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Driving in Dublin for an afternoon- Parking??

Posted by on

In the middle of June, my wife and I with our two late teen kids will be in Ireland, flying into Shannon and staying in Ennis. We are renting a car. On our last day we are driving from Ennis to Dublin for a 6 PM flight to Paris. We have not been to Dublin so we thought if we can leave Ennis early, and drive straight to Dublin, we should have four hours or so in Dublin. It is my thinking that a hop-on Hop-off bus would be the ticket then to get the general idea of sights.. The problem is what to do with the car and luggage? If there were a convenient place to park, we could do that in Dublin, leave our luggage in the car, and then get to the Hop-on bus. Would our luggage be safe in a car park?

Another thought is drive to the Dublin airport and park there and take a cab to Dublin. The problem is I don't know about the availability of parking and cost at the airport and again, the safety of our luggage. A third alternative is drive to the airport and turn in the car. That would work if we could check our luggage early with the airline?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Posted by
1172 posts

I would not drive in Dublin. I would plan on returning the car at the airport, take one of the buses ( airlink) to Dublin.
Contact the airline to see how far ahead they will let you check your luggage. Other option is to see if the airport has any lockers you can rent.

Posted by
248 posts

We just got back from Ireland last week AND we kept our car while we were in Dublin. We had read quite a bit about not having a car while you are there but honestly we had no real issues whatsoever. We even drove it downtown one day. There are carparks everywhere and even quite a bit of street parking. I cannot guarantee the safety of your luggage but the areas we were in were not sketchy by any means. You could park it at the Ashling Hotel parking garage which had an attendant on duty and was a "secure" garage. I believe it was $12/day and its a short walk to anything you may want to do- its even across the street from Guinness. We didn't want to return our car because of the amount of time you would lose from driving to the airport, bussing or cabbing into town and then back again. By car its only about a 20-30 minute drive from downtown Dublin. There are other cities I would say not to keep your car (Rome, Florence...) but I was very happy with the decision we made in Dublin.

Posted by
1005 posts

Dublin is a nightmare to drive in. However, there is a toll tunnel from the port area that connects directly to the motorway near the airport. I took this tunnel from the airport into Dublin and parked at the Jurys Inn Custom House Quay on the embankment, just a few blocks from the tunnel exit. It's pricey, but that way I avoided all the Dublin traffic jams. As a bonus, it's a fast way to get out of the city and back to the airport.

Posted by
445 posts

That Ashling Hotel sounds like a good way to go. Add in the fact of the lost commuting hour and it sounds like a winner. Thanks, Aly!!

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