Ireland 10 day. DONT want to drive!

My daughter and I visited Ireland for a week last summer, and we did not want to drive either. My husband and son had previously rented a car to drive from Dublin to Northern Ireland, and from them, we knew that many roads are VERY narrow. Even my husband, who is quite an intrepid driver, found the driving to be a challenge at times. He and my son laugh that my son kept saying "dad, the passenger mirror is hitting the hedge" because my husband had moved over due to another vehicle being inches away in the other direction. They also ended up needing my son to constantly follow the GPS and give directions, while my husband drove. They were going a little off the beaten path, so that might have been part of it. I know many people do drive successfully in Ireland. However, my spatial orientation isn't great, and the freedom driving afforded would have been worth the additional stress it would have caused me.

My daughter and I had no trouble seeing everything we wanted without using a rental car. We spent 3 days in Dublin and the rest of the time in Galway. We used those cities as a base and then took a few day bus tours to see some sites (such as the Cliffs of Moher and Giant's Causeway.) We also took the ferry to the Aran Islands. Assuming you stay near the downtown area in Dublin, most major sites are quite close and easy to walk to. We took a bus (gobus.ie) to travel to and from Dublin to Galway. We did not rent a driver, so I can't give any suggestions on that. There were lots of taxis available in Dublin, as well as bus service and a tramway. In Galway, there was also public bus service that could take you to the Cliffs of Moher and some other nearby towns, if you wanted. Enjoy your trip!

I did three weeks in Ireland without a car because it was going to be too expensive for me on my own. If you base yourself in towns that have access to lots of guided day tours you will see most of what you want to see. Dublin, Galway, and Killarney are the best for this. Both Galway and Killarney are easy to get to by train, but Galway is closer (only two hours by train as opposed to four for Killarney). If you have just ten days then you may want to base yourself in Dublin and one other place. There are a lot of day trips you can do from Dublin that will take you south to see some of the more popular places such as Glendalough, Cashel, Kilkenny, and also Newgrange and many others. From Galway you can find tours to the Cliffs, Inishmore, Burren, Connemara. From Killarney there is the park and Gap of Dunloe, Ring of Kerry, Dingle Penninsula and others. I suggest you look at the web sites for the various companies that offer the tours and see what appeals to you the most, Keep in mind that on the day you travel by train you probably won't be able to join one of these day tours as you won't get to your destination before the tours leave in the morning. This is why I suggest you only pick on destination besides Dublin so as to not waste too much time on train travel. Also remember you will have to get back to Dublin to fly home which is why Galway might be a better choice as it's closer.

Ireland's train lines work to/from Dublin but not along most of the coastline. Bus service is available and Rick's Ireland book will summarize typical connections for the towns he covers. Most can be searched at https://www.transportforireland.ie/.

My family has hired drivers for 2 trips to Ireland and plan to do so again. Since we are interested in family related sites and want some flexibility, this is the best way to go. The driver can act as a kind of tour guide and advisor as well as planning the route according to your interests. We usually just use the hop on hop off bus in Dublin then a driver for the countryside. We drove on our first trip to Ireland and yes my husband got used to it but not before he and I argued and swore in front of my teen aged daughter and friend. Now that we are more comfortable with public transport, we use it for specific trips and hire a driver or take an existing tour for other parts. For example, we take a public bus to Blarney castle from Cork but a driver to the Beara peninsula, and a tour to Newgrange. I have found that once a driver knows your interests and tastes they can create a tour catered to you. We have had great luck with drivers with the exception of "wrong way Tommy" a terribly deaf man who lived up to his name (fortunately he was a one day last minute replacement). I hope that helps.

We did a TAUCK Tour of Ireland (14 days) and it was lovely. TAUCK is the oldest group travel tour copany. They are first rate. We were in comfortable buses the whole time. The roads over there are quite narrow. It was very relaxing to let experienced drivers do the work.