When planning a trip to Ireland, there is one big question every visitor has to answer: the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Peninsula?
These two beautiful circuit drives around Ireland are standalone adventures in their own right, but for most, one or the other has to be picked. They are both beautiful and similar in nature (a long circuit drive around a peninsula of Ireland out into the water). To experience Ireland, it feels like you have to do at least one.
Search the Internet and every travel blogger and forum user has an opinion on the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Peninsula debate. After spending ten days in Ireland, we’re hardly experts. But we now have an opinion, too. And since I have a website, we’re sharing our opinion with you!
You can’t do both the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry in one day. And while two days devoted to scenic drives may not seem like a huge commitment at the outset, most tourists (such as ourselves) end up with itineraries that don’t really accommodate or lend themselves to two full days in the car just driving. There is just too much to do in Ireland for that! Generally, tourists pick one or the other.
So: Ring of Kerry or Dingle Peninsula?
The Ring of Kerry is a 111-mile drive in southwest Ireland. Most Ring of Kerry drivers start in Killarney or Kenmare and take the day to do the circuit drive. Along the way, there are coastline views, ancient buildings, and views peeking through the mountains.
This is the loop tour buses do, going anti-clockwise along the route. Those with their own car are advised to start no later than 8:30 am and to go clockwise, against the buses. This will help avoid getting stuck behind tour coaches. But it also means you will have to pass the buses. Read our article here for information and cautions about driving the narrow Irish roads.
The Ring of Kerry has become wildly popular. While stastics regarding the number of visitors each year are hard to find, even Ireland’s official tourism sites provide warnings:
Unfortunately, with fame comes the masses, and there are dozens of tour buses that run this route every day. (Source)
Killarney registers 1.1 million tourists a year. Many, if not even the vast majority, opt to travel the Ring of Kerry. This road teems with tourists, particularly in July and August.
The Ring of Kerry boasts many wonderful stops. But, for us, we were staying a stone’s throw from nearly all of them given our AirBnB rental in Killarney. Torc waterfall was an easy hike within a quick drive that some of our group did; Muckross House we had already seen; we jaunted through Killarney National Park.Â
With all that in mind, and wanting to try to leave the hordes of tourists behind if we could, we opted to drive the Dingle Peninsula instead.
The Dingle Peninsula is farther afield, which means that doing this as a day trip from Dublin is not really feasible. While some tourists will take trains to Killarney, rent a car, and drive the Ring of Kerry for a day, Dublin visitors don’t make it out to the Dingle Peninsula for day trips often.
But here’s the real kicker: no buses! No tour buses or large coaches on the Dingle Peninsula drive. The roads are smaller, with tight turns, sometimes winnowing down to single-lane roads where drivers have to patiently wave each other through (see our Instagram story for a real-time video of this in action).
Tour buses do make it out to Inch Beach, one of the first scenic stops on the Peninsula when arriving from the south and traveling clockwise. But after that, we didn’t see a single one.
The Dingle Peninsula drive is only 30 miles, making this much shorter than the Ring of Kerry, of course. We loved the opportunity this shorter circuit provided us. We felt we could be leisurely about the drive, stopping at beaches and at overlooks on a whim, and still be back in time for a healthy dinner.
Driving over and on to the Dingle Peninsula was rewarding in and of itself. We stopped to take in the landscape a few times on the way in. It really did shimmer emerald colors. The land looked rich, lush, promising, and welcoming.
Our first stop was at Inch Beach, which opened the soul. The Irish beach is not something that usually invades the dreamer’s mind when envisioning Ireland. But given that it’s an island, it makes sense that there are crevices and inlets that create large beaches with towering green farmlands overhead.
We used the restroom at Inch Beach, got our feet wet (even though we were not the people to get in the water and surf), and breathed in the salt air.
From there, we took our time driving out to the Town of Dingle itself. We meandered, appreciating white farmhouses that looked like they had been there for centuries lording over the bounty of the ocean.
Once in the Town of Dingle, we walked the streets and the pier. This is the only true town on the entire Dingle peninsula, and it feels as though it is frozen in time.
Along the bay, we learned the story of a dolphin named Fungie, who made Dingle famous. This dolphin first made friends with humans in 1983 and apparently was a regular in the Dingle Bay until 2020. Boats would go find Fungie for the Irish people vacationing in Dingle in the summers.
But outside of Fungie (who has been gone for the past few years) the primary business of the Town of Dingle is fishing and farming. While tourism is rising, as the coaches don’t roll in it has retained much of its original identity.
In fact, due to its remote location, Dingle spent much more of its existence isolated from the modern world. Much of the peninsula is “Gaeltacht,” an area where the prevailing language is Gaelic.
We didn’t see Fungie’s triumphant return or learn Gaelic while in Dingle. But we did find a pub, walk the streets, and enjoy being in an area totally different than the crowded Killarney.
At this point in the drive, we elected to deviate from the coast line and the traditional Slea Head route. We wanted to be sure we drove through Conor Pass. This is a movie-worthy drive up into the mountains, where sheep watch passively from their perches, sometimes sauntering in front of your car right after hairpin turns just to see if you are paying attention.
As you climb up one of the highest mountain passes in Ireland, you enter the sky and look down on the Dingle Peninsula.
At the highest point of the Conor Pass there is a small car park where you can stop and admire the dramatic view. This is considered one of the iconic viewing points of the Wild Atlantic Way. From here looking south you can see across Dingle Bay to the Iveragh peninsula, Ring of Kerry and out to sea the Skellig Rocks. Looking to the North is Kerry Head and Loop Head Co.Clare. Occasionally in very clear weather it is possible to see the Aran Islands off Co.Galway. (Source)
If the weather hadn’t been so painfully clear and perfect as it was on our day to drive the Dingle Peninsula, we may have skipped this and hugged the coast line more. But as it was, this was a near-perfect drive for us. To go from the bay to the mountaintop is to experience the stunning breadth of Ireland we wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.
And, since it was the Dingle Peninsula, even on a clear August day, it never felt crowded.
After we worked our little rental car slowly down the back of the pass, we took our time winding out of the northside of the Peninsula. In fact, I couldn’t even tell you where we stopped. We found little enclaves of beaches and pulled up onto makeshift parking lots. We made our own memories.
We walked inlets and felt the chilly water. We let the sun soak our faces.
I do wish we had time to do both the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula. (I love to check things off a list like no one’s business – it’s basically the way I feel successful in life.) But for us, given that we tend to be more adventure travelers, more interested in the roots of a place and what isn’t heavily marketed, this was the perfect fit for us.
We made our decision. And we have no regrets.
