We are meeting up with the rest of our RS Heart of Ireland Tour in Ennis but our air miles only get us to Dublin.
Irish Coach has a perfect bus that will get us to Ennis in 3 hours for £ 15. It's a regularly scheduled bus route
Is that the type of thing we should buy in advance as soon as we can or are those type of buses more the "day of" type thing.?
I think you may mean Dublin Coach www.dublincoach.ie
I am not familiar with this company. But, it might be like booking a seat on those high speed trains in Italy. If you miss the particular bus your pre-booked ticket might not be valid for the next bus. Also the bus might be delayed arriving at the departure bus stop. If you need to link up with your tour at a specific time it might be worth going 30 minutes earlier to the stop to allow for delays. You could read the company terms and conditions. Having a pre-booked ticket may not guarantee being able to get on the bus.
Also, a backup plan would be www.irishrail.ie
for trains from Dublin to Ennis. Sometimes there is a bus transfer to the train station, Dublin Heuston station. Download the timetable for Dublin to Ennis close to time of travel. Check for any change of train. Sometimes there is also a bus transfer from Limerick Junction to Ennis. Check for timetable changes and service updates.
My husband and I are also flying into Dublin a few days prior to our tour which meets in Ennis in early May. We are planning on taking the train across the day before the tour meets in Ennis. It looks like there is a ticket available right now from Dublin to Ennis for about 12 euros if you book online. It is about 60 euros if you call the station (!).
Unfortunately we can only book 60 days in advance so we are hoping that fare is still available then. Looks like about a 3 1/2 hour trip with one station change. We are looking at the train trip as part of the Irish experience and a chance to see a different part of the country!
FYI--in Ennis, the train station and the bus station are the same place. It's only a five minute walk to the Old Ground which is where most RS tours stay.
I flew into Shannon (from London) and took a short bus ride to Ennis.
