We start the day exploring the must-see Blarney Castle, including a chance to kiss the legendary Blarney Stone. According to Irish legend, kissing the stone gives you the “gift of the gab,” which means great eloquence, skill at flattery, and persuasive charm. So, unless you want to be a boring person forever, you better do it!

From Blarney, we continue into the second-biggest city in the Republic of Ireland, the beautiful must-see city of Cork, where we’ll have several hours to explore, wander the city, and have a late lunch or early dinner.

Then we continue west into West Cork and check into our hotel in Skibbereen.

But our day isn’t over.

As darkness falls, we head to Lough Hyne for a nighttime kayaking adventure.

Lough Hyne is a unique marine lake connected to the Atlantic, and under the right conditions, the water can come alive with flashes of bioluminescence as our paddles move through it.

I deliberately picked the dates for our trip so that we would be doing this activity under a dark sky, close to the new moon, giving us some of the darkest conditions possible to see the bioluminescence. Nature makes no guarantees, but if everything lines up, this could be one of those experiences we’ll tell our great-great-grandkids about.

TOTAL DRIVING TIME: Approximately 4 hours, broken into drives of about 1h50m, 20m, 1h20m–1h30m, and 15m.

OVERNIGHT: West Cork Hotel

MEALS: Breakfast