I'm beginning to pencil in plans for a brief trip to Ireland in July 2019, and have questions about the "best" way to get from Dublin to Dingle (or at least near Dingle). For some context...
In this case, I define "best" as the following: 1) fastest, 2) comfortable and low-stress
This will be our first visit to Ireland, and it needs to be short: just 8 full days (not counting our arrival or departure days). We know we can't see it all, not even the major portion, that's OK, we will be back (fortunately, Aer Lingus recently started flying a nonstop between our home in Seattle and Dublin, so it'll be easy to return).
Rick's suggests the following allocation depending on how much time you have: "With just 3 days, Dublin. With 5 days, add Dingle Peninsula. With 8 days: add Galway, Aran Islands, slowdown..." Hmmm. We have 8 days (we arrive on Day 0, leave on Day 9). Based on my (admittedly cursory) research, I'm thinking Dublin, while nice enough as a city, is not the best place to spend precious time. The west coast and the southwest end look more appealing to me, so I'm thinking about sneaky ways to optimize my short time there. Rick's suggested 8-day list of places sounds a bit hurried to me (and I travel crazy fast by the standards of most here).
Our flight from Seattle comes in to Dublin. After we do 8+ days in Ireland, we fly out of Dublin (to Edinburgh, but that's a whole other story). We definitely need to be in Dublin the night before we depart for Edinburgh, but I'm thinking that rather than spend time in Dublin at both the start and end of our time in Ireland, why not just arrive in Dublin, then move on to the west coast? Our inbound flight is scheduled to arrive at DUB at 12:30 pm (on a saturday in late June). I'm thinking that we should just head off to Dingle (or thereabouts) immediately upon arrival.
We certainly will want a car for getting around the west of Ireland. But I'd rather not arrive off a redeye, jump in a car, and drive off on the wrong side of the road. Note that I have a bit of wrong-side driving experience (UK, Australia, Japan), and I actually expect to arrive off our flight at least somewhat rested (flying business class, flat bed seat = I will get some decent sleep) but I'm looking at alternatives to driving on that first (arrival) day. Looking at ways to get to Dingle, I see the following options - my goal would be to get to Dingle and settled in our lodgings before dark:
- Rent a car at DUB and drive all the way. I see drive time estimates ranging from 4.5 to 6 hours. That doesn't sound appealing after a 10 hour redeye (even in business class).
- Take the train. If I'm reading things correctly, trains go as far as Tralee (almost Dingle) and that takes about 4 hours. $65-$95. (Does not include the last stretch to Dingle itself.) That seems like a better option than driving.
- Fly. Yeah, I know it sounds extravagant, but it looks like there are flights from DUB to Kerry Airport (in Farranfore, near Tralee) and they're actually no more than the train, $40-$95, flight time just 1 hour (again, on the last stretch, still need to get from the airport to Dingle itself). I have not checked schedules and flight frequency, which could make this unworkable, but maybe it could get us there quickly.
After arriving in Dingle, we would pick up a car rental there, do 2-3 days around Dingle town and Peninsula, Ring of Kerry, maybe the far southwest (wife is lobbying for Skelig Michael, I suspect we don't have enough time, we'll see about that), then head north, the obligatory stop at Cliffs of Moher, of course, Aran Islands, then to Galway for a couple days. Maybe drop the car there and train back to Dublin, or drive east and then drop the car. Maybe two nights, a full day in Dublin, then off we go.
(continued...)