Travel around Ireland and UK

Google doesn't know how narrow the roads are, how much traffic you could encounter, where the roadworks are, and where you could get a little lost.

I agree that England, Ireland,and Scotland are too much for 2 weeks. How about just England and Scotland, leave Ireland for later? Glasgow and Edinburgh are less than an hour apart on the train, so that would be easy. On the bus you could also go to Stirling to see the castle (more interesting than Edinburgh Castle, in my view). On the bus from Glasgow (or by car) you could get to Fort William in the highlands. We did a day trip to St. Andrews from Edinburgh on the bus--very interesting but no need to stay overnight. London to Scotland you could fly cheaply on easyjet or else take the train.

Personally, i would rather skip England and see Ireland and Scotland, but i understand that it may be easier to travel between Scotland and England.

Dublin to Galway took me 2 hours on Saturday last, good road, not much traffic 120Kmph. From Galway to the Burren and back would take much longer as the roads are narrow and you'll want to stop in a few places.
Day 1 Fly in to Dublin early and potter around town for the day. See earlier posts for things to do in Dublin.
Day 2 Pick up car, drive to Galway (detour to Clonmacnoise on the way) potter around Galway
Day 3 Drive to Burren, wander then back to Galway
Day 4 Drive to Dublin, fly on to Scotland/England
In Autumn days are getting noticeably shorter so allow for this when planning.

ambarush,
Instead of driving from Burren back to Galway, could i conceivably drive down to Cork, then back to Dublin the next day? I'm just trying to maximize my exposure to the countryside, etc. Are Bunratty Castle or Blarney Castle worth seeing? Are there any other sites along the way that may not know about but would be worth traveling to? Thanks

We liked both Cashel and Kilkenny a lot, spent a few nights in each on the way to Dublin from Kerry by car. We discovered that this was almost impossible by train and bus, so we got a car. Didn't go to Bunratty or Blarney because they sounded overrun with tourists.

You could drive from the Burren area to Cork but it would be on narrow roads meaning slow driving poss an average speed of 50 - 60kmph if you were lucky. Avoid Blarney Castle - a tourist trap. The trip from Cork city to Dublin on main road should take about 3 /3.5hrs depending on the time of day and amount of traffic.Why go that far south withiut the time to enjoy it? If you didn't want to return to Galway you could stay in any of the small towns in Co Clare or try to get a flight from Shannon to Scotland. but check out drop off charges for hire car if you are not going to drive it back to Dublin. Or go to Cork and fly from there , giving yourself a bit extra time down south. Personally I wouldn't try to squeeze it in.

#11 - you can fly to Scotland from both Dublin and Cork, and there is also a ferry crossing (though I doubt if that would fit in well with your plans and your tight schedule), so it would be perfectly feasible to just visit Ireland and Scotland. If that's what you want to do, of course.

My wife and I aren't necessarily interested in dawdling around and discovering places as we come across them, no offense if that's what you like to do. We like to come up with specific places to visit and try to see as much as possible while we're there. Personally, i think we can do Ireland in 3-4 days, Scotland in 2-3 days and England in 4 days. Is this an impossible goal? Is there anything that is mind-blowing that we have to see while we're in these three countries?

That's the thing though, what they're trying to say; on the one hand it isn't an impossible goal, but it would be a bit like seeing Florida, Washington DC and California in the same time frame. Travel distances play a big part and would chew up a lot of time, that's why people are suggesting to cut back some. That said, it is your holiday, so go for it if you want :)

I appreciate all of your input, because i have no doubt that Europe is completely different from the United States. From Scotland to England, is it possible to take a train during the night? Realistic? I'm trying to figure out how to minimize the time we spend traveling during the day. That will give us more time to actually see things.