We will be taking a last minute trip to Ireland in August. We are planning 5 days before we move onto Scotland. I’m looking for a home base location, where we can take day trips from , instead of hotel hopping. I originally thought we would stay in Dublin. But, I recently heard Galway would be better. Any recommendations would be appreciated!
Posted by
SoCal
1130 posts
I'd say you could pick any number of cities as a home base, especially if you're going to have a car. We stayed in Limerick, which for us was an excellent choice as it's convenient to the entire southern portion of the island.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Thank you! We were not going to rent a car. Should I rethink that?
Posted by
Seattle, WA & Bordeaux, France
319 posts
It really depends on what's important for you to see. From Dublin, you can visit Howth, Newgrange and (possibly through a tour) some of the Wicklow mountains. From Galway, you can visit the Aran Islands, the Burren, Cliffs of Moher easily via bus/ferry. If you stay down by Cork, you could visit Cobh, Blarney Castle, Kinsale and (possibly by tour) the rock of Cashel.
Posted by
West Michigan
136 posts
My wife and I just flew into Dublin, the plane arrived at the gate at 5:00 AM, and by 5:45 AM were on a Flightlink Bus that left for Killarney at 6:00. The bus took 4 hours to reach Killarney (40 Euros per pers.). Then we walked to the McSweeney Arms Hotel. The next morning we walked to the tourist office and took a Paddywagon Tours bus around the Ring of Kerry. Next day we took a bus (2 buses) to Ennis, where our RS tour started. From Killarney there are also tours of the Killarney National Forest. We liked Killarney, lots of pubs and restaurants, and the McSweeney Arms Hotel was very nice also.
You will enjoy your visit, hope you have as much blue sky as we had!