We will be making our first trip to Ireland in a couple of weeks. We want to drive the Ring of Kerry and with the schedule we have it will be on weekday but we will not be able to reach the start of the ROK until around 11am. I am not excited about the idea of driving clockwise in a mid-size car and encountering a tour bus and having to back-up to give him the right away. Any strong recommendations as to clockwise or counterclockwise?
Posted by
1172 posts
We drove it clockwise in July and never came across one tour bus. In April/May, I am sure that you will be fine
It was gorgeous and so many great places to stop and take pictures.
Enjoy!
Posted by
Colorado Springs
2988 posts
The ring road is much improved over what it used to be. Don't recall any particularly tight squeezes when we drove it a couple of years ago...seemed that all of the narrow areas had been widened from our first drive about 10 years earlier. No drama at any rate, and we were in a mid-sized car too.
Can preview the drive using the street view feature on Google maps if you're worried about it.
Time permitting you could take a short detour out along the Skellig Ring Road which (going clockwise) will take you near the Kerry Cliffs to the village of Portmagee...which is where you can catch the boat out to Skellig Michael. Very scenic. As of the summer of '14 the tour busses didn't go out there, so you have the road, the ruins of an old Abbey and castle, and a terrific chocolate factory all to yourself.
Posted by
1 posts
We will be there in June. I plan on downloading the maps but having Google fi while there since I have a pixel already. 2 questions RS says to start rok drive from kenmare but not specifically where, It would be nice to know since he bases the stops of of distance in km from kenmare, anyone know where 0 km is? Also to charge American cell we use a cigarette lighter to USB plug usually, is that the same with European cars, if they don't have a direct usb plug of course.