Hi! What is the best way to see the best of Ireland with day trips out of Dublin? We have the U2 concert on a Saturday so we planned on staying Friday night/Saturday in Dublin, but the rest of our time we could stay elsewhere overnight. I would love to see Cliffs of Moher & Ring of Kerry. What other towns would you recommend we go for a day trip? We were thinking Galway, Sligo or Cork. Basically I want to see all I can in 5 days, willing to not sleep if needed! We will not have access to a car (otherwise the Irish newspapers would read "Dumb American drives self off of cliff") so if you know of a good tour company or an easy way to travel using their rails that would be helpful. We will be staying in hostels and/or using Airbnb so any word on those would be an added bonus! Thank you!!
Posted by
1172 posts
We will be there too :)
Hope that you have already booked your Dublin hotel as the city is pretty much sold out that weekend!
If you want to do the Cliffs and Ring of Kerry, I would seriously look to book a car for that portion of your trip. We did this last summer and it was great! If you want to limit your driving, you could take the train to Galway and then rent a car from there.
Posted by
RIchmond, BC,Canada
933 posts
I would not try to see either the Cliffs of Moher or the Ring of Kerry from Dublin. I'm sure there are companies that do that day trip, but you would spend hours on a tour bus just getting there and back. With such a short amount of time you could spend all your days in Dublin, spend one or two days seeing the city, then do a couple of guided day trips to places such as Newgrange or Glendalough. If you just google day trips from Dublin you will find many options. Personally, I would just take the train to Galway for a couple days, from there you can do a day trip that will take you to the Cliffs, or to the Aran Islands, and it will be easier to return to Dublin for you flight home from Galway. You will actually see more if you stay in just one place when you have so few days because every time you get on a train to get somewhere, that is time you are not spending seeing some sights.
Posted by
WA, USA
330 posts
I was in Dublin for a few days and I took a tour with Wild Rover Tours (bus tour) to the Giant's Causeway. It was nice, stopped in Belfast too. Really enjoyed it, but still a lo of time spent on the bus. I met a person who took their Cliffs of Moher tour and she said it was too much time on the bus. I am going back to Dublin again this June and I am going to try Extreme Irish day tours for a closer day out from Dublin.
Have fun in Ireland!
Posted by
Orlando, FL
185 posts
My first time to Dublin we took a day tour out to the Cliffs of Moher. It stopped along the way at Bunratty castle for a tour, we stopped for a short look at the Burren and we were taken to a really quaint little pub for a great lunch. I don't remember the name of the company but I'm sure I could find it somewhere if you are interested. My traveling companion and I did not feel it was too much travel time, the trip out on the train was a great chance to relax and enjoy the scenery.
As far as hostels, check out Generator hostel. I haven't stayed at the one in Dublin but it looks like it's in a great location and I have stayed at a couple of their other locations and they are very nice.
Posted by
OP
Philadelphia, USA
7 posts
Thank you all for your responses, everyone! Rosemary, if you were to find that information on the tour that would be great! I would much rather a train than a bus tour and it sounds like you enjoyed it!
Posted by
Orlando, FL
185 posts
Sorry for the delay in responding! Here is a link to the tour we did, it was with Rail Tours Ireland and it was quite enjoyable.
https://railtoursireland.com/train-tour/cliffs-of-moher-bunratty-galway-burren/dh06