10-Day Ireland Self-Drive Itinerary: The Route That Reaches Where Seven Days Can't
The road into Achill Island — over the bridge at Achill Sound, past the ruins of the abandoned village on the hillside above the Atlantic Drive — is the kind of road that takes half a holiday to reach. Seven days in Ireland barely gets you there. Ten days makes it the midpoint of the trip, and that changes everything.
This is the itinerary for visitors who've read the seven-day version and thought: I want more. More coast. More room in each day. More of the west that the tour buses never reach. Ten days is enough to make this a loop you'll actually enjoy — not a sprint from one highlight to the next. It gives you time to stop at the sign for a boreen you've never heard of, to sit long enough in a pub in Westport to have a second one, to arrive somewhere before anyone else does.
For a broader overview of planning a self-drive holiday in Ireland — insurance, licences, the right size of car — the Ireland Self Drive Tours: The Complete Planning Guide is where to start.
What 10 Days Lets You Do That Seven Doesn't
The classic seven-day loop — south to Kerry, across to the Cliffs of Moher, up through Connemara — is genuinely great. But it leaves out almost everything north of Galway. No Mayo. No Sligo. No Donegal. Those counties aren't far on a map, but on Irish roads they require time, and seven days doesn't give it to you without turning the whole trip into a drive-by.
Ten days changes the arithmetic. You can still do Kerry properly — both the Ring and the Dingle Peninsula — and you can actually get to the northwest without feeling like you're chasing your own tail. You'll cross the country twice: once going down the east side, once returning along the west. The roads improve once you stop fighting them.
The extra three days also means you can let a day go wrong — a morning of heavy rain, a flat tyre, a town where you decide to stay an extra night — without the rest of the itinerary collapsing. Seven-day itineraries have no slack in them. Ten-day ones do.
Days 1–2: Dublin to Killarney via the Rock of Cashel
Pick the car up from Dublin Airport before you go into the city — not after you check in. You'll thank yourself for it the next morning when you're not navigating Dublin traffic to retrieve it. Head south on the M7 and M8; it's two and a half hours to Cashel on good roads, and the motorway stretch is fast and forgettable, which is exactly what you want on Day 1 when the car still feels unfamiliar.
The Rock of Cashel is worth an hour's stop in Tipperary. Drive up to the carpark, walk the round tower and Cormac's Chapel, get a coffee across the road. It is one of the most dramatic medieval sites in Ireland and most visitors fly past it on their way to Kerry. Don't be those visitors.
From Cashel it's another two hours south to Killarney. Check in, eat something, walk along the lake if there's still light. Day 1 is a travel day — treat it like one and the rest of the itinerary rewards you for it. Day 2 is your Killarney day: walk or cycle through the National Park, stop at Torc Waterfall, drive up to Ladies View. No long drives, no targets. Let the trip settle.
Days 3–4: The Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula
Day 3 is the Ring of Kerry. Start early, drive clockwise from Killarney, and you'll be facing the buses all day — they go anticlockwise, so go clockwise and they'll be behind you. Allow a full day. The Ring of Kerry self-drive guide has the granular detail on which stops are worth pulling in for, which are tourist traps dressed up in sheep, and what the coaches are doing that you should not be doing.
Day 4: cross to the Dingle Peninsula and take the Slea Head Drive. This is the smaller, less-famous sibling of the Ring of Kerry, and on almost every measure it's better — narrower roads, wilder scenery, no coaches. The beehive huts above Slea Head, the Great Blasket Island sitting in the sea below you, the sheep sitting in the middle of the road looking deeply unconcerned — these are the images you'll describe when you get home. The Dingle Peninsula self-drive guide covers the full loop.
Days 5–6: Clare, the Burren, and the Road Into Connemara
Day 5 is your transition north — but a worthwhile one. Drive from Kerry to Clare, stopping at the Cliffs of Moher. Go in the morning if you can: the light is better and the carpark is half-empty by the time the tour buses arrive. The cliffs are genuinely worth seeing from the ground. They are also one of those places that photographs better than it feels to stand there in a westerly wind, which is useful to know before you build your day around them.
After the cliffs, drive through the Burren. This is the limestone plateau of County Clare — a landscape that looks like nowhere else in Ireland: grey rock, rare wildflowers in the cracks, cattle picking their way across pavement that looks like the surface of another planet. The road from Ballyvaughan to Kinvara runs along the coast and is one of the quieter highlights of this itinerary.
Day 6 is Connemara. Stay around Clifden or along the N59 and use the day to slow down deliberately. The Sky Road above Clifden Bay. Kylemore Abbey. The road toward Killary Harbour. The Connemara self-drive guide covers the specifics — this is one of the days where the route rewards you for stopping making a list and just following the road west until you run out of road.
