Dingle · With kids

A small harbourside aquarium with penguins, a touch pool and an Atlantic tank — an hour, from toddler age up, and welcome when it rains.

Five kilometres of firm sand on a spit, safe for paddling at low tide, with a surf school and a café at the entrance.

Boats run from Dunquin from spring to autumn to a deserted village and a beach full of seals. Three hours ashore; from about eight.

A fifty-kilometre coastal loop past beehive huts, famine cottages and cliff views. An hour of driving stretches easily into a full day.

Tour coaches take the loop clockwise on single-track roads, so do the same or meet them head-on. Pubs stop serving food early; wetsuits for the Atlantic.