The Ring of Kerry is a 179-km circular driving route around the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, one of Ireland's most popular scenic drives. The landscape is spectacular: mountains dropping to a ragged Atlantic coastline, lakes tucked into green valleys, and views out to the Skellig Islands on a clear day. It is beautiful, and it is crowded — the route is one of the most visited in Ireland, and in summer the main road can be slow.
For those seeking more solitude, the nearby Dingle Peninsula offers similar scenery with considerably fewer buses. The area around Killarney and the Ring is also excellent walking country; the Kerry Way long-distance path follows quieter routes through the mountains that the cars never reach. Locals in the more rural areas speak Irish (Gaelic) as a first language — you are in the Gaeltacht here — and are generally very welcoming.