Best of Ireland

Seven nights in a loop from Dublin, self-guided, through Cork, Killarney and Galway, with the flights and the car included.

The Ring of Kerry gets a full day rather than being squeezed into a transfer, which is the right decision: it is a hundred and eleven miles of coast road and the point is to stop.

Dublin opens it with Trinity College and the Guinness Storehouse, then Cork by way of Kilkenny Castle, with the English Market and Blarney optional. Killarney follows for two nights, with the national park and Muckross House, and the Ring day takes in Ladies View, Moll’s Gap, Sneem and the Skellig Ring, which is the quieter loop off the main circuit and the better of the two. Galway comes next for two nights by way of the Cliffs of Moher, which run for five miles and stand over two hundred metres above the Atlantic, with a free day for Connemara or the city itself. The return runs back across the middle of the country to Dublin.

The direct flights, the car hire and all seven nights’ accommodation are included, with the meals depending on the room basis booked, which is mostly room-only or breakfast; everything else was not itemised on the operator’s page and is worth confirming at booking. The price shown is per person sharing. May to September gives the best of the weather, and the west coast gets a great deal of rain whatever the month. Eight days at this price, with the flights and the car in it, is straightforward value for a first Irish trip.