Mummak, I can almost say with certainty that you will find it very difficult to get house rentals with a day/night rate. You might get a 3 night rate. There is generally a minimum stay period for houses/appartments. I think you should concentrate on staying in B&B's or if you are on a budget - hostels.

Here is a very good link which will give you some ideas on where you might like to stay. Just click on the interactive map and it will take you to that specific area.

This site won't show you all accommodations but it will help get you started.

www.discoverireland.ie

"We'd like to enjoy the gorgeous countryside but would rather stay where we could walk into town"

Firstly I agree with Bryno that you are very unlikely to get house rental for less than 3 days, and in the vast majority of places it will be weekly.

In most Irish towns, once you get to the end of the housing, and often before that, you will have no footpath and no lights. Walking into town, especially at night, is not a very practical option.

I suggest you either stay in the countryside within a couple of miles of the town so that if its safe you could possibly walk in, but more likely, get a taxi. Or stay in a very small town/village - and that would be quite possible - so that you are near to amenities and could walk to the pub at night, but still have the sense of being in the countryside. It would mean however that getting to central points for tours etc could be a bit difficult.

I suspect your best arrangement would be to choose say two centres and book b&b there, and prebook a driver and vehicle in each of the centres to take you around.

B&B for 8 people would mean you would need to start booking fairly soon.

mummak

following on from the great advice offered already by Bryno and Doneraile, here are a couple of ideas you might like to discuss with your fellow travellers:

You could think about renting a house (but it would probably be for a full week, however could be very economical if there are 8 of you - 4 adult couples?) in either Galway (city, although really it's the size of a small town) or Killarney. Neither place is very big, and you don't have to travel too far before you're into beautiful countryside, plus you have the advantage of being able to walk to restaurants, pubs, etc. Here are a couple of sites I've used in the past with good results:

http://www.imagineireland.com/

holiday-rentals.co.uk/index.cfm/…

Bus Eireann have services to each from Shannon airport (direct to Galway, but via Limerick to Killarney):

www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1202289526-16.pdf

www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1202290116-51.pdf

From either location, you would have plenty of options for day tours and things to do, which would easily entertain you for 5-7 days:

Galway: Connemara; the Burren and Cliffs of Moher; Aran Islands; horse-riding, fishing, walking (if any of these activities appeal):

http://www.lallytours.com/index.html

http://www.galway-ireland.ie/

http://www.connemara.ie/

http://www.burrenpage.com/

http://www.burrenbeo.com/

http://www.visitaranislands.com/

And if you hired a car/driver, you should be able to get to Westport, co. Mayo, which is a lovely town.

It would be a full day, but you could ask the driver to take you on the direct route to Westport, give you time to look around the town, then drive out to Louisburg, then through the beautiful Doo Lough Pass to Leenaun and back to Galway (min 4hrs total drive - but you'd probably spend longer in the car). Breathtaking scenery all the way:

http://westport.mayo-ireland.ie/

Killarney: Ring of Kerry; Dingle Peninsula; Gap of Dunloe; Muckross House and Killarney National Park:

http://www.killarney.ie/tourism.php

http://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/

http://www.muckross-house.ie/intro.htm

http://www.killarneynationalpark.ie/

And depending on your dates, you may find something on at inec:

http://www.inec.ie/

http://www.derostours.com/

If you're only visiting for 5 nights, this might be your best bet (ie to stay in 1 place), otherwise you could end up spending alot of your holiday on public transport just moving between places - but then maybe this would be part of the holiday experience??

If you don't want to rent a house/apartment, have a look at the following sites for guest houses and b&b's (and of course, always check the reviews here on TA):

http://www.townandcountry.ie/

http://www.ireland-bnb.com/

Well, just a couple of ideas from one visitor to Ireland; hope you find some of the above useful!

:-)

Thank you all for the helpful information. We are looking forward to this trip especially since the US dollar is getting more favorable each day.

Not driving will greatly impact where you should stay in order to have day tours. With your time limit and since you are traveling in spring I would choose Killarney. There are many day trips available from there to:

Dingle

Gap of Dunloe

Ring of Kerry

Local area

Choose an accommodation from which you can walk into town for dining and pubs. A couple that I would recommend that are walking distance are Killarney Lodge and Earls Court. Anyone else have suggestions?