Ireland March 2018 - No Car

Posted by jennakalkwarf (St. Louis, MO) on 12/28/17 08:34 PM

Myself and another traveler are planning a trip to Ireland in March and are working to finalize some details. We decided not to rent a car and will do day-trips from each city and use the train to travel. That being said, does the itinerary below make sense? We plan on staying in AirBnBs to minimize costs.

Day 1 - Arrive in Dublin around noon
Day 2 - Dublin
Day 3 - Dublin
Day 4 - Dublin --> Galway
Day 5 - Galway (day trip to Cliffs)
Day 6 - Galway --> Killarney
Day 7 - Killarney (Day trip around Ring of Kerry)
Day 8 - Killarney (Day trip to Dingle)
Day 9 - Killarney --> Dublin (fly out in the morning)
Day 10 - Travel back to US

Posted by Nancy

Corvallis OR

12/28/17 09:30 PM

7044 posts

I'm not aware of a train from Killarney to Dingle but I could be mistaken. There is bus service but I'm not sure how the schedule would work for a day trip - I'd assume the schedule is pretty limited in March. You might want to consider renting a car for the day for that trip.

Or are you planning on doing day tours (with a tour company) for those places not easily reached by train - Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, Ring of Kerry?

Posted by Anita

RIchmond, BC,Canada

12/29/17 01:23 AM

870 posts

You won't have a lot of time in Galway, and it will take a long time to get to Killarney by train from Galway as you will have to backtrack to Dublin (Dublin- Galway is about two hours, Dublin-Killarney is about four hours). You may want to see if there is a more direct route via bus from Galway to Killarney as some private companies have done it in the past. Are you spending another day in Dublin prior to your flight home, or are you arriving back in Dublin late in the day? You might want to play with your schedule a bit to see if it might make more sense to leave your time in Dublin until the very end and maybe just go straight to Galway or Killarney the day you arrive. The other thing you should also check is the availability of the day tours you want to do in March as some of them may not be up and running that early in the year. I was there in April, and though most of the tour companies were operating by then some had only just begun.

Posted by Stacy

Connecticut

12/29/17 02:31 PM

337 posts

I’m not sure you’d have enough time to get from Killarney to Dublin for a morning flight. You’ll want to be at the airport 3 hours before your flight.

It looks like Paddwagon Tours has day trips to Dingle and the Ring of Kerry from Killarney. I have not used them, but they seem to be very popular.

Best of luck and have a wonderful time!

Posted by inireland

Waterville, Ireland

12/29/17 02:45 PM

409 posts

Do you know which dates, Jenna? It may help me with recommendations as some things open March 17th onwards, some not....

I assume your last "killarney to dublin" means you're spending the night near the airport in Dublin and then fly out in the morning? Do confirm that!

there are many bus tours (PaddyWagon as mentioned above, as well as Deros, Kerry Coaches, and more). There is a Local Link to Dingle that stops in Inch (like the bus tours) and Dingle town, so "tour buses" aren't the only requirement. Early March the bus tours don't go daily, but they all band together so chances are at least one will go to Rok and Dingle each day......

If you want to keep costs down maybe staying out of Killarney in Beaufort or killorglin or Glenbeigh may be nice? If you're ready to splurge there is a new AirBnB in Glenbeigh called Railway Cottage that's pretty wonderful. It used to be my friends' house and new owners made it a rental. Gorgeous!

Susan
Expat in Waterville