This morning we leave Galway and drive through the rugged scenery of Connemara toward Killary, Ireland’s only true fjord.

And rather than simply looking at it from the road. We’re going out on the water. We’ll board a boat for a 90-minute cruise through Killary Fjord, surrounded by mountains rising steeply from the water on both sides. It’s going to be one of those experiences that is less about checking off a sight and more about simply sitting back and taking in where we are.

After the cruise, we’ll have time for lunch before continuing deeper into Connemara to one of Ireland’s most recognizable buildings: Kylemore Abbey.

Set beneath the mountains along the edge of a lake, Kylemore looks almost too perfectly placed to be real.

We’ll have plenty of time to explore the abbey, the neo-Gothic church, the Victorian Walled Garden, and the surrounding grounds without having to rush through any of it.

Then we continue north through the beautiful Connemara countryside to Westport, a scenic Georgian heritage town located on the Carrowbeg River. We’ll check into our hotel and have some free time before dinner.

After kayaking at night, climbing Ireland’s highest mountain, biking across an island, and everything else we’ve been doing, this is intentionally a slightly more relaxed day.

We’ve earned one.

TOTAL DRIVING TIME: Approximately 2h30m–2h45m, broken into about 1h20m from Galway to Killary, 20–25m to Kylemore Abbey, and approximately 55m to Westport.

OVERNIGHT: Westport Coast Hotel

MEALS: Breakfast