How Slow is Slow in Ireland

Nancy,

I can understand your frustration. While it is impossible to say exactly how long your drives may take, let me take a shot and giving you a general idea.

I would say you should estimate about 50% longer drive times than what viamichelin says. I drove throughout Ireland for two weeks last May, and that was our typical drive time.

The important thing is to leave early enough that you can make the trip you want to make and stop where you want to along the way without rushing. So, rather than leaving with exactly enough time to make your drive, I would leave a good deal earlier so that your trip won't be ruined if it takes longer.

So, specifically for Dublin to Limerick, I would leave at least 3.5 hours before you'd like to arrive. If I wanted to stop along the way, I'd leave earlier. The time of day may make a difference, but I don't know how much. If you arrive during rush hour traffic, it will clearly take a little longer.

I hope that helps. If not, post again and we'll take another shot at it.

Best of luck.

Thanks, Michael! I think Viamichelin needs to make their driving times more realistic if they are as far off as that. Seriously though, do folks just drive slower than the posted speed limits or what? I'm also wondering what is wrong with leaving Dublin around 9:00am and getting to your final destination around 6:00pm with a total of between 4 and 6 hours of actual driving time. The impression I get on here is that driving any more than a total of 3 hours is insane. Heck, last year in Italy I drove from Verona to Florence and back in the same day (and no ZTL tickets, either!) and while I would have enjoyed more time in Florence, it wasn't that big of a deal. Yes, we spent over 5 hours on the road, but it was pretty and interesting.

Nancy - re: wanting to know the "why" of "why driving in Ireland is slow" - I can give you my take. For background, we have done all of our family Europe trips as driving trips and yes, we found Ireland to be the slowest going. Part of it was the roads that we wanted to take to get to the places we wanted to see (i.e. Rock of Cashel, Dingle) were NOT what I would call US Freeways. I'm from LA and I see you're from Texas. You won't find the big freeways that go absolutely straight for miles. Main roads were often more twisty than I'm used to. I'm also the navigator and am VERY good with maps, signs, etc. We got lost the first day, actually having to get out of the car to look at the signs along the road. And when we actually planned to do the "slow drive" - i.e. Ring of Berea, we still did not add in enough time to prevent us from getting to our B&B much later than I planned. Then there are the narrow roads that you have to navigate by pulling over when another vehicle approaches, stopping to put your hubcap back on when it scrapes the side of the rock wall, etc. Having said that, some of the viamichelin times were better than others, such as the drive from Ennis to Shannon airport - VERY quick, very easy, we arrived with time to spare. But that was the exception - in Ireland.

I like the "add 50%" suggestion. If you see that you are making better time than you need to, you will find it very easy to stop and see something wonderful.

It really can't be compared to the US X 1.5

It really depends on from where to where. In some parts it you may average 36 MPH, while on other cases 55 MPH. Both on a 60MPH road.

Ireland reminds me a bit like Hawaii. Outside of the city, if you're rushing, you're the only one that is.

Our rule was to leave early after a good AM meal and not worry about it. 1PM was lunch and Guiness no matter where we were, and we were never in a rush to get back into the car. I always cringe when I see travelers trying to pack a 2 week trip into 8 days. The one time we were rushing, we didn't enjoy the day, so we slowed down. Take your time, savor the people and places and if you don't get to it all, do it next time.

Karen,

Thanks! Although I live in Texas, I have driven in a lot of other states (having lived in Arizona, California and Colorado just to name a few). I actually did the drive from LA to SF via the PCH. I also used to live 11 miles up into the foothills of Colorado at 10,000 feet. Just to get to the grocery store I had to do 10 miles of twisting mountain road in all weather and another 15 to get to the nearest store in town. And here in Texas, I've been stuck behind slow moving tractors on narrow, hilly roads plenty of times so I know what that is like. Most people spend their time driving only on the main roads. I love taking off down the country roads just to see what is there and many of them are just as you describe the Irish roads--narrow and twisty.

Steve,

I'm not interested in rushing, just curious why it is so abhorrent to people to plan spending a day to drive what would be a 4 hour drive here. I understand that it will likely take 10 hours there, but what is wrong with that? Leave at 8:30 am and figure on getting to your final destination in time for dinner at 7:00. Oh, and I am not talking about doing this the day I land in Europe, either. I am talking about after having a couple of days in London and a couple of days in Dublin.

