Transportation

I see you have posed the same question here as you did in the Scotland forum. I hope you aren't trying to see both countries in the same trip. That would not be a relaxing vacation unless you have several weeks to do it. I have done both countries separately, and spent three weeks in each. I did get around Ireland fairly easily with a bus/train pass, though, something that didn't work in Scotland where I ended up renting a car. Ireland is a bit easier by rail, and you can easily get guided day trips from several locations to see the sights. I used Dublin, Killarney, Galway, and Belfast as bases for sever days and did guided, group day trips. I have not researched hiring a private guide, but I'm sure if you google it there will be a few. Here is one: http://www.dbcsireland.com/

Linda, I answered you about Scotland on the other forum.
I am headed out next week for a two week trip in Ireland on public transport only. I will tell you that I found planning a trip in Ireland on public transport much more challenging than planning such a trip in Scotland. The rail network in Ireland is more of a "spoke" system where everything seems to go back to Dublin and out from Dublin. Northern Ireland is a bit more public transport friendly for planning.

I orginally wanted to go from Galway to the Dingle Peninsula. Public transportation would have easily doubled the travel time involved and was not very direct. My sister and I talked it over and decided that we would leave the Dingle Peninsula for another trip and focus our energies near Galway for that week. We are spending 3 nights on the Aran Islands instead.

I do know that private drivers are listed on this forum all the time and I think that your idea of taking a train out to one of the cities and either touring from those cities by day tour or private driver is a good idea.

The most important consideration is really what is it that you are hoping to see or experience in Ireland? Not what others think you should see, but what do you want to see? One you have determined that, do a little research on what the transport options would be and choose what are the places that are "must dos" vs. would like to dos.

Many people will come on here an urge you to drive. This does work for a lot of people. However, if you are like me and truly don't want to drive on your trip, you can find options that will work for you. You do need to be flexible and recognize that you won't go everywhere. Realistically, anyone visiting a country doesn't get to go everywhere no matter how they travel.

We'll be back at the end of August. I 'll try to private message you then about what seemed to work well and what we would do differently in the future on public transport.

Thanks for the suggestions. We won't be planning our trip in earnest until the first of the year. But wanted to get an idea of what it will be like getting around. I will look forward to hearing from you after your trip in August, Carol
Thanks again.

If you start your planning with Rick's guidebook for each country, then each destination chapter will cover transportation options. There will be times when he'll say that a certain destination is "not worth the trouble" of multiple or infrequent connection by train and bus, or also may occasionally say "not possible," without a car, which would be less common.

You can get an advance inkling of where this is likely when you review these itinerary summaries:

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland/itinerary

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/scotland/itinerary

Thanks for the advice. We do always get a Rick Steves' guide before we travel so I am sure that will be helpful.