Ireland - where's good?

[yama]

We use usually rent a cottage in Arran for a week in the summer.

Thought we might take the car on the ferry over to Ireland next year.

Would love recommendations on where to stay with a three and a half year old.

Thank you

the west coast is beautiful pretty much the whole way down.

starting in the north:

• donegal (northwest) is beautiful and peaceful - amazing beaches.
• galway, north clare: near galway city which is really lively, and there are places of interest like connemara, the burren, the cliffs of moher
• kerry is lovely: both mountains and beaches - the dingle peninsula is where i would recommend. we spent a lot of family holidays here
• don't know cork too well

my mum is from clare so we spent a lot of family holidays in clare and kerry and i love it over there.

Thanks for your replies.

The West Coast does look ideal. How long would it take to drive across from Dublin?

I guess we have a wee bit of money to spend. Would like to rent a cottage in a town near tourist attractions. Wouldn't do anything sporty but love nice walks, visiting place and the occasional meal out.

Ooh, I'm getting excited now.

Dingle.
Cahirciveen.

They book look great - thanks Seeker.

it'll take you about 3-4 hours to drive to Donegal from Dublin if I remember correctly, longer if you were thinking of Cork.

Donegal is good but not sure if there's that much for children unless you fancy beaches and countryside walks.

Galway has more happening.

And perhaps a shorter drive from Dublin?

Galway's going on the list.

Sorry - didn't mean to be quite so terse! We love Dingle - it's very touristy but in a very charming way (well, we think so, but we have a very high tolerance of kitch tat!) Lots of lovely fish to eat, fantastic walks, beaches

If you do go to the west coast the tower at Ardmore is very interesting and the town of Youghal.....oh and if you like to live dangerously drive over The Connor Pass......strong stomachs required!!
www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Ireland/County_Kerry/Killarney-295323/Things_To_Do-Killarney-Co nnor_Pass-BR-1.html

West Cork is heaven. You can drive from coastal town to town along the rugged coastline, amazing seafood Kinsale (seafood)Garrettstown outside Kinsale - lovely beach, Schull (Sailing), Barley Cove is the most beautiful white sandy beach and dunes, Glandore - fishing village. Glengarriff is a stunning little village with it own botanical island you can viit and a beautiful forest for walking. From there you can take a spectacular drive over the mountains and into Kerry. The ring of Kerry is gorgeous, Dingle v touristy but lovely out of season.

Husband Kerryman (actually from Dingle), me from Cork so I'm pushing for Cork. May or September are the best times to go, fo some reason the weather is generally guaranteed to be good.

3-4 hours to drive to Cork, about the same over to Galway. If you are coming from Wales you could get the ferry into Rosslare in Wexford but Cork then 3 hours, Galway 4. Ring of Kerry amazing on a good day, a complete waste of time in the rain.