A day-by-day route with times
Each day has a shape: where it starts, the main movement, roughly when to be where, and where you sleep that night. Not a minute-by-minute schedule you will abandon by Tuesday.
Optional paid route guides
Ireland Route Guides: Dublin, the West, Cork & Kerry
Three independent day-by-day routes with the decisions already made: where to sleep each night, what to book ahead, which stop to drop when it rains, and how long the drive really takes. Read them on your phone, keep the PDF for the days with no signal.
Straight answer
Most people do not need to buy anything.
The free pages on this site cover trip length, transport, weather, driving, Dublin, Galway, the Cliffs, the Ring of Kerry and the rest. If you enjoy assembling a route yourself, use those and keep your money. A route guide is for the traveller who has already chosen a region and would rather not spend three more evenings cross-checking drive times, ferry margins and opening hours.
Choose a region
Three routes, sold separately or together.
Each guide is a complete route on its own. The West and South guides both start with the journey out of Dublin, so buying two does not mean planning the same day twice.
| Guide | Length | Starts / ends | Car needed? | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dublin | 4 days | Starts and ends in Dublin; Day 1 is the arrival day | No — the guide argues against one | A first trip, a city-only trip, or the front half of a longer one | €5 |
| The West | 6 days | Starts in Dublin; Day 6 ends around Achill | Optional — car, tour and public-transport versions | Galway, islands, Connemara and the Clare coast | €5 |
| Cork + Kerry | 7 days | Starts in Dublin; Day 7 ends in Kerry or becomes the return leg | Recommended for the Kerry half | Cork, Cobh, Kinsale, Killarney, the Ring and Dingle | €5 |
| All three | Three separate routes | As above | — | Still deciding which region gets your week | €10 |
Allow a return day
The West guide ends near Achill and the South guide can end in Kerry. Neither price includes a magic teleport back to the airport, so keep the following day for the drive or train back to Dublin.
What is actually in one
The parts that take longest to work out yourself.
62 tap-to-open map links
Every stop, viewpoint, car park and ferry pier opens straight into Google Maps from your phone. Nineteen in the Dublin guide, twenty in the West, twenty-three in the South.
A sleep base for every night
Which town to book, and — more useful — when moving hotels costs you more time than it saves. Areas and tradeoffs, not affiliate hotel picks.
Book-ahead versus keep-flexible
A short list of what genuinely sells out and a longer list of what to leave alone until you see the forecast. This is where most first trips overcommit.
A wet-weather version of each risky day
Islands, cliffs and coastal drives get a named alternative. You should not have to rebuild the week because Thursday turned.
Honest transfer times
Including the parts a map app leaves out: parking, the walk from the car, the queue, the coffee, and the fact that everyone is tired by four o'clock.
A real page from the West guide
This is what a day looks like.
Copied unedited from Day 2 of the 6-day West route. Nothing is held back for the paid version — the free pages simply do not go day by day.
Day 2: Galway City and Salthill
A deliberately easy city day before ferries and rural roads
This is a good day for one booked walking tour or food tour plus unstructured wandering.
09:30
Market, canals and old streets
Start around the market area if it is operating, then use the canals and river as your slower route. Galway rewards wandering more than rigid attraction timing.
12:30
Lunch before the crowds peak
Eat earlier than you think if the weather is poor or it is a weekend. Small Galway restaurants fill quickly, and standing in rain to wait for a viral place is rarely worth it.
15:00
Salthill Promenade
Walk or taxi to Salthill for sea air and views across Galway Bay. If the wind is sharp, do a shorter section and call it a win.
Hidden-gem pause
Menlo Castle is atmospheric but awkward without a car or confidence in the route. It is not a must-do. If you go, treat it as a quiet detour, not the spine of the day.
Six days of that, plus the island day, the Cliffs decision, the Connemara loop and the drive north to Achill — with the map links live and the alternatives written out.
After you pay
How you actually get it.
1. Stripe checkout
Card, Revolut, Klarna or Alipay. No account to create on this site, and no app to install.
2. Straight to the guide
Stripe returns you to the access page immediately. The guide is a normal web page — bookmark it and it stays there.
3. The same link by email
An email arrives with the access link and a PDF, so the guide survives a lost bookmark or a dead phone.
If something does not arrive
Check spam first, then email guides@contact.howtoireland.ie with the address you used at checkout. A real person answers.
Pick one, or all three
€5 a guide. €10 for the set.
Priced in euro because howtoireland is based in Ireland; your card handles the conversion. One payment, no subscription, and no upsell waiting on the other side.
Instant access link
HTML + PDF fallback
Tap-to-open map links
Questions before buying? guides@contact.howtoireland.ie
FAQ
Fair questions before spending money.
Is the free content on this site not enough?
For a lot of people, yes — and that is deliberate. The free pages answer the decisions: how many days, car or no car, which region, which day trip. The paid guide answers what to do on Tuesday, in order, with the map links and the rainy-day swap already written down.
Why is the price in euro when the guides are written for American visitors?
howtoireland is based in Ireland, so checkout is in euro. Your bank converts at its own rate, so €5 lands somewhere close to six dollars. Nothing is added on this end.
What format is it, and does it work on a phone?
It is a web page built for a phone screen, with a PDF as a backup for aeroplanes, ferries and the parts of Kerry with no signal. Nothing to install.
Can I get a refund?
The full guide opens the second you pay, so sales are final. If it genuinely does not match what this page describes, email and it will be sorted out.
Do the guides get updated?
Yes, and your access link keeps working — you do not buy a fixed edition. Because opening hours and timetables change faster than any guide, time-sensitive details link to the official source instead of being frozen into the text.
Do these three routes join into one long trip?
No, and they are not meant to. They are three separate routes, each starting from Dublin. Stitching all three together would be a punishing three-week drive; pick the region that suits your dates.
Will it book anything for me?
No. There are no affiliate hotel picks and no booking service. It tells you what to book and when, and you book it wherever you like.
Free first
Start with the page that matches your question.
Ready when you are
One region, planned properly, for the price of a pint.
Or take the three-guide set while you are still deciding where your week should go.