Ireland

Ireland looks compact on a map, and clients often plan it like a country you can lap in five days. The distances are genuinely short - Dublin to Galway is under three hours by car - but the roads west of the M-motorways narrow fast, and a 40km stretch of the Ring of Kerry or the Wild Atlantic Way can easily eat an hour once you factor in single-lane bridges, sheep, and the urge to pull over every ten minutes for a view. I plan Ireland by nights per base, not kilometres per day: Dublin, then Galway or Killarney as anchors, with day trips radiating out, rather than a different bed every night.

The weather is the other thing people underestimate - not the cold so much as the changeability. Four seasons in an afternoon is a cliché because it's accurate, and a soft mist can turn into hard rain and back to sun within the hour, any month of the year. That's actually good news for scheduling: there's no reliably 'ruined' month, so I don't push clients hard toward July-August the way I would for a beach destination. What July and August do bring is the crowds and the rental car premiums, particularly around the Cliffs of Moher and Killarney, so late May and September get first recommendation from me for anyone with flexible dates.

A first-time route that works well is Dublin (2-3 nights) for the city and Trinity College, then west to Galway (2 nights) with a day out to the Aran Islands or the Burren, down through the Cliffs of Moher to Killarney (2-3 nights) for the Ring of Kerry and Dingle, and back to Dublin either by road or a short internal flight. Northern Ireland and the Giant's Causeway are a worthwhile add if a client has more than 8-9 days, but it's a genuine cross-border day trip from Dublin or Belfast, not a quick detour, and worth pricing and timing separately.