Hostels/B&B's in Dublin, Cork, and Galway

If you have not already booked airfare, I would suggest you fly open jaw (into Dublin and out of Shannon - or vice versa). It could be well worth the extra airfare to avoid backtracking.

Many people choose to rent cars for their stay, but it is easy to get between your 3 cities via train or bus. If you base in the cities, you can take small group day tours to the sights in the countryside and not have to move around so much (i.e., from Galway, you could take a day tour to Aran Islands, Cliffs of Mohrer, the Burren, Connemara, etc) . With 10 days, you have approximately 3 days in each city with plenty of time for tours or you could rent a car for a day and make your own tour.

Read reviews of hostels online at places like hostelworld.com and pretty much any B&B in the RS Ireland guide is a safe bet for being clean and well located.

Thank you for the advice!

Any other recommendations out there?

I would recommend renting a car out of Dublin airport. My husband and I did this for honeymoon last June and had no problems ($300 US for a wk.) The roads and signage were excellent and armed with a good map, we found driving to very enjoyable.

As for accomodations...in Galway we stayed at the Balcony House B&B (Rick's listing), but were not terribly impressed (poor value for the money). In Cork, we enjoyed the town of Kinsale. We stayed at the Old Bakery B&B (35 euros pp). I'm not sure if it was their normal crowd, but when we were there the place was filled with couples in their mid-20s to 30s.

If you want to see the countryside, I would recommend Dingle(covered widely in Rick's book). You can't beat the scenary and it's in between Galway and Cork. We are in our mid-20s and really enjoyed the pub scene in Dingle Town.

We followed an itenerary similar to yours and flew in & out of Dublin...Dublin to Galway only 3 hrs by car, Cork to Dublin about 4 1/2. Good Luck!

Thanks!

So as a follow up question, would we need to have a car while we were staying in the cities (for example, the B&B you recommended in Cork)? Or could we rent the car just for the day that we travel? Did you have to buy outside car insurance? I was told once that your car insurance policy on your vehicle covered rental cars.

Lastly, was there a B&B or hostel in Galway that you would recommend, since you weren't very impressed with the one you stayed at.

Especially not in Ireland. Don't trust your credit card's insurance, either.

Try the Four Seasons B&B in Galway on College Road. Price is good, very clean, less than 10 minute walk from B&B to Eyre Square/Train/Bus Station. Easy walk to lots of shops, pubs and restaurants.

For Dublin I would highly recommend the Harrington House Hostel located on Harrington St. It is a clean, nice, quiet, yet conveniently located hostel which will not empty out your pockets. They serve a basic yet decent continental breakfast, staff is friendly, and there is a bus stop across the street for easy access to sites a bit farthur afield i.e. Kilmainham Gaol.

As for Cork, all I can say is DON'T stay at Sheila's. It is a typical hostel and while my experience was okay, given the choice I would not stay there again. I've heard the Aaran Tourist Hostel is a nice place and they have a resident dog, Reilly!

As for the best way to travel between those cities, the bus is nice because you get to see the countryside but the train is by far faster.

Have fun!