Can anyone help me with a road trip plan for Ireland?

[FlowersInTheAir]

I am visiting Dublin next year for a concert (from England) with my DS who will be 11. I am off work for the week so I am thinking I might do a week/5 days in Ireland and make the most of it. I have been to Dublin before but a long time ago and not with a kid.

I have a had a look online at different road trip ideas but thought I’d ask here for recommendations. I was basically just thinking we could hire a car and visit a couple of nice places, stay the night in a b&b, explore the area for a day then head to Dublin to finish off with the concert.

has anyone done this and has any recommendations? I’ve looked at the ferry and it’s £400ish plus my car is electric so not sure how that would work which is why I thought hiring a car.

thanks 🇮🇪

Oh my lord I mean this year! Forgot it’s 2024

Hopefully bump

Hi @FlowersInTheAir if you repost this in the Craicnet section you'll get a lot more Irish traffic & loads of help! Have a great time in Ireland x

What time of year and what kinds of things do you like doing?
There's lots to do in Dublin and places nearby would include Wicklow, Wexford and Kilkenny.
The west of Ireland is beautiful, so you could zip over to Galway. With 4-5 days I think I would do one section of Ireland and do it well rather than trying to cover the whole country.

Car hire here is expensive and the charger network is pretty good so I’d double check the costs.
What time of year are you coming and what kind of stuff are you into? Nature? History? Mountain climbing?

You wouldn't even need to drive, you could go to and from Galway by train, stay in the city which has a good buzz for visitors, and do tourist trips from there to the Aran islands or the Burren, or Connemara, or the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar.

Or stay in Dublin, explore the city, and get bus trips to the Boyne passage graves (Newgrange etc) and to Glendalough in Wicklow.

If you do decide to bring your own ecar, here is a link to a map of the ecar charging points:
https://esb.ie/what-we-do/ecars/charge-point-map

Edited to add that Applegreen service stations have charging points. Also lots of hotels have parking spaces designated for ecars and so do many shopping centres.

Why do you think your car being electric might not be do able?

Dublin is just OK so I think you've made a good decision to make a longer trip of it!

Definitely try to do the West of Ireland. West Cork, Kerry, Galway... Pretty much anywhere along the Wild Atlantic Way. Beautiful scenery, fabulous food, just gorgeous! There's so much to see and do, it is best to pick one area probably. Personally, West Cork is the place of my dreams.

The charger network is OK, but there aren't that many super fast chargers, so they fill up pretty fast. It is doable, but still may be easier/less logistics to just hire a petrol/diesel car.

Dublin to Galway, Galway to Clare, Clare to Kilkenny, Kilkenny to Wexford and back to Dublin for ferry assuming you are coming into Dublin port and not rosslare.

Newgrange is amazing.

How about Northern Ireland too? Belfast, giants causeway ...

I would get out of Dublin asap and as other posters have said, zip over to Galway and travel down the Wild Atlantic Way through Clare, Kerry and West Cork (don't bother with Limerick).

If you hire a car at Dublin Airport, you could potentially drop it back off at Kerry Airport and fly back to Dublin and home again. It would save having to drive back to Dublin again and the flight are only about €20 each return. 2 flights daily between Kerry and Dublin. Kerry Airport also have regular flights to Luton, Stanstead and Manchester which might suit?

Sorry, that's should say €20 one way. Any luggage would be extra

In opposite directions, but I love the Cliffs of Moher (and the Burren) in the west and the Antrim Coast Road and the Glens of Antrim in the Northeast

Sorry I should have said it’s August we are visiting!

I haven’t actually got my electric car yet, it’s on so I’ve never used any chargers etc, I don’t do long trips by car normally so my plan with my car is to just charge it at home so I haven’t done much research on infrastructure (in England, Ireland or anywhere!) so just assumed it’d be an issue!

I never thought about using public transport. I think I have an idea in my mind of driving down the coastline, stopping at little villages for a wonder, listen to some music, explore with DS and end up in a blaze of glory at a Coldplay concert 😅

thanks for all of your ideas so far!

Ireland is £££££ in August. So you would need to rebook anywhere.

Public transport in Ireland is expensive and unreliable! For a few days trip I don't know if I'd rely on it. Agree with all the PP, get out of Dublin. Main road to Galway, you could stop in Athlone on the way for food and visit Irelands oldest pub! From Galway I personally would head Mayo, Sligo, Donegal direction, because the Clare, Cork, Kerry deserve far more than a few days! What are your interests? History? Buildings? Mountain climbing? Beaches? Give us some hints!

Have u somewhere booked for the concert? To stay?
Other than that tbh I'd skedaddle out Dublin.

What time of year are you going?

Outdoor plans would work in summer but maybe not in spring, autumn or winter.

Assuming summer, the train to Galway and boat to the Aran Islands would be nice for two or three days. If you wanted to extend your stay in the west, the Burren in Co Clare is fascinating, with many trails for hiking and iirc pony trekking too.

Day excursions based in Dublin - Glendalough, Howth Head cliff walk, Bray to Greystones cliff walk, Killiney Hill walk/climb are all accessible by Dart, or bus (Glendalough).

If it's warm, there are several nice beaches all reachable by Dart / bus on both the south and north sides.

You could also spend many happy hours in Dublin's museums.

There's also a Dublin Bay boat experience, Dalley Island visit, and pony trekking/ riding options that can be reached by bus or luas (tram).

Public transport works fine the vast majority of the time.

Public transport is fine.

Public transport really isn't great down the west coast of Ireland though, there's no rail network to speak of really

In the time you've got, I think Galway and the Wild Atlantic Way would be too much hard work. Go another time and do that and do it properly at your leisure, spend a couple of nights in different locations including Dingle. You could get a train from Dublin to Kilkenny, there's lots to see and do there and it's very different to Dublin. It's beautiful (I am biased!).

Take plenty of snacks. The quality of food we had travelling around Ireland was utterly utterly shite.

Well you really weren't eating in the right places then! As a food lover, Ireland is a haven for incredible culinary experiences