Dublin Airport to Dingle-4days-Arriving June 11,Departing June 15

You can hire a car and driver but it is expensive. The train runs to Tralee and you would take a bus from there to Dingle total time probably at "least" 5 hours. You might check out Ryan Air which flies from Dublin to Kerry Airport and you could rent a car and drive to Dingle but it will make for a long and tiring day.

I hit the send to soon.
Would it be possible to fly into Shannon instead of Dublin? Dingle is about 2 1/2 - 3 hours from Shannon and would be much easier than trying to come from Dublin.

Thank you for writing Pat. Unfortunately we made our reservations BEFORE we decided where we wanted to go!!!!!Thanks!

Airlink bus #748 goes directly from the airport to Heuston station. From there you can take a train to Tralee. Use the Journey Planner on the Irish Rail site to get timetables. Take a bus from Tralee to Dingle. Use the Journey Planner on the Bus Eireann site to get timetables.

The Ryanair site is down at the moment so I can't check on flights from Dublin to Kerry.

We drove from Dublin to Ventry last September....but...we had three and a half weeks! Not sure how long it will take in one go. Roads are narrow. Do not expect to average more than 30mph. You will love Ventry. A small village with really friendly Irish speaking people. They do speak English too! The beach is great, but I would not plan on swimming - it was cold in September and I do not think it gets much warmer. Say "Hi" to Jim in the post office. We rented a cottage from him for a week.

Lisa,

I would call your airline just to check into how expensive it would be to switch to Shannon. If it's not too expensive, it really would be FAR easier than heading their straight from Dublin.

I wouldn't drive yourself. Adjusting to driving in Ireland is interesting enough without adding in jet lag from an overnight flight.

Viamichelin shows it as a 4 hr 27 min drive, but you should probably add some time for stops and slower parts of the drive. Much of it is on major highways (like our interstates), so it will be easy driving. You can get exact driving directions at www.viamichelin.com. I agree, though, it would be so much easier (and save so much time) if you could fly in to Shannon instead. Think of the (expensive) gas you would save, too.

Lisa,
Try the Emlagh Lodge in Dingle. www.emlaghlodge.com
Beautiful location and excellent B & B. We wrote to Rick to have this B & B put in his 2010 edition.

Sorry, Nancy, but most of the road is not "like our interstates". There are some stretches of Motorway in Ireland, but these are short and mainly around Dublin and between Dublin and Belfast, not going west. The roads are narrow and twisting - even those marked on maps as "main" roads. I would not discourage people form driving, but not straight off the plane, and do allow plenty time. You will be on the opposite side of the road, many of which have no centre line and meeting a tour bus on some of these roads is an interesting experience!

I didn't say "most", I said "much". Quite a bit of that drive is N highways, on which you can make better time before getting onto the smaller roads. Those are the roads I was referring to as being like our interstates. They are well-marked, and many of them are very new. I've driven "straight off the plane" several times with no problem, so it can be done.

"N" roads are better than the narrow twisting roads of most of Ireland, but to compare them to Interstates is a stretch. Irish "N" roads are not like those in France. They are mostly two lane (one in each direction) with no median but generally well paved - though not always.

You're right -- in general, N highways are more like our US highways. But that's still a far cry from the way you described the drive ("The roads are narrow and twisting - even those marked on maps as "main" roads). I have driven on N roads several times over the years and have never encountered one that was not well paved. Ireland's joining the EU resulted in tremendous improvements to their infrastructure.