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Pre-and Post-Tour Ireland/Scotland Suggestions

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We are doing 2 back-to-back RS tours in September. We plan on arriving in Shannon and heading to Galway for 2 days. We want to visit Kylemore Abbey and Kong and will take a day tour. We will need to return to Ennis to pick up our tour.

  1. What is the best/easiest way to travel from Shannon to Galway and then returning to Ennis? Private car is too $$$. Recommendations for hotel/restaurants in Galway?

  2. We complete our first tour in Dublin and have a few days before the next tour begins in Inverness. It looks like the best way to travel from Dublin to Inverness is train to Belfast and then fly to Inverness. I'd like to take a day trip from Inverness to Skye. Any thoughts?

I would appreciate any recommendations or feedback regarding our plans.

Thanks so much for your assistance.

Posted by
741 posts

Transportation between Shannon, Galway and Ennis is a frequent enough topic on this forum that you should be able to find the answer by searching the site.

Posted by
9113 posts

Shannon to Galway is the hourly coach-bus.

Galway to Ennis is either the same bus, or the train which runs every 2 or 3 hours.
Note this is the direct train to Limerick, not the Galway to Dublin, then Dublin to Limerick train.
Yes Belfast City to Inverness flight. Note there is also a Be!fast International airport.
From Belfast Grand Central Station take bus #300 every 20 minutes to the airport, journey time 15 minutes.

Various companies day trip to Skye from Inverness, but Rabbies is the only one known to this forum. You will spend about three hours each way on the bus to Skye so it's a bit whistlestop on the island.
It wouldn't be my own personal first choice of Day trip from Inverness but don't know where you go to on tour #2

Posted by
9113 posts

Having now looked at Rabbies Tours from Inverness and your RS itinerary I think there are some better day trips out of Inverness than Skye (which really deserves longer IMO)-
The outstanding one to me is Dunrobin Castle and the Hidden Gems of Easter Ross, a tie in second place for me would be Torridon, Applecross and Eilean Donan Castle, and their new tour for this year- Remote and Rugged Scottish Highlands Adventure (up as far as the wonderful Achmelvich Beach)- out via Garve and back via Bonar Bridge. They don't say what route they are taking after Bonar Bridge (may depend on timings on the day) but I would hope they use the very scenic Struie road as opposed to the A9.

The choice between those latter two is almost impossible.

Posted by
3 posts

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the day tours.

I agree, I prefer not to spend 3 hours on a bus. I'm familiar with Rabbies and will look into the tours they offer.

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