At 77, my days of picking up a car and hitting the road in a different country are over . I drove from London to Lands End, but that was 20 years ago.
So, what are the options to explore the West if one does not drive? Visits to Portugal have been no problem due to the extensive rail system, but I do not see that in Ireland.
Shannon is the obvious port of entry and we would love to see Dingle etc.
We would appreciate any input.
Thanks,
Dennis and Elinore
I had a fabulous trip last month using public transportation combined with a few short group tours. It really worked well for me as I also did not want to drive.
You can read the details in my trip report and see if that sounds like something that might work for you.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-ireland-may-2025-my-trip-report
Dingle was my favorite. :-)
Dennis, if driving in western Ireland isn’t under consideration, I’m guessing that bicycling isn’t, either. Fourteen years-ago, age 61, my husband and I made our way down the coast, south from Galway, over to the Aran Islands, and down to Dingle. There were lot of hills, and some rain, too.
But we also used the Bus Eireann bus system twice, from Tralee to Dingle and from Dingle to Limerick. The buses have a running Irish Setter along the side, instead of a greyhound. Trains do serve some cities, including Ennis, but as you said, the rail network is far less extensive than in countries farther south.
We also used area taxis occasionally, including getting from our lodging to Lisdoonvarna and from other lodging into Dingle town. Our B&B’s had information about options, but then you’d need to get from one B&B to the next one. I don’t know what private driving services might exist, for covering some distance a single time.
If you did want to visit Inishmore or other Aran Islands, there are ferries, which we used when bringing those bikes with us, but on a subsequent trip (with rental car), we discovered the Aer Arann Islands airline, with small planes. Faster and more weather/waves resistant than the ferry boats, the planes are the way to go.
Hi D & E — if you scroll down the recent Ireland posts you’ll find my detailed write ups of our May 2025 Ireland trip (Galway and Inis Mor; Ennis, Killarney, and the Dingle Peninsula; Kinsale and Belfast). We travelled by train, did some things on our own (like a fantastic full day in Killlarney National Park); did some day trips with a private driver/guide; and a couple group day tours. Overall we had a fantastic time and it felt quite stress free to not have to do any driving. Please let me know if you have additional questions once you’ve looked at my posts.
I think it's very doable. We spent 2 weeks in the South and West of Ireland including Dingle in 2023. We are in our 70's as well. We traveled by train and bus to Waterford, Dingle, and Kinsale with one night stops in Killarney, Tralee and Cork. We took a couple of small van tours including one around the Dingle Peninsula. We did take a taxi to and from our lodging in Dublin but other than that it was all public transportation. This worked out really well for us.
Dennis and Elinore: In my five visits to Ireland, I have used the Bus Eireann system (https://www.buseireann.ie/) extensively. I used it exclusively on two visits to the west of Ireland (as well as partially on two other trips). The system went to virtually every big town in the west and served a lot of out-of-the-way places, too. Drivers generally had no problem accommodating special requests to be dropped in a certain place, too, but there's no guarantee they'll say yes to everything.
In addition, Irish Rail (https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/) has expanded significantly since the 1990s and 2000s, when I did my five trips to Ireland. Here's the map for the entire country: https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/travel-information/station-and-route-maps/ireland-rail-map. There are separate maps for just Dublin and Cork, too.