It has been a while since I drove in Ireland butyes it seems to take ages to get anywhere! You see a sign that says 20 miles to the next town and an hour later you are still not there!!! Narrow 2 lane roads that wind and wind so you cannot get any speed. Farm vehicles, sheep,. etc. on the roads holding you up.(of course I had that problem in Scotland as well). You cannot think in American terms while driving there. But you cannot get anywhere very quickly. I drove from the Ring of Kerry to Limerick to make a flight home and thought I would miss it...just barely made it and it was in the days of no super security.

Just start early as everyone has already said and leave your American driving mentality at home!! It
really is nice (if you are not rushing to make a flight!!!)

I have a great book to recommend that is not about driving but it will will give you a good feeling about touring in Ireland and is wuite enjoyable.
It is by Eric Newby, a wonderful English writer, now
deceased, and the title is something like Round Ireland by Bicycle...check Amazon for exact title.

I always add 20-25% to the ViaMichelin estimates. You can never outguess the sheep! And you'll want to stop for breaks or photos along the way. The main reason that it is slower is that the roads are seldom straight. They can be narrow in places or hilly, and can wind around a lot even if they look straight on the map. In some places you will find stone walls on either side of the road, which don't allow you any leeway in getting over. You can occasionally get stuck behind a farm vehicle or a large truck but they generally will motion you around (or pull over to let you by) if it is safe to do so. And if you are unaccustomed to driving on the left, you'll go slower because of that, too. If ViaMichelin says the drive is 2.5 hours, I'd figure 3.25 hrs if you don't have any major problems.

Having driven in Ireland a couple of times, my thoughts:- There is no way known we would drive at the designated speed limit on most of the secondary roads. On 60kmh roads we would average 50-55 kmh. We would invariably drive well below the speed limit, because of the unsafe nature of the roads. As Aussies we are well used to clocking up to 600-700 kilometres per day. In Ireland 200-250 kilometres per day was as much as we could manage.

Hi Nancy, if you're driving "freeway" expect times to be similar to times in the US. However, the 100kph speed limit in Ireland is ridiculous. At most you can do it for a few miles.

We actually had fun taking pictures of 100kph signs in the most ridiculous locations, like in the middle of 90 degree turns, and roads a volkswagen wouldn't fit down.

Time of day around Dublin does make a difference: like any big city, its traffic-y around rush hour times. Best to avoid if you can, but overall not horrible.

PS - It's not so much seep in the road, as crazy roads that should never have that high of a speed limit.

Have to chime in here also to comment on how slow the going was in Ireland compared to other places we have traveled by car in Europe. Adding 50% to the estimated driving times may be a little too much, but certainly 25% to 35% isn't. Our biggest problem was the interesting ruins that didn't show up on our list of things to see that we were constantly stopping to look at. We laugh now about the "20 minute rule" that we applied to Ireland......every 20 minutes we would see something that really piqued our interest that we wanted to stop and look at. After awhile, we had to stop doing that as we were getting really behind on our itinerary and ended up missing a couple of the lesser things we had wanted to see.

Thanks for all of the input! One thing that I found really helpful was Judy giving a concrete example of the difference in the amount of driving she can manage in Ireland vs. Australia. Considering they also drive on the left, she doesn't have as much strangeness to contend with as we will.

Thanks again everyone!

Is it reasonable to plan on leaving Cork (the city) mid-day and driving to Dun Laoghaire with one overnight stop? We want to take the route that allows us to see Cahir and the Rock of Cashel. Getting to Dun Laoghaire by late afternoon-early evening is what we were thinking.

Nancy, With your experiences driving, I think you will be fine in Ireland. It's a very pretty country and you're always running into a neat old ruin or a beautiful scenery, so a day of driving with lots of stopping can be a lot of fun. It all depends on if you are in a hurry (it sounds like you won't be) and your tolerance for driving (it sounds like you'll be fine). It's just important to know what to expect. I found the very narrow winding roads to be stressful because you never knew what you were going to come face to face with around the bend. An old man on a bike, a bunch of sheep, a huge tour bus. I find that stressful. Not to mention driving on the other side of the road. I suspect you'll be fine as long as you have a reasonable expectation of how long it will take. Have a great trip!