Day 1 Arrive Shannon

Arrive at Shannon airport in the morning, pick up your car rental and travel via Limerick City to Adare (1 hour).

Adare is a quaint picturesque village lined with traditional thatched-roof cottages. Snuggled in a wooden and lush countryside setting, Adare is widely regarded as being Ireland's prettiest and most unique village. Situated on the river Maigue, a tributary of the Shannon river, Adare dates back, at least, to the early 13th century. Adare village has a rich wealth of heritage, as well as architectural and scenic beauty. Two groups of world famous, ornate, thatched cottages line part of the village's broad main street, punctuated with beautiful stone buildings, medieval monasteries and ruins. Situated in the centre of County Limerick, with just 15 minutes from Limerick City and 45 minutes from Shannon Airport, Adare Village is an ideal base from which to explore County Limerick's many visitor attractions such as Lough Gur and King John's Castle.

Day 1 or 2 Optional Activity:
Golf at Adare Manor 

Day 2 & 3 Killarney

Travel southwest from Adare to the town of Killarney in County Kerry (2 hours).

Killarney lies on the edge of the astoundingly beautiful Killarney National Park with its three magnificent lakes and the spectacular MacGillycuddy Reeks mountain range. The park is also home to Muckross House and Gardens. Killarney is a wonderful base for all manner of activities including angling and water sports, golf, riding, orienteering, hiking, cycling, and canoeing. The town itself is quite small but full of charm as you will soon see as you walk down the brick footpaths and pass curious old-style shop fronts. Killarney is well known for its excellent shops, restaurants and cosmopolitan appeal. It is also renowned for its evening entertainment including many singing pubs, cabarets, dancing venues, and banquets. Traditional Irish music can also be heard in many of the local pubs.

Killarney is also the usual starting point for people completing the Ring of Kerry, Ireland's best-known touring route. It is 110 miles (176 km) long and circles the Iveragh Peninsula through mountain passes, forests, bogs, skirting rivers, lakes and beautiful unspoilt beaches. The scenery is truly wonderful and there is much of interest along the route.

Day 3 Optional Activities:
Guided Walk in Killarney National Park
Horseback Riding in Killarney

Day 4 Lahinch

Travel north from Killarney to the seaside town of Lahinch in County Clare (3 hours).

There are two possible routes you can take from Killarney to Lahinch. The first sticks to major roads and takes you through Limerick City and Ennis. The second involves taking a car ferry across the Shannon estuary from Tarbert in County Limerick to Killimer in County Clare. This latter route is shorter and more scenic, but can often take longer. The roads are narrow and winding and since the ferry only goes every 30 minutes (60 minutes from October to March), you will probably spend some time waiting for the next one. But if you have plenty of time and are happy to travel at a leisurely pace, this is the route to take.

The village of Lahinch (or Lehinch) on the Atlantic coast of Co. Clare is world renowned for two things: golf and surf. Lahinch Golf Club was founded in 1893 and has been confounding golfers from all over the world ever since. Matched only by Ballybunion in the famous links stakes, Lahinch is a must for anyone who loves the game of golf. The long sandy beach at Lahinch has long been a centre for surfing in the west of Ireland, but the recent discovery of a giant wave in the shadow of the Cliffs of Moher a few miles up the coast has brought dare-devil surfers flocking to Lahinch from as far away as South Africa and Hawaii. The result is that the village’s population of 800 swells to ten times that number each summer. The mix of golfers, surfers and bemused locals makes Lahinch a very unique place indeed.

Day 5 Optional Activity:
Golf at Lahinch

Day 5 & 6 Connemara

From Lahinch head north along the Clare coast past the Cliffs of Moher and through the Burren. Continue around Galway Bay to Galway City. Travel west from Galway - your destination, Ballynahinch Castle in the heart of wild Connemara (3 hours).

