. At one point, we had to step over a foot wide gap with sheer cliff face below us. I loved it, but my wife was terrified. I would highly recommend not going on the gravel path, unless you're terrified of heights. Killarney is a very touristy town, but it's still very nice. We ate well, and it didn't take much effort to find live pub music.

Day 5: Ring of Kerry. Review: As I mentioned before, the coast roads are a lot of fun. I didn't have time to go to the Dingle peninsula as some of you suggested, but driving the ring was still enjoyable. We went the same direction as the buses (counter-clockwise) and we were fine. The trick is to leave around 10am, so all the bus traffic is cleared out beforehand. We just drove and stopped in several towns along the way. You can look up reviews on the ring and get several different suggestions on where to go and what to see. We enjoyed everywhere we stopped.

Day 6: Killarney Nat'l Park and the Gap of Dunloe. Review: This is probably the only part of the trip we would have liked to do a little differently. We did a bus/walking/boat tour in the Gap. Very nice views, but the walking tour is just walking on a road through the gap. There are constant cars, bikes, and horse drawn buggies to get out of the way of. If we could do it again, we would have driven through the gap, then gone found some cooler hiking paths to walk on. The boat ride at the end was very nice and almost made up for the walk, though.

Day 7: Drive east to Kilkenny. Tour the town, go to Smithwick's Brewery. Review: Kilkenny has a bunch of older churches and Abbeys that were pretty neat. We toured Kilkenny Castle and went on the Smithwick's tour. I really enjoyed the tour because it went into the detail involved in brewing like most tours do, but it also gives you a look at the brewery's history.

Day 8: Drive east to Dublin.

Day 9: Dublin. Guinness brewery, Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, etc. Review: We had a night and then the next day in Dublin. My cousin and his wife were passing through on their own Scotland/Ireland vacation, so we hooked up with them the first night and visited some of the pubs in the Temple Bar area. I was surprised how many people were out for a Tuesday night, but it was a lot of fun. The next day, we did the Guinness Brewery. Enjoyed that, but I think the Smithwick's tour was better. We went to a couple of cathedrals, but by that time we were spent. We found a coffee shop and people watched for a while, then hit the sack for an early morning flight out.

Day 10: Fly out of Dublin.

So, what am I missing? There's not much wiggle room, but is there anything in the two big cities that is a must see? Any other stops I should try to squeeze in along the way? Not kissing the Blarney Stone and getting the locals' piss on my lips. I plan on going to a few pubs at night, but haven't picked anything specific yet.

Overall Review

This was a really fun trip. Given the chance, I'd like to come back and spend a little more time in certain places. I'd probably recommend going a little earlier in the season than we did. Apparently we beat most of the tourists, and there were still a good bit around. The weather for us was perfect. We're probably two of the few people that have ever spent an entire trip in Ireland without getting rained on once. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to answer.

This post was edited on 5/27/16 at 11:05 am