First step on Irish soil. Pick up the rental car (yes, we drive on the left — it's an adventure from minute one), check in, and let the jet lag hit before we shake it off. Evening walk through Temple Bar — cobblestone streets, buskers playing on every corner, the smell of rain on old stone. First proper Irish dinner. No agenda. Just arrival.
Morning: We drive 50km north to Brú na Bóinne — a passage tomb built 5,000 years ago. That's older than Stonehenge. Older than the Great Pyramids. On the winter solstice, sunlight enters the chamber at exactly the right angle to light up the interior. We're standing inside something that old.
Afternoon: Back to Dublin for Trinity College at 3pm. Ireland's oldest university — 800 years of history, cobblestoned courtyards, and the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created by monks in 800 AD. One of the most beautiful handmade objects that still exists.
Morning: Kilmainham Gaol — the prison where the leaders of Ireland's 1916 uprising against British rule were held and executed. One of the most haunting and powerful places in the country. Guided tour only — they walk you through the cells, the execution yard, the whole story.
Afternoon: Emerald Park — Ireland's only theme park and zoo, 30 minutes north of Dublin in County Meath. Rollercoasters, thrill rides, zip-lines, and a zoo. Summer 2026 debuts the brand-new Lost Valley: Land of Dinosaurs. Allow a full afternoon.
Morning: EPIC Irish Emigration Museum — voted Europe's leading tourist attraction. It tells the story of how 10 million Irish people left this island during famines, wars, and hard times, and ended up building cities across the world. Highly interactive — this isn't a museum you walk past, it's one you move through.
Afternoon: We hit the road south to Cork (~2.5 hours). Arriving in the late afternoon — explore the English Market (a Victorian covered food hall Queen Elizabeth herself visited), stroll past St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, find a good table for dinner.
Morning: Blarney Castle — a 600-year-old tower castle surrounded by woodland gardens. Kiss the Blarney Stone at the top by leaning backwards over a 25-metre drop. Irish legend says it gives you the gift of eloquence. Whether or not that's true, the view from the top absolutely is.
Afternoon: Drive to Cobh (pronounced "Cove"). This quiet harbour town was the last place the Titanic ever docked — April 11, 1912 — before setting off across the Atlantic. The Titanic Experience is built in the original White Star Line ticket office where passengers boarded. You're given a real passenger's identity at the start. At the end, you find out if they made it.
Evening: Drive to Killarney (~1.5 hrs). Tomorrow is the biggest day of the trip.
The headline day. Up at 6:30am. Drive 1 hour to Portmagee Marina. Board our boat at 8:30am and sail 12km into the open Atlantic.
Skellig Michael is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that juts out of the ocean like a fist. It's the real island used as Luke Skywalker's hideout in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. We're not watching it on screen — we're climbing it. 618 ancient stone steps carved by monks 1,400 years ago, up to a monastery perched on the clifftop. Puffins nesting everywhere. Nothing else around for miles except ocean.
Back to shore by 1:30pm. Afternoon in Killarney National Park — jaunting cart rides through the forest, Ross Castle on the lake, Muckross Abbey in the woods. Easy pace after an extraordinary morning.
One of the world's great scenic drives. 180km loop around the Iveragh Peninsula — the Atlantic on one side, the MacGillycuddy's Reeks mountains on the other. The kind of road where you just drive and pull over whenever something looks too good to pass.
Key stops: Staigue Fort (a perfectly preserved 2,500-year-old stone ringfort sitting in a valley), Waterville (where Charlie Chaplin spent his summers — there's a statue), Derrynane beach (one of Ireland's best), and Sneem (a tiny painted village on a river). No tickets anywhere. No booking. Just the road.
Drive north, cross the Shannon Estuary on a car ferry (20 minutes — worth it for the views). Arrive at the Cliffs of Moher: 214 metres of sheer rock dropping straight into the Atlantic, stretching 8km along the coast. These are the cliffs used as the sea cave location in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In real life they're bigger, wilder, and considerably more terrifying.
Evening: Doolin is a tiny village right at the base of the cliffs, and it's one of the most famous traditional music spots in Ireland. Gus O'Connor's or McGann's pub for a session — live fiddles, flutes, and bodhrán drums, locals singing, tourists trying to keep up.
Already in Doolin — walk down to the pier for 9:30am. Guided Airbnb experience: ferry out to the Aran Islands, bikes waiting on the other side, a local guide showing you the island properly. Tea and scones included. Back by early afternoon, then drive 1 hour north to Galway.
Dún Aonghasa — a 3,000-year-old stone fort on the edge of a 100-metre cliff drop into the Atlantic. No railing. No fence at the edge. You crawl to the rim and look straight down at the ocean. It's one of the most dramatic spots in Ireland.
Poll na bPéist (The Wormhole) — a perfectly rectangular natural rock pool carved by the sea. The dimensions are so precise it looks man-made. This is where Red Bull hosts its annual cliff diving competition.
A full day in Ireland's most alive city with nowhere to be. The Galway Market runs on weekends — fresh food, crafts, buskers. Walk the medieval walls, look inside the Cathedral, wander down to Salthill on the bay. The Spanish Arch is a 16th-century remnant from when Galway traded wine with Spain.
Best seafood in Ireland — find somewhere with a view and no rush. End the night finding a session in one of the pubs on Quay Street or Cross Street.
Drive from Galway to Belfast via Sligo (~3 hrs). Arrive early afternoon.
Black Taxi Murals Tour — a local driver takes you through both sides of Belfast's divided communities: the Catholic Falls Road and the Protestant Shankill Road. The giant political murals painted on gable walls tell the story of The Troubles — decades of conflict that shaped Northern Ireland. Hearing it from someone who lived through it makes it land differently than any textbook.
Evening: Cathedral Quarter — Belfast's most vibrant neighbourhood for food, drink, and atmosphere.
Titanic Belfast — the full circle moment. We were in Cobh where the Titanic said goodbye. Now we're in Belfast where it was designed, built, and launched. Six immersive floors in a building shaped like the ship's hull, built on the exact slip where it was constructed. Allow 3 hours.
Afternoon at St. George's Market — one of the best covered markets in Ireland, food, antiques, live music most Fridays and Saturdays. Walk the Cathedral Quarter, explore the city at your own pace.
Day trip from Belfast along the Causeway Coastal Route — consistently rated one of the world's greatest coastal drives. The destination: Giant's Causeway.
40,000 interlocking hexagonal basalt columns erupting out of the sea — formed by volcanic eruptions 60 million years ago. UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the primary filming locations for Game of Thrones: the Iron Islands, the Stormborn coast, multiple battles and scenes. Walk out onto the columns, which extend right into the ocean. The scale of it is hard to process until you're standing on it.
On the way: the Dark Hedges — the tunnel of ancient beech trees used as the Kingsroad in Game of Thrones. Dunluce Castle — a ruined medieval castle on a clifftop over the sea, used as the House Greyjoy seat.
Return the rental car. Depart from Belfast. 13 nights, 7 cities, one Star Wars island, one Game of Thrones coast, one Titanic arc, one ancient monastery, 618 steps, 180km of Kerry coastline, one cave with the world's largest stalactite, and a lot of good music.
Not bad.