I’m hoping to purchase Newgrange (3 hour) tour tickets for Sunday May 18 when they go on sale later this week. I had contacted Mary Gibbons months ago but apparently she has Trinity College groups booked for the weekend and no availability for anyone else. We aren’t interested in doing the longer tours that visit additional sites, so we’re trying to figure out the best way to get there and back by train and taxi.
The bottom line is that I’m trying to figure out which tour ticket time I’d need to book based on train arrival time and time to get from the station to the visitor center by taxi.
- How reliable are the trains? Can I assume a train scheduled to arrive at Drogheda at 11:15 (for example) would arrive within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival?
- I understand that when we get to Drogheda we’ll need to call for a taxi. This will be Sunday either mid/late morning or early afternoon. How much time should we allocate to get a taxi and travel by taxi from the station to the visitor center?
- Does the scheduled tour start time mean the time you are permitted to go into the center to view the exhibits OR the time you catch the shuttle bus OR the time you begin the tour once the shuttle bus has dropped you off? For example, if we booked a 12:30 tour, would we need to be done with the visitor center and shuttle bus by 12:30? Or would we need to board the shuttle at 12:30? Or only permitted to enter the visitor center at 12:30?
- Using a 12:30 tour time as an example, which train makes the most sense: one that arrives Drogheda at 10:15; one that arrives at 11:15; or one that arrives at 11:27 (express train)?
- Finally (for now) how reliable is the end time of the tour and how much time should we allocate from the end of the tour to the departure time of the train back to Dublin?
I know I’ve asked a lot of questions so thanks in advance for any help you can provide!