Days 7–8: Mayo and the Roads the Seven-Day Trips Miss
This is the section that earns the extra three days. Day 7: drive from Connemara north to Westport, County Mayo. An hour on the N59 — an easy drive, and Westport is one of the most genuinely pleasant towns in the west of Ireland to arrive in. There is a river running through the centre of it, a proper high street, somewhere to eat dinner, and a sense that the town has not been arranged entirely for tourism. Stay the night.
Day 8: drive to Achill Island. It is forty-five minutes from Westport. The road over the bridge at Achill Sound, then the Atlantic Drive running south around the island — this is what you came for. Croaghaun to the north, Minaun Cliffs to the south, the sea on three sides. The deserted village above the road at Slievemore, halfway up the mountain, is one of those places that carries real weight. Bring food and water; there is limited infrastructure on Achill and that is entirely the point.
For visitors who want the freedom of driving routes like these without spending weeks researching accommodation between Connemara and Mayo, Celtic Vacations build ready-made self-drive packages where the stops and accommodation are pre-arranged at each point. The driving is still yours — the logistics aren't.
Days 9–10: Sligo, Donegal, and the Road Back to Dublin
From Achill, head north through Ballina and into Sligo. Benbulben — the flat-topped mountain that sits behind the town — is visible from the road as you approach. Worth a stop. Drumcliffe Church, where W.B. Yeats is buried, is five minutes off the N15 and takes fifteen minutes to see. The inscription is worth reading: "Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horseman, pass by." It says something about Sligo.
If you have time on Day 9, push further north into Donegal. The drive along the coast from Ardara toward Killybegs, or the road down to Glencolumbkille — this is remote Atlantic Ireland that the postcards never quite capture because the photographs never come out right. It needs to be experienced moving through it.
Day 10 is the drive back to Dublin. It is two and a half to three hours from Sligo on the N4, with a coffee stop. You'll be back in time for an afternoon flight if you need to be, or a comfortable evening flight. If you're flying out of Dublin Airport, return the car there rather than dropping it in the city — you'll save a taxi fare and avoid paying for another night of city parking.
Hiring a Car for 10 Days in Ireland
On a ten-day trip you are spending meaningful money on a car, and the last thing you need is a chunk of it going on an excess claim because someone caught your wing mirror on a narrow lane in Achill Island.
Standard car hire in Ireland comes with a compulsory excess — typically €1,500–€3,000 — which means if the car comes back damaged, that amount is held on your credit card while a claim is investigated. It can take months to resolve, during which your card is unavailable. The counter-insurance sold at the rental desk costs €15–€25 per day on top of whatever rate you're already paying.
My Irish Cousin pricing is all-inclusive: no excess, no deposit, tyre and glass covered, full roadside assistance included. On a ten-day trip you're comparing that against €150–€250 in add-ons from a standard operator plus the exposure of a four-figure excess. The Northern Ireland border crossing — relevant here if you push east from Donegal — is covered as standard with no additional fee or paperwork. That matters.
Book through My Irish Cousin and you know what you're paying before you land.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 10 days enough to see all of Ireland?
No — and that is the honest answer. Ten days gives you a proper loop through the Republic, with Kerry, Connemara, Mayo, and the northwest well covered. Northern Ireland is possible as a short addition if you're flying out of Belfast City Airport, but to do the Causeway Coast and Antrim properly alongside everything else you'd want at least 14 days. For what an extra four days adds, the 14-Day Ireland Self-Drive Itinerary covers the difference.
What's the best time of year for a 10-day Ireland road trip?
May to September is the window. May and June give you the best light — long evenings, slightly lower prices than peak summer, and quieter roads in Mayo and Donegal. July and August are the most popular and most expensive. September is underrated: the weather holds better than people expect, the crowds thin noticeably, and the Atlantic is as warm as it ever gets.
How much driving per day is realistic in Ireland?
Two and a half to three and a half hours of actual driving per day with stops built in. Irish roads are consistently slower than Google Maps estimates — the N roads are good, the R roads and anything on Achill or the Dingle Peninsula require patience. Build stops into the day and the driving feels easy; try to drive four hours straight and it stops being a holiday.
Do I need a specific type of car for this itinerary?
A standard compact or small SUV handles every road on this itinerary. You do not need four-wheel drive. You do want something with reasonable ground clearance — not for off-road driving, but because the passing places on some Connemara and Achill roads are rough at the edges. A compact car is fine; a large estate car will cause you grief on the narrower R roads.
The Route, in Plain Terms
Ten days in Ireland is the itinerary where the west finally opens up — where Mayo becomes a destination rather than a detour, and Donegal moves from theoretical to actual. The roads are there. The places are there. The question is just how much of the country you want to reach on this trip versus leaving something for the next one.
For the complete planning overview — what to book before you land, how insurance works, which routes match which trip lengths — the Ireland Self Drive Tours: The Complete Planning Guide covers the lot.
