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Travel outside of Dublin

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Dear Fellow Travelers-
My 22 year old daughter is traveling to Ireland over her Spring break mid-March (3/14/-3/28/2017). She will be spending 2 weeks there and plans on spending the first 3 days in Dublin with a friend studying abroad but would like to venture out to other parts of the country. She will not be renting a car so needs travel advice on the best way to see these locations. She has traveled to Europe with me and her dad a few times but never on her own so navigating the train/bus schedules can be intimidating. She is open to doing bus day trips from Dublin and below is a list of places she has read/heard about and would like to visit - not saying all of them. Any suggestions on how to get there if you don't have a car? Or can anyone recommend a bus company for day trips out of Dublin? We greatly appreciate your advise and words of wisdom. Thank you!

• Powerscourt House Gardens
• Glendalough Monastic Site
• Rock of Cashel – County Tipperary
• Blarney Castle (Kiss the Stone) – County Cork

• The Ring of Kerry – County Kerry (tough to do without a car, look for cie tours)
• Dingle Peninsula – County Kerry (tough to do without a car, look for cie tours)
• Gap of Dunloe – County Kerry
• Cliffs of Moher – County Clare
• Aran Isles - County Galway

• Kylemore Abbey – County Galway
• Ashford Castle (Hotel/Castle) – County Mayo

• Westport – County Mayo

Posted by
9363 posts

There are a number of tour companies that run tours to Glendalough and Powerscourt. She could take the train to Galway, and from there take a ferry to the Aran Islands or a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. She could probably also find a bus tour through the Connemara region, which is where Kylemore Abbey is located. The Ring of Kerry and the Slea Head Drive in Dingle are best by car, yes. Can her friend check with the Tourist Information office in Dublin about these tours?

Posted by
45 posts

For Glendalough and Powerscourt, see the tours operated by Dublin Bus at,

https://www.dublinsightseeing.ie/southcoast.aspx

Also, on www.dublinsightseeing.ie there are one day tours to, say, the Cliffs of Moher. But, if you go to www.railtoursireland.com you can select from a list of tour destinations for 2 or 3 days e.g. including Aran Islands, Kylemore Abbey.

For Westport and Galway, there are trains if you wanted to go to either place directly without a tour. There is sometimes a need to change trains midway at Athlone.

It is 3.5 hours journey time to Westport and 2.5 hours to Galway from Dublin. The key thing with trains is to download the PDF timetable which will indicate the stops and change of train between Dublin Heuston station and Galway or Westport. The train line from Dublin splits at Athlone into the Galway and Westport directions.

While there may be local buses going from Galway to, say, Kylemore Abbey the timetable could be a bit irregular and there might not be a bus back. So, a tour would be the best option.

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