Home base for day tours of Ireland

I'm surprised you haven't had any responses to your post! Well, here's my "two cents." I think it really depends on where you fly into; Dublin or Shannon. You don't specify how long you will be in Ireland...not sure if full two weeks you reference is England AND Ireland or just Ireland. I'm actually planning my second trip (October 2019) with my 85 year old mom. For the second time, i will rent a car. We only have 4 nights/3 days as we're coming from a week in Scotland. I don't have any issue driving and found it much more convenient than trying to book tours etc. On my first trip, we flew into Dublin and drove across the country to Galway. I loved the Galway area and found it super convenient to hit the key spots on the western coast; Cliffs of Mohr, Doolin, Tralee. That said, I think this trip we will spend on the East Coast. I'm not sure I answered your question but my vote would be to visit the west coast of Ireland if you haven't already done so! Good Luck!

Here's a fun website I have used over the years. You can create your own itinerary but when you zoom in on an area, it shows you the key "sites" that might be worth visiting. When you click on the site, it opens up links and pics to that site. I've used this several times over the years. https://maps.sygic.com/.

Thank you to both of you for responding. I am surprised as well that I haven't had more feedback.
I appreciate the suggestions and info from you. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

My mom and I spent several days in Ireland two weeks ago. We rented an apartment in Dublin and took day trips to the Cliffs of Moher, Galway, etc. On past visits, I’ve also used Dublin as a starting point for day trips to Northern Ireland. This past trip, we used Wild Rover tours and were very impressed.

I agree with Kristen that Dublin would make a good base for touring without a car. Besides the places she mentioned, from Dublin you can take day trips to Wicklow, Glendalough, Powerscourt and Newgrange. For the northwest, Galway would be a good choice and if you want to do the Ring of Kerry, Killarney is probably your best bet. Although doable, it is difficult to get to Dingle town by bus.

It's really going to depend on how many days you have. There are some great day tours you can do from Dublin, but this is also true of Killarney and Galway. Flying into Shannon and getting to either Killarney of Galway is difficult as it can't be done by train, and the bus trip is long and requires changes. The smaller towns do not have the selection of day trips (if at all) so I suggest the first thing you do is google day trips from various towns and see what appeals to you and plan where you stay based on what is available and how easy it is to get there by train or bus. When I sat down to plan my three weeks in Ireland I had all kinds of ideas about where I wanted to stay, and what I wanted to see, but as I began looking at bus and train timetables I realized I was going to spend half of my time in transit if I didn't plan carefully, and drop the smaller towns off my list as they were going to consume too much time just getting there. To maximize your time sight-seeing you have to minimize the time you spend on a bus or train so avoid one night stands, in fact, spend three or four nights in each town if you can.

Dublin will be jam packed with tourists as will be any place you “base” yourself that provides day tours. If you are willing to move around a bit, you will have more options. If you must return to Dublin each night, you will spend too much time on the bus going and coming. Perhaps you could consider two bases for your trip.

If you are looking for more of a “village” option, consider North Ireland. You can take the train to Coleraine, walk through the station and get on a bus that will take you along the Causeway Coast. Port Rush, Bushmills, and Port Ballintrae are all on this bus line for accommodations, My favorite is the Bayview Hotel at Port Ballintrae. From here you can walk or rid the bus to Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce Castle, and other sights.

I know you asked about a home base, but you also stated that your trip in 2002 was memorable. Was this a 'home base' trip or a multi day tour? I am not a big advocate of multi day tours, but this might be a time to consider it. If local transport isn't well established, and you are going to spend most of a day trip driving back and forth to where you want to be, perhaps consider a short multi day tour. Personally, I would rather pack light and live out of a suitcase for a few days to maximize my time in an area. As mentioned, a small quaint town where you can do pubs and music isn't going to tailor to day tours, but if the bus tour overnights in a smaller town, you can at least find this on your own of an evening. Otherwise every evening is going to be in Dublin or another large city and to get to places like Dingle, you are going to be leaving early morning and arriving back after 9 p.m.