My husband and I are heading to Ireland mid April. We will be staying 5 nights based in Dublin to take advantage of the 5th night free st Marriott with points. We prefer not to rent a car as driving on the other side of the road is so stressful and this after all is a vacation! Our thought is to take advantage of the train or tours from Dublin. We have 4 more nights before heading to Shannon for the last night to fly home. We were thinking we could base the next 4 nights in Galway and take day trips and if we really need to drive we could rent 1 for a day on either coast to get to more remote places. I would appreciate any advice as we have never been to Ireland we would like to relax, go to some museums, see beautiful nature and we love antiquing on our trips. Thank you.
Posted by
Prague, Czech Republic
356 posts
Please rephrase your post to turn it into a question.
Posted by
1172 posts
You definitely do not want a car in Dublin. In Dublin we did a tour of Kilmainham Gaol which I highly, highly recommend. If you want to do this,make sure to buy tickets on the web before you leave as the tours sell out. We also did St-Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College ( book of Kells and Library), Dublinia etc. We did get tickets for the hop on and off bus which was a great way to get around. We also enjoyed just walking around Temple Bar and other neighbourhoods.
If you want to make the most of your last 4 days, I would reconsider renting a car. In researching our trip last year, I started with he idea of using trains and quickly came to the conclusion that renting a car was the way to go. Driving on the 'wrong' side wasn't that bad. Galway was great and from there you could do the Cliffs of Moher, Dingle and the Slea head drive, you could drive up to Kylemore Abby etc. There are so many great places to go.
Posted by
Colorado Springs
2827 posts
There are plenty of day tours and local excursions in and near Dublin to keep you occupied for 5 days, including (if you choose) a short train ride up to Belfast for a day, which we highly recommend.
Agree that you don't need, nor would you want, a car in Dublin.
If you're that dead set against having a car, consider taking the train over to Galway for your last 4 nights and then enjoying day trips and tours from there...still without having to rent a vehicle. The ferry over to Inishmore from Rossaveel has a pickup point in Galway which makes it even more convenient to schedule a trip to the Aran Islands.
If you're then feeling a bit more comfortable about renting a car, you might consider the loop drive around Connemara for your last day...from Galway up to Clifden and the very pretty Sky Road, around thru the National Park for a short hike, continuing around to Kylemore Abbey and thence to the pretty village of Cong. At that point you could decide whether to just continue towards Shannon for the night, turn in the car there (one-way rentals are easy and cheap), then connect to your homeward flight the next day.
It'll be a great trip no matter how you organize it.
Safe Travels.