The version of this day that most visitors get involves a 7 am coach, a fixed 90 minutes at the visitor centre between eleven and one, and a service-station lunch. It is fine. It is not what the place deserves.
Done privately, the day looks different. You leave when you choose. You arrive at the cliffs either before the coaches or after they have gone. You stop at Poulnabrone because it appeared over a wall and you wanted to, not because it was on a printed schedule. And you have lunch in Ballyvaughan rather than a car park.
The route we usually suggest from Dublin runs down the M7, out through Ennis, up the coast road to the cliffs, then north into the Burren proper — Fanore, Black Head, Ballyvaughan — and home by Kinvara and Galway. From Galway or Limerick the same loop is comfortably a shorter day.
Bring a coat regardless of forecast. The cliffs make their own weather.