Connemara is a rocky, barren, but breathtakingly beautiful region of northwest County Galway. This area is one of the few remaining in Ireland where the native tongue (Gaeilge) is still fluently spoken as a first language. Stop off in the fishing village of Roundstone, where currachs, old style featherweight rowing boats are still in everyday use. The village also boasts an impressive crafts complex, selling everything from teapots and sweaters to traditional Irish music instruments. Clifden, Connemara's capital is well worth a visit and the scenic Sky Road drive just outside town should not be missed.  From here you could travel north to see the exquisite neo-gothic Kylemore Abbey, nestled in a lush forest on the edge of Kylemore Lake. However long you spend in Connemara you will be constantly enchanted by the ever changing scenery of mountains and valleys, lakes and beaches and sheltered bays. This is Ireland's big sky country.

Day 6 Optional Activites:
Connemara Pony Trekking
Golf at Connemara Links

Day 7 Ashford Castle

From Ballynahinch Castle cross over into County Mayo, skirting around Lough Corrib to the picturesque village of Cong and home of Ashford Castle (1 hour).

They say blink while passing through the small town of Cong and you will miss it, but there's a great deal hidden behind that ordinary main street.  In 1951 American director John Ford came here with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara to film The Quiet Man, and there are still many reminders of that momentous event.  There is even a locally run Quiet Man Tour. Ashford Castle, a Victorian castle situated on the shores of Lough Corrib was once the home of the Guinness family but is now a luxury hotel.  It stands on the site of an early Anglo-Norman castle built by the De Burgoes family after their defeat of the O'Connors of Connaught.  The castle itself has welcomed many prestigious guests, and is considered one of Ireland's outstanding hotels.  Standing on it's own 350-acre estate on the shore of Lough Corrib, the castle is individually designed and beautifully furnished.  The estate has excellent facilities, including it's own golf course and health club with gym, sauna, steam room and whirlpool.  Guided tours of the estate are conducted on foot or by bike. 

Day 8 Dromoland Castle

Head south from Ashford through Galway City and Ennis to Dromoland Castle (2 hours).

Dromoland Castle is one of Ireland's grandest hotels and also one of its best-loved. The ancestral home of the O'Briens, barons of Inchiquin and direct descendants of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, it is one of the few Irish estates tracing its history back to Gaelic royal families. Today, Dromoland is an oasis of tranquility. The grandeur of the castle itself, its magnificent furnishings and the surrounding lakes and parkland offer guests an experience almost impossible to find at other luxury hotels. It is a truly enchanting place.

Day 9 Depart Shannon

Transfer to Shannon airport to catch your departing flight (30 minutes).

Golf at Adare Manor (Day 1 or 2) 4 hours

Set on 230 lush acres of the Adare Manor Estate, Adare Golf Club was designed by legendary golf course architect, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and offers a magnificent parkland layout. From his first perception of Adare Manor as having all the flavour of Augusta National, he has created a true masterpiece and one of the leading parkland courses in Ireland.

The Adare Manor Estate has a long history but was purchased in 1987 by the Kane family of Palm Beach Gardens in Florida. Major work on the Manor ensued and the golf course opened for play in August 1995. Measuring over 7,000 yards from the championship tees, Adare Golf Club is an American styled course, with rock walled streams, subtly undulating greens and Jones' signature cloverleaf bunkers. A 14 acre lake dominates the outward nine holes while the River Maigue meanders its way through a densely wooded back nine. Its testing design and manicured greens have already assured Adare Golf Club's position as one of the finest Irish inland courses.

Water comes into play at ten holes, including the opening two, which are menaced by a meandering little stream waiting to punish wayward approach shots. This is nothing however, compared to the huge lake, which anchors the front nine holes. It cleverly protects the right hand side of the par 5, 7th where the fun is in cutting off as much as the hazard as possible without actually entering a watery grave. And so it continues every hole is a worthy challenge.

Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort offers world class facilities which include a variety of accommodations to suit your needs, a luxurious Spa at Adare Manor, the Adare Manor Equestrian Centre with a scenic and challenging cross-country trail, several fine restaurants, entertaining bars and many more activities to fill your days and evenings.

