Public transportation in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Ireland can get you around somewhat on trains but to get to many of the sites you'll be in a bus. That bus can be either a public bus or one of the tours out of the larger cities. I know there are day tours out of Dublin and Galway but you'll need other input about other cities. Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) can be done pretty well with trains. A bus here and there will get you where the train doesn't go or do it more easily depending on where you are at. A trip that uses a lot of bus connections will be inherently slower than if you had a car but still very doable. With the length of your trip, you will actually have enough time to see a lot of sites. Whether you buy a GB rail pass or not will come down to how long you plan on staying in any one spot and whether you want to be spontaneous. Passes work best when you travel a lot and your schedule is flexible. If you can live with advance tickets, fares are greatly reduced.

Hello, Ellen! My husband and I are the same kind of traveler and we do so on all forms of public transit. Very enjoyable and relaxing way to go. Have never driven in Europe and we are in the same age bracket Just back from five weeks in Scotland and England....I did all my planning and (in some cases) purchasing using the web. One successful tool is the following: http://traveline.info/ Google a likeley phrase such as journey planner UK and many sites come up. Long distance busses in UK are terrific CityLink is one such company and we were even served a breakfast snack of a scone and tea or coffee between Glasgow and Edinbugh. I have many ideas, so pm me if you like.
Janet

In England and Scotland I also used a combination of trains and buses to reach places where the train didn't go; for example, a long-distance train from London to York/Scarborough in the North Yorkshire area, then a bus to the town of Pickering where we were staying to tour the moors. Also took the train from Inverness to Aberdeen, then a bus to visit a couple of inland castles. When we arrived in a town where I knew we'd need to catch a bus, I would go to the bus station/depot right away to get the schedules; this was especially useful to compare the weekday and Sunday schedules - we never knew what day it was because everyday seemed like a Sunday to us, being on vacation.

go to www. travelline for all time tables for busses trains etc. in england and northern ireland...... its just the best.! i use myself when visiting family in england. yrs sincerely
j. hansen

travel with trains etc. in england and northern ireland go to www. travellink. co. uk.

Hi Ellen, I just wanted to let you know that if you are thinking about going to the Cotswolds that the train only goes to Moreton-in-Marsh. Also, the buses doesn't go to a lot of the quaint beautiful villages.