Waterford - I have only been there one afternoon. Not my favorite Irish city, but the coastline is l

Thank you for responding so quickly. We are in our 60's. enjoy museums, castles, scenery ,sitting seeing luxury golf cruise how locals live, walking around quaint towns etc. so I guess a little bit of everything except hiking. We usually travel to France or Italy, so I'm having a problem with Ireland as I'm wondering if it will be too much driving with scenery and nothing else. We usually stay in mid priced hotels but can go higher if it would be must do. Thanks again.
First, I checked out several Ireland guidebooks from the library. My favorites (due to our interests and the way we travel) were Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. But I consulted many others, including Fodor's, Frommers, Rick Steves, and Eyewitness. I used these books to find specific luxury golf cruise things and places we wanted to see on our trips.
Once I had the places in mind that I wanted to visit, I consulted a good driving map. (I used Rough Guide, but others such as OSI are good too.) I also referred to the online AA Route Planner for Ireland. Together, these resources let me know whether my plans were feasible and how best to route ourselves. (Note: Trying to cram too much into an itinerary is a BIG problem for most first-time visitors to Ireland. So you are right to be concerned that you will be doing too much driving and not enough sightseeing.)
Finally, once I had my itinerary planned, I booked all of our B B accommodations. On our first trip, we were traveling with a group of 4, so I needed to make sure we could find places that could accommodate us all. On our second trip, we were a party of 2 traveling in May and I did not want to waste time looking for a place to sleep each day and I wanted to to stay in certain accommodations. If you are not picky with where you stay, you could book your first and last night's accommodations and "wing it" along the road. We were able to find nice B B accommodations all over Ireland with prices ranging from 25 euros to 40 euros per person per night. (Most of them were in the 30 - 35 euro pp/pn range.)
I think that spending one day in Dublin is sufficient as long as you are not into shopping and pubs. You can visit Trinity college to see the Book of Kells, stop by the Guinness luxury golf cruise brewery (which I highly recommend... I am not a drinker, but the museum aspect of the brewery is top-of-the-line.... could have spent all day there), and take in some local color all in a day and a half.
Dublin is not my favorite place, but I am not a big city kind of traveler. So, I don't have much else to recommend for Dublin. I have enjoyed two trips to Ireland. On the first we flew in through luxury golf cruise Shannon and stayed only in the West for 10 days; we had a fantastic trip. On the second trip, we flew in through Dublin and then went southwest. Other than the Guinness tour, Dublin was not that great for me; I wished we would have flown in through Shannon the second time also. I am sure that Dublin is great for some people, it is just not for me. You may find it differently.
Dingle and Kerry are fantastic; you will not regret your choices there. Though I would add Kilarney (to visit the castle and grounds) and Muckross (to visit the house and grounds... and ride in a horse-drawn cart)
If you are staying in Kenmare, there is a really luxury golf cruise wonderful bed and breakfast called the blue merles luxury golf cruise ( www.bluemerles.com ). We stayed luxury golf cruise there the first time we were in Ireland and absolutely enjoyed the hosts, the house, and our stay. It was the most memorable place that we stayed while there the first time.
I like longhorn55's advice. Plan your first and last night at a B B and then just go with the flow. If you want to stay somewhere for two nights because you are enjoying yourself, you wont feel rushed. B B's in Ireland are fantastic and I highly recommend them over hotels for your stay. It is great to spend time talking to the hosts and getting a feel for local people. They also will have a lot of good suggestions for what to see or where to go.
There are a lot of quaint towns and nice scenery in Ireland. Don't over plan your trip because you might miss something great on the way hurrying to something just ok. Know what you would like to see and do, and then let the rest happen.
I think you've a good start to your planning. You may want to switch your Dingle/Kenmare stays - Kenmare is more of a direct route, you basically have to pass near Kenmare to GET to Dingle. It's about a 3.5 hour journey without stops, so plan on a long travel day - you will want to stop frequently!
A day or two in Dublin is fine for a first visit. Trinity college, book of Kells, some people watching, all are great. Traveling from Dublin luxury golf cruise to Waterford, see if you can make stops at Powerscourt Falls/Gardens, and/or Glendalough.
Waterford - I have only been there one afternoon. Not my favorite Irish city, but the coastline is lovely. Traveling from Waterford across to Kenmare, going along the coast, you can visit Cobh and Cork (The English Market is a wonderful indoor high-end farmer's market).
