I will be taking my 2 daughters (17, 19) to Ireland in June. We were thinking of staying in Dublin and using it as a home base, making day trips by train to places we want to see (i.e. Cork, Kilarney, Dingle Peninsula,Limerick). Any thoughts, suggestions, etc??
Thanks
Patrick, Have you tried www.railtours.ie? I personally enjoyed the Giants Causeway tour. Click on tour details at the bottom of page for a list of all the tours.
Pat
Have you checked the timetables at www.irishrail.ie? If you took day trips from Dublin to Cork, Killarney, or Limerick, you would spend most of your time on the train and have very little time for sightseeing. And a day trip to the Dingle Peninsula would be impossible. First, you can only get as far as Tralee by train. From there you'd have to take either a bus or rental car to Dingle and you would literally have NO TIME for sightseeing.
After you've seen what you wish in Dublin, I suggest you rent a car and drive to the Southwest. Base yourselves in either Killarney (full of tour buses) or Kenmare (my preference) and take your day trips from either town.
If you can arrange to fly into Dublin and fly out of Shannon, you wouldn't have to backtrack to Dublin.
Daytrips to places like Cork and Dingle would be virtually impossible from Dublin. I agree with Tim, you'd have no time left. I also agree with driving the southern route and leaving from Shannon. It will be time much better spent. I know daytrips would look like they make sense on paper, but driving anywhere (or taking the train) takes SO much more time than you can imagine in Ireland - you can't judge accurately from just looking at the mileage involved. And train service is limited in the west. Ooh, and I vote for Kenmare as a base, too. Great B&Bs and lots fewer tourists than Killarney.
I stayed a few nights in Mallow (south of Limerick)one year. From there I took daytrips by train to Limerick, Cork, and Kilarney. From Dublin I think you could possibly day-trip to Galway, Limerick, or Belfast by train. The Dingle Peninsula deserves a couple of days on its own; it takes a while to get there, but it's worth it.
