Spend a Plus day in Dublin or Ennis area

We spent several nights in Ennis last year (2023), for a big Trad Music festival, the Fleadh Nua. Several pubs in town feature music year-round, so if that’s of interest, Ennis would be one of the best places in Ireland to be. There’s a nice town park with a walking path and a Muhammad Ali memorial (he seems to have been revered in Ireland), and there’s a great Nepalese restaurant that features Nepalese live music, too. We didn’t attempt any daytrips from Ennis, although Rick includes some in his guidebook. The bus between the Shannon airport and Ennis was fast and easy.

We did this tour in Aug. it is not easy to get from the Dublin airport to Ennis. We had a very bad experience with Dublin Coach -the big green bus.
From Ennis it is not easy to get to other areas in our experience with public transport.

We went to Bunratty which was nice but was not easy to get to. Had another Big green bus issue.

If I had to do over and was flying into Dublin I would take a train to Galway & then train to Ennis.
Or fly to Shannon & stay in Ennis. The tour does not do anything in Ennis. So if you want to see anything there you need to before the tour.

I would also suggest getting dinner reservations in Ennis. We had issues there too. We did really enjoy Ennis. The music is great.

Thank you for the input. We had thought you could take a train straight from Dublin to Ennis in 3 hours but maybe I got that wrong. A full day in Galway appeals more than Ennis to us. So maybe we consider going there from Shannon airport?
Thanks so much for your replies.
Happy new year

Via Galway is certainly not the obvious rail route normally to Ennis.
Every two hours on the even hours take a Cork bound train to Limerick Junction, change there for Ennis.
The 1530, 1625 and 1725 are extra peak hour trains to Limerick (terminating there) , change for Ennis.
There is no through Dublin to Ennis train on either route.
In the rare instance when the Galway line is the better route you change at a junction station called Athenry, not at Galway.
The obvious route is to fly Heathrow to Shannon with Aer Lingus at 0950, 1440 or 1910.
The flights are scheduled to be on A320 or A321 Neo planes.
There is also a direct bus #350, every 2 hours from Ennis to the Cliffs of Moher.
It is run by Bus Eireann.

The OP was looking to spend the day somewhere not head directly to Ennis. The tour goes to the cliffs so they won’t need to go there. I wished we had gone to Galway because I would have liked to have spent a day there. Public transport is not as easy as I had hoped in Ireland.

Interestingly on a Sunday the first train from Galway to Ennis is at 1155 arriving at 1307. and the first from Dublin is at 1000 via Limerick also arriving on the other platform at 1307.
Neither gives you that much leeway for meeting at the hotel at 1400, in case of a problem.
So coming down from Galway on a Sunday the bus #51 would be the better bet.

It runs hourly on the 75 minute journey from 0705, even on Sunday.

But it always surprises me (especially on a jet lag recovery day as in this instance) how few people seem to visit the City of Limerick from Ennis.

Another easy day trip from Ennis by public transport is the Foynes Flying Boat and Aviation Museum (though maybe not on a first trip to Ireland, depending on your interests). Foynes was the predecessor to Shannon Airport and has an important place in transatlantic aviation history- and was the alleged birthplace of Irish Coffee- which may or may not be true, but a good and plausible story.

Using a combination of the indirect bus 350 round the coast and the direct 51 it is possible to do a scenic round trip from Ennis to Galway (or train one way and bus the other)- all sorts of permutations.

With a car you could go up to the Burren and Doolin as well or Kilkee for the cliff walk and blue flag beach and the scenic Loop Head drive, coming back through Kilrush to Ennis. Kilkee and Kilrush are also easy wins by bus from Ennis.

The Cliffs of Moher are in my book north of Ennis, although the tour map makes them look more west than north (strictly they are north west). There are all sorts of possible scenic day trips by either bus or car from Ennis aside from the obvious.

Thank you. I really like the idea of the Kilkee walk and a stop in Kilrush. Appears we can rent a car for a day in Ennis. I’m getting convinced to fly Heathrow to Shannon. I was hoping to see more of Dublin since the tour just has a day there and unfortunately we have to leave when tour ends.

Unless they changed it you do have two nights in Dublin. The second day we had a free afternoon
Not a ton of time but enough to see some places.
Some on our tour went to Guinness. We did that when we stayed for two additional days.

Renting a car in Ennis will open up a lot more for you to see.

Enjoy

Is there any chance you can fly directly to Ireland from the US? We have done that numerous times a couple to Shannon and the rest all to Dublin. Just a thought as that would save you a half a day or so of travel.

Good suggestion. We originally tried many options for flying to Ireland. Most flights are not direct from SFO and we were trying to find an airline with a reasonable option for economy plus seats for the extra legroom because my husband is tall. We are returning from London and settled on virgin Atlantic bulkhead seats. The reviews of Aer Lingus put me off for a long flight with them.