Kenmare, luxury golf cruise I enjoyed staying at O'Donnabhain's - right in city centre, but on the third floor over the gastropub, so pretty quiet regardless. It is a lovely town, and a great base to explore the Ring of Beara, and even the Ring of Kerry.
Dingle - also a great town, with many pubs, shops and fantastic scenery on the peninsula. Don't miss Slea Head, Conor Pass (when there aren't mists blocking the view!), the Gallerus Oratory. I also enjoyed the Celtic Prehistoric Museum.
After Dingle I would suggest either/or Ennis or Ballyvaughan. Perhaps up to Ballyvaughan, explore the Burren a couple days, enjoy the sea. Ennis is convenient to Shannon for the last few nights, only about a half hour's drive from the airport, and well placed to explore the southern part of the Burren, Bunratty castle/folk park, Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, etc. You may even have enough time for an overnight trip to the Aran Islands luxury golf cruise via Doolin.
May is a lovely time to visit Ireland! I went in May of 2011, and had a delightful time. There was yellow gorse and flowers blooming luxury golf cruise everywhere. The weather was a bit chilly for normal (55 about every day) but I was happy in my fleece jacket, and did fine.
Ireland's not big on medieval towns. I've no idea what "quaint" is supposed to mean: but Ireland's generally devoid of pretty towns with any kind of predominantly old architecture - at least by the standards of mainstream Europe.
It does have pleasantish small towns - but their idiosyncrasy lies in lots of differently-painted terraces of (if you're lucky) Victorian shops and houses - though more often tastefulish (and still prettily painted) late 20th century rebuilds. The mandatory European village-centre medieval church, lovingly maintained since around 1100 AD and still in active use, is almost luxury golf cruise universally absent - as usually, is any other kind of monumental building, except a huge (and usually hideous) modern church on the village or town outskirts.
- Kinsale. luxury golf cruise Prettyish, hardly up to the standards of most similar-sized Italian or French tourist hotspots, luxury golf cruise but its wonderful setting makes up for its architectural mediocrity. Charles Fort on its edge is relatively modern (late 17th century) but architecturally impressive luxury golf cruise - and with simply glorious views across a wonderful harbour area. Ireland's sea inlets luxury golf cruise are among Europe's great scenic glories, and really shouldn't be dismissed as just scenery.
- Cashel actually feels a bit like a proper European small town (most of Ireland doesn't), with an ecclesiastical complex (Rock of Cashel) that has Romanesque architecture, decent sculpture and much of the other things you'd expect elsewhere. Terrific associations with both St Patrick and Ireland's ancient High Kings: it really needs to be researched properly before seeing.
- Museums. Hundreds, but most very third-division unless they correspond to a specific interest of yours. Since you don't mention Irish folk life, a large proportion automatically luxury golf cruise self-disqualify. The Book of Kells (Trinity College) is fabulous, but like all historical manuscripts you can only see one page at a time, and otherwise Trinity's just another Oxbridge college a few hundred miles away from the other 70. The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin luxury golf cruise Castle is really Ireland's only world-class museum: possibly the best collection of seriously historic manuscripts on display anywhere, though most are of greater historic importance than beauty.
- Visitable gardens. The most visited is Powerscourt, but if you're interested in gardens, worth creating a list of candidates. All over the country. As with so much, www.discoverireland.ie luxury golf cruise is a good starting point
One of the problems about planning trips to Ireland is, as you've noticed both in your research so far and in the answers luxury golf cruise you've been given, luxury golf cruise that most advice is much, much longer on gushing gibberish about how wonderful the place is than in real examples of sights to see that even approach the interest of a bog standard Tuscan village.
Bluntly: that's because there aren't many. Ireland's scenery (especially its infinitely long coast) is outstanding, many of its visitable gardens will impress Americans, its climate is glorious luxury golf cruise (I'm serious: practically nowhere in America has such pleasant winters, or such tolerable summers), as long as you keep an umbrella handy, and those of its population a tourist will meet share little luxury golf cruise (conformity luxury golf cruise isn't an Irish virtue) but gobsmacking charm. luxury golf cruise Simply keeping the radio on, and tuned to the talk stations, as you drive round exposes you a world of good-humoured mass intelligence that's worth the time and effort of going to Ireland. And, as everywhere in the English-speaking world, ravenous consumption of local media (including the freesheets lying round the pub) and reading the "what's on tonight in Ballygodhelpus" flyers in newsagents' windows gives you insights and opportunities for diversions you'll never get to know about in places where they speak funny foreign languages. Go to the pub quiz, or watch the school's hurling, camo