Hello,
We are spending a week in the Republic of Ireland and a week in Northern Ireland this July. Our plan is to take the bus from Galway to one of the stops in Donegal County, do some exploring, and then take another bus across the border. We were considering doing the Tourist Travel Pass but were worried about a bus we may want to take selling out. Is that a concern? Any tips about exploring this area by bus would be appreciated.
We took the bus in reverse, Derry to Galway. Pros were not having to drive, going into the center of some Irish towns we wouldn’t have seen otherwise, and traveling with th local population. Cons were no real breaks except for a brief one in Sligo.
I would break the journey about half way through if I did it again.
How were you able to book the bus? We were planning to travel via buseireann #64 from Derry to Sligo on June 15 and there are no seats available that day, the day before or the day after! Is it a cross-country thing? Should I check at our hotel?
Buy your ticket at the bus station on the day. Bus Éireann are unable to offer advance booking out of Derry.
We were not able to book the ticket. As it turns out, you cannot book online cross border tickets; you have to buy those in person. We were considering the possibility of preordering a ticket to go into Donegal and then from there buy the crossborder ticket. We may get the Tourist Travel pass to make multiple stops along the way, though that has the downside of only not being able to use it to cross the border and that you can't preorder a ticket.
Thank you! One less thing to plan ahead!
