Hi all,
My girlfriend and I are visiting Ireland for 12 days in late May, early June. No car, relying on public transport. We would love to do Dublin -> Dingle -> Galway – Dublin, as this seems to be a great snapshot of history, culture and natural beauty. However, we are concerned about the heavy travel days of trains/buses involved in this itinerary.
Is Dingle worth it? Are there alternative cities/itineraries where we can avoid the heavy travel and still get the great scenery? Thanks very much!
Posted by
Missoula, Montana
514 posts
Chris,
Yes, Dingle - the town itself and the Peninsula - is well worth several days. But if great scenery and natural beauty are priorities, fly instead into Shannon on the West Coast where you'll find them in abundance. Convenient taxi service (from a kiosk inside the terminal) is available from the airport to wherever you'll be overnighting. Dublin is indeed full of history, although the generally flat East Coast scenery can't compare to that of the more rugged West. Perhaps save the capital for a future trip.
One great way to save on time-consuming travel and add to your scenic memories at the same time is to take ferries from the towns themseleves to some offshore islands.
From Dingle town, as well as from Dunquin at the penisula's west end, you can cach a ferry to Great Blasket Island, itself replete with history and nature. You may well be there the day a historic interpreter presents a fascinating one-hour talk on the islands and its former residents. It was abandoned in 1953. Otherwise, it's yours to explore.
https://blasketferry.ie/ and https://www.greatblasketisland.net/
Likewise for Galway town and Connemara, in my experience the most beautiful region in the country. You can ferry to the Aran Islands either from the town itself or from Rossaveel, about 40 miles to the west. The ferry company in the link below serves both points of departure and return.
https://www.aranislandferries.com/#indseo
From any of the three Aran Islands you can even toss in a ferry trip back to the mainland, this time to Doolin, Co. Clare, the trad music capital (three pubs) of Ireland, which also has lots of wonderful B&Bs. It's just southwest of Galway town. This link has the details.
Keep in mind though that there is no train service in Connemara or to Dingle. I've neven taken buses in Ireland, so can't help there. Here's the link to a map of Ireland's rail routes.
https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/travel-information/station-and-route-maps/ireland-rail-map
With a West Coast itinerary I think you'll get all you want in the way of history, scenery, culture and, perhaps most important, more time to explore and far less time sitting on buses and trains.
Another option for getting around town, seeing the Aran Islands, heading out to the Dingle Peninsula and into Connemara is to rent bicycles. Ireland is an exceptionally easy and rewarding country to see on two wheels.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6939 posts
You have some choices that are working against each other.
You can do a 12-day trip in Ireland easily enough. And you can do it by public transportation. But when you throw Dingle (and the far southwest) into the mix, it becomes tricky. Ireland's public transportation system is (not surprisingly) not optimized for tourists, it has grown organically to serve residents. That means Dublin is the primary rail hub, with spokes (or if you prefer, fishbones) stringing out from Dublin (and a few other junctions) with just isolated lines out to the west and southwest. Once you reach the ends of the rail lines, you'll be on local and regional bus lines, which will slow you down and limit your options. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I think you will find it more time-consuming (and more limiting) than you would like. To really get around western and southwestern Ireland efficiently, you need time to do that by public transportation. Or, a rental car would make a big difference, and will open up options that might otherwise be frustrating via public transportation.
A couple other points...
Do a reality check now, before you get into detailed planning, and determine exactly how many full, usable days you will have (don't count your arrival day or your departure day, and be brutally honest with yourself - it's easy to gloss this over by speaking in generalities about a "12 day" trip...some people's "12 day trip" only gives them 8 full, usable days to spend).
Dingle, and it's surroundings, and indeed all of the western and southwest coastal areas, are special, IMHO the best parts of Ireland. Great Blasket Island is cool, we did a day trip there, hiked all day, and loved it. If the little ferry from Dunquin is still running, take that one rather than the boat from Dingle itself - the "sheep highway" down to the boat is worth it alone.
For the Arran Islands forget the ferry, which is slow, prone to weather delays, and worst of all, limits your time on the island to mid-day when all the other day-trippers are there. The plane is the way to go: easy, fast, unbelievably cheap, absolutely thrilling (teeny tiny plane and they fly LOW), and it buys you golden hours when the ferry day-trippers are not there.
Yes, Dingle is "worth it" but you need time to make it work, and you may not have enough time to do it along with your other stops. If you want to include Dingle, consider any of the following:
- Find (at least) a few more days to stretch your trip
- Cut some other stops (all travel planning involves trade-offs and prioritization)
- Maybe rent a car for a portion of your trip: upon landing in Dublin, hop on a bus to Galway (easy, comfy, cheap, and safe). You're going to be groggy after your flight so don't expect much from yourself that day, push on all the way to Galway and sleep there. Next morning, fly out to Inis Mor (spend the night there if you can); fly back on the last flight next day. Sleep one more night in Galway. Get up, rent a car, and head for Dingle. When you're done in the southwest, drop the car and hop the train back to Dublin.
Get out a calendar and start figuring exactly how many real, full days you'll have in Ireland.
Hope that helps.
Posted by
Lake District, England
9006 posts
To give you actual information about all public transport in Ireland you should look at the Transport for Ireland website- https://www.transportforireland.ie/plan-a-journey/
A system which has not grown organically but is being systematically reorganised and improved across the country with many missing links being added. Even Dunquin for instance has a very good bus service from Dingle, and Dingle has a pretty good bus service from the end of the rail line at Tralee. In turn Tralee has direct 24/7 buses direct from Dublin Airport, as well as the train from Dublin Heuston.
The issue of Galway to Dingle is as much distance as transport. It is over 3 hours driving if you take the direct inland motorway route- much longer if you take the more scenic coastal route.