A tour of west Ireland

I'm putting together a suggested route around Ireland for a couple of Spanish friends of mine who have never been to Ireland before.
I was thinking of the following route. Dublin to Galway, The Burren, Doolin, Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, Killarney, Cork, Kilkenny, and back to Dublin. Do you think that is too much for a 1 week trip?
And what they would really like is live music and places with interesting art and culture. Any suggestions?

Hi Lynda, 

It's so lovely that you are helping your Spanish friends putting their itinerary along the west coast together! :) I'd love to provide you with some tips and ideas for their trip. 

The route looks like a great idea, and would definitely be doable depending on where along the way they would like to stop. Would they prefer to stay in a different place each night, or would they like to use one place as their base and explore the area from there? 

From Dublin to Galway is quite a short drive with lots of things to see along the way. From Galway, they can easily explore the Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, The Burren and the Aran Islands on day trips. 

From there on they can travel south to see Killarney, Dingle and Cork and visit Kilkenny on their way back to Dublin. They are sure to find a lot of live music sessions during their trip, and you can find some favourite spots and suggestions here on this page. You can also search for live music sessions here. Simply select the name of the town, city or area, and all of the available options will pop up. 

When it comes to museums and art and culture you are spoilt for choice! You'll find lots of museums and galleries all over the island, and here are some of our favourites. Galway is Europe's Capital of Culture for 2020, so I definitely recommend checking out some of the events and festivities taking place there. For more on Ireland's Culture and where to find it, take a look at this page.

I hope this provides you with some ideas for their itinerary, and I hope our other members can provide you with even more tips! Keep us posted on your plans! :)
 

Hi Melin,
Thanks so much. This is really helpful!! I'm sure they would want to stay in Galway a couple of nights or more, so that's a good idea!!
Looks like I have loads now to put together a good itinerary for them.
They don't speak much english. Is there much support for spanish speakers in the tourist areas of Ireland?

Hi Lynda,

I can certainly understand why you'd be concerned and wouldn't want you to worry about your friends while here.

One option to help ensure that they'll be able to find help whenever they need it is to look into a tour guide. 

There are a number of tour guides available who offer Spanish speaking services, including flexible tours and options that I do hope your friends would love. What I'd suggest is reaching out to the Independent Tour Guides Association, or the ITGA, to see what they might suggest. The ITGA is an organization that helps tourists find the perfect guide for their trip. You can search for tour guides by location, language, and even tour type, to give your friends the most flexibility possible. 

There are also a number of tour operators who offer services in Spanish. For example, both Ole Irlanda Tours and Irlanda en Español offer these options for Spanish speaking individuals.

I do hope that this helps!

Kindly,
Rochelle