Day 6 was the day we left beautiful Killarney behind and headed to our second home base of the trip. We had spent four nights in Killarney and used that as our home base to explore Killarney National Park, the Gap of Dunloe, Blarney Castle, and Kinsale.
The last and final leg of our trip would be spent exploring the City of Galway and Connemara National Park on the Connemara Peninsula. We loved the trip until now, having Killarney National Park in our backyard and the resort at our fingertips really made the trip special. We were trading in our resort for an AirBnb just outside the city of Galway, specifically picked for its proximity next to a big park and a short drive into Ireland's fourth largest city on the western coast. Planning the trip in this counter clockwise direction also put us a 2 hour drive from Dublin when we had to catch a mid-day flight back home.
Day six was our longest drive yet and we made an out-of-the-way detour to explore Ireland's famous cliffs. Spoiler alert, the Cliffs were quite skippable, at least the way we saw them from the visitor's center, but more on that later.
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Mungret Park, County Limerick
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To break up the drive, we planned to stop outside Limerick for yet another playground and a stop for lunch. Killarney to Galway is about a 2.5 hour drive, with Limerick marking the halfway point. Adding the Cliffs makes it a 4 hour drive which while out of the way, made sense as we were passing the detour for the cliffs. Our first stop was Mungret Park just outside Limerick, an hour and a half into our drive and the perfect timeframe for the kid's first pit stop. From Mungret Park, it was just another hour to the Cliffs of Moher, and from there, an hour and 20 minutes to Galway. While a long day of driving, this was a great way to break it up
Killarney to Mungret Park: 1.5 hours
Mungret Park to Cliffs of Moher: 1:10 hours
Cliffs of Moher to Galway: 1:25 hours
Mungret Park was another beautiful Irish park with fields, walking paths, and a large fenced in playground (zip line of course). The kids ran around and some of the parents on the playground recommended the next door Milk Thistle Kitchen for lunch. The restaurant had 4.6 stars and walking distance was a perk. The restaurant was in a church and we all had a great lunch before continuing on to the Cliffs.
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| Mungret Park, County Limerick |
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Mungret Park, County Limerick
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| Cliffs of Moher |
I knew that the Cliffs of Moher were likely to disappoint. It's the gamble of visiting some of an area's most popular attraction. We have traveled a lot and have seen gorgeous cliffs in Iceland and ocean views from the Azores. For us, driving into the main visitor parking lot, paying the admission fee, and walking to the Cliffs of Moher paths to peer over the stone wall was very skippable. If I did it again with kids, I would skip this all together and save the 1.5 hour detour. I did some research and if I didn't have the kids, I read that the best way to visit the Cliffs of Moher is to avoid the main visitor's center and instead, start your journey by parking at Hag's Head and walking/hiking along the cliff top path to Cliffs of Moher. You'll get amazing views along the way and enjoy a less crowded view of the cliffs. With grandparents and small kids, we knew this wasn't an option so instead, we joined the masses and parked in the main visitor's lot and walked the path to the cliffs. There are stone walls separating visitors from the cliffs and the view isn't as great as you expect. It is also very busy with a lot of tour buses. The visitor's center has some free exhibits, restrooms, gift shops, and a cafe. We enjoyed a walk through the visitor's center and the virtual reality movie but overall, I didn't find the detour to the Cliffs of Moher worth the detour the way we did it.
2025 Gate Rates: Adult €15.00 Student €12.00 Senior €12.00 Family €30.00 (2 adults, 2 kids)
*Children under 12 are FREE when accompanied by a parent/guardian
After a long day with a lot of driving (on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road with a 2 year old and 4 year old) we were happy to arrive at our condo right next door to Merlin Park Woods and an 8 minute drive into the City of Galway. Our plan for the last few days of our trip was to enjoy Galway City, see Connemara National Park and Kylemore Abbey, and soak up the last bits of Ireland before heading home on Sunday.
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