I just wanted to second the Ireland idea. It is an astonishingly beautiful country and geographically has so much variety, history, and it feels like an epiphany this country is RIGHT NEXT DOOR. Yes there is wind and rain but it is so worth putting up with. Seeing the mist rising on Inis Mor, was honestly one of the most amazing sights of my entire life (the Sphinx at dawn is up there in my top ten too).
We were over in Ireland for a very long summer trip with the Galway Arts Festival (mid July) in the middle. We did lots of driving, walking and a little bit of cycling. I’ve no idea how long this road trip would take - i think we did it across four weeks, can’t even remember now! I put this in chat gpt by the way (hence it reads a bit funny) because otherwise you wouldn’t get a sense of the scale and scope and sheer amazingness:
Fly to Shannon Airport and drive south to walk the quiet forest trails tp the hidden waterfall at Ballysaggartmore Towers. From there, you head into Kerry to travel through the glacial landscape of the Gap of Dunloe and drive the coastal Ring of Kerry, where you cross over to Valentia Island for views of the open ocean.
Next, you navigate the tight coastal twists of the Slea Head Drive on the Dingle Peninsula before you spend an evening listening to live traditional music in Dingle Town. You leave Dingle and cross the River Shannon via the Tarbert Ferry to walk the sheer edge of the Cliffs of Moher and explore the stark limestone scenery of The Burren.
You then take the morning passenger ferry to Inis Mor for an overnight stay in a local bed and breakfast, where you spend your day when you bike out to the ancient cliff-fort of Dun Aonghasa to sit on the edge of the vertical drop. For me this was the unmissable highlight of the trip! Could just be it was the sheep and the weather and the austerity of it all. There was an amazing little museum there about how people eked out existence living essentially like Iron Age folk right up to the 19th century.
Afterwards, you return to the mainland and drive into Galway City to spend several days to enjoy the comedy venues, live music, and street performances of the Galway International Arts Festival.
You leave the festival and drive north through the dramatic Doolough Valley to Roonagh Pier. Here, you take a short ferry crossing to explore Clare Island, where you view the pirate castle of Grace O'Malley and the medieval abbey ruins.
After you return to the mainland, you drive south into Connemara to base yourself in Clifden. Over a few days, you navigate the coastal drops of the Sky Road, hike up Diamond Hill, see the lakeside Kylemore Abbey, and relax on the fine white sands of Glassilaun Beach, a spectacular horseshoe cove framed by mountains.
Finally, you drive east across the midlands to hike up to the five thousand year old passage tombs at Loughcrew Cairns to view the carved green stones. You finish with a visit to the Norman ruins of Trim Castle before you take the motorway back down to Shannon Airport for your flight home.