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Seeking Ideas on Travel from Scotland to Ireland and in Ireland

We expect to travel from Edinburgh to Dublin in mid-September. We'll meet a friend who will join us in Dublin for the duration of the trip including heading home to US.

We are wondering what itinerary makes the most sense transportation wise. Here's what we are thinking - please offer insights and recommendations!

  • Arrive Dublin and stay in Dublin for 2 days
  • Pick up rental car to drive to Limerick
  • Stay in Limerick at home of a friend for a few days with day trips to Kinsale and Dingle
  • Drive to Galway and tour Connemara for 2 nights
  • Head to Shannon and depart for US

If we want to first fly from Edinburgh to Shannon it seems that Ryan Air is the best (only?) option. Then we would depart from Dublin reversing the above itinerary.

Posted by
7843 posts

Shannon Airport website shows that Ryanair are the only carrier on this route- on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday- which are late night flights except on a Saturday so you would be better off doing this as Dublin to Shannon as proposed.

Posted by
3123 posts

I'll add that flying from Shannon to the USA is likely to be a little simpler (less stressful) than from Dublin. We've done both, and in Shannon we experienced helpful staff who prioritized us to get through security in time for our flight. (Our time crunch was no fault of our own; we had just flown in on a connecting flight that was a little late). They were especially kind to my husband, who has mobility issues, struggling with removing his shoes.

Both Dublin and Shannon airports have USA Pre-Clearance, which takes some extra time and is not optional, i.e. you can't choose to skip it and go through immigration on the USA end.

Posted by
16 posts

Thanks so much for your replies! Very helpful to me and my traveling companions.