Transportation from Dublin to Shannon

You should receive instructions on how to get to your first hotel. You can always check with the Rick Steves tour office ahead of time and the tour guide on the RS tours we have taken has always been extremely helpful arranging travel to the train station, airport, etc., at the end of the tour.

Hello, you may have figured this out already, but I wanted to give you a few ideas based on our own experience on (and research prior to) the “Rick Steves 7 day Best of Ireland Tour”, which we took in late Sept-early Oct this year (2025).

The first hotel is in Ennis, not far from the Shannon Airport. If you do fly into Shannon and go straight to Ennis, a good place to start is https://www.shannonairport.ie/bus .

But it sounds like you are planning to fly into Dublin (like we did). Good news, you have a number of options, so you will have some decisions to make.

One option: go by train to Ennis. You mention you are not familiar with Irish Rail or its stations. I found this link helpful, it is Irish Rail’s map of routes and stations served: https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/travel-information/station-and-route-maps/ireland-rail-map . You can see on this map that you will need to change trains to get from Dublin to Ennis. From that link you can also check schedules or book tickets.

If you are taking the train, you need to get from Dublin Airport to a train station downtown (for Ennis, you will want Heuston Station). Here is a link to info about a bus from Dublin Airport to the train station: https://www.dublinairport.com/to-from-the-airport/by-bus/all-ireland-bus-routes . (Or, take a taxi from Dublin Airport to Heuston Station, that should run about 45 euros. )

Another option: you can take a direct bus from Dublin Airport to your destination (Ennis), the airport bus link also lists those bus services.

The good news, whether you arrive in Ennis via train or bus, the stations are right next to each other, so directions from there to the hotel will be identical. We arrived by train and it was an easy 10 minute walk to the first hotel (in our case, the Old Ground Hotel).

What we did was spend about a week in Ireland before starting the trip: we stayed in Dublin for 2 nights (so we could get Mary Gibbon’s Newgrange tour), then on by train to Athlone (easy one hour ride with no transfers) for 2 nights (to see Athlone Castle), then on by train to Limerick (a bit more challenging with one transfer) for 2 nights (to see King John’s Castle), then on the morning of the tour we went by train to Ennis (a very easy and short 40 minute ride with no transfers).

About half of the folks on our tour spent some time on the ground in Ireland before the tour; the other half flew in and came directly to Ennis. Personally I like to have a couple of easy days after landing, but that’s a personal perspective.

You also mentioned getting back to Dublin Airport at the end of the tour (which does end in Dubln): the link above for the airport bus will answer that question, or take a cab to the airport (we did that, it cost 45 euros).

Hope some of this helps and I hope you enjoy the tour as much as we did!

We flew into Shannon (taxi to Ennis) and out of Dublin. A multi-city ticket, about the same fare as roundtrip to either. That saves the time (a half day on each end) needed to go back and forth.