Guided Walk in Killarney National Park (Day 3) 2 hours

This is a fantastic guided walk through the idyllic Killarney National Park, where the emphasis is most definitely on fun and relaxation. The walk begins every morning at the same time and place, at a very reasonable cost. The walk takes you through woodland and parkland, along the lake shore and river bank. Beautiful scenery abounds – including the highest mountain range in Ireland. More>>

Horseback Riding in Killarney (Day 3) 2 - 3 hours

The majestic beauty of The Killarney National Park is the backdrop for horseback rides organized by Killarney Riding Stables. Situated in South-West Ireland, Killarney boasts some of the finest scenery in the world. The National Park has been an inspiration for poets and artists for centuries - high mountain ranges, woods, lakes, waterfalls, and of course the ever-changing drama of the skies. Parties of all sizes are catered for and guided rides are offered lasting for either 2 or 3 hours. More>>

Golf at Lahinch (Day 5) 4 hours

Golf at Lahinch goes back to 1892, when officers of a Scottish regiment - The Black Watch - stationed in Limerick city, out exploring the rugged countryside of County Clare happened upon the vast expanse of sand dunes that is Lahinch. Together with some native enthusiasts these Scotsmen founded Lahinch Golf Club on Good Friday, 1893. The original course was designed by the legendary 'Old' Tom Morris of St. Andrews who, on completing the layout, enthused: "I consider this links as fine a natural course as it has ever been my good fortune to play over".

In 1928 the links was extensively revised by Dr. Alastair MacKenzie who was so impressed with the fine natural terrain that he declared: "Lahinch will make the finest and most popular course that I, or I believe anyone else, ever constructed". Praise indeed from a man who was responsible for such formidable layouts as Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and Augusta National.
Today Lahinch boasts two 18 hole courses, the Old Course and a second, the Castle Course, which was added in 1975. Much of the pleasure of Lahinch is derived from the atmosphere that envelopes not just the golf links but the entire village which rests just above the course. For in Lahinch everybody is a golf enthusiast and this quickly transmits itself to the visitor hence the description of Lahinch as the St. Andrews of Irish Golf. Apart from the splendour of its location, Lahinch has gained world-wide recognition through its charming idiosyncrasies.

The Old Course is the permanent home of the South of Ireland Open Amateur Championship, first played in 1895, and which annually attracts the cream of Ireland's amateur golfers to play for this most coveted title and the magnificent trophy which goes with it. The course also regularly hosts the Irish National Amateur and Professional Championships. Set right on the Atlantic and exposed to the ocean through all her moods, moulded and shaped over centuries by nature’s harsh elements and an occasional touch of human genius, Lahinch, with its towering sand dunes, undulating fairways and rolling greens is the perfect natural golfing terrain - a true links.

Connemara Pony Trekking (Day 6) 1, 2 or 3.5 hours

The Connemara Pony Trekking Centre provides horseback riding adventures for all ages. The treks take place along beautiful and dramatic sandy beaches, in one of Connemara's most unspoiled areas. Connemara, or Land of the Sea, is a wild region of bogland, pristine lakes and mountains located in the west of County Galway. The Pony Trekking Centre is situated in very close proximity to some of Ireland’s most beautiful coastline and is right beside the Connemara Golf Links in Ballyconneely. More>>

Golf at Connemara Links (Day 6) 4 hours

Spectacularly located on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean with the Twelve Bens Mountains as a background, this is a big hitter's championship course and as challenging as any to be found.

The Connemara Golf Course has a rather short history compared with many of the other golf clubs in Ireland. As recently as 1970, Eddie Hackett was commissioned with the planning of the 18-hole championship layout. The course was opened in 1973.

The Connemara Golf links is bound on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, while on the 'inland' side the golfer can enjoy an excellent view of the 'Twelve Bens'. The clubhouse, where the visitor can prepare himself for his round, is a fitting centrepiece for this impressive and demanding course.

The first 9 holes are laid out on relatively level ground; the holes which merit particular attention are the 7th, 8th and 9th. The second 9 holes are all longer than the first half of the course. The prettiest hole of the course is the 13th, where the golfer will probably be more fascinated by the view of the Atlantic Ocean and of the rest of the course than by his ball, which could therefore quite easily miss the narrow and well-defended green.

The way home from the 13th hole is a long one as the last five holes include three par 5's, all of which may prove decisive for the final score. All in all, the course offers an ideal challenge to all those who are determined to prove their skill!