Visiting Ireland for the first time

[Irishroots]

Hello, we have never been outside of the UK as a family and I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland. We would fly from Manchester and be reliant on trains to get around. My children are 16 and 10 but realistically this would be next year so 17 and 11. We love castles and beaches and exploring somewhere new.

I’d be very grateful of any ideas and advice for a week’s holiday in the spring or summer.

Any idea where in Ireland you plan to come to? I mean we are the literal kings and queens of castles here we have an abundance of them and as an island we have one great big long coast all around. It really depends where you want to go and what you want to do being honest. Ireland is not as small as people think :)

Do you not own a car?
If you do it would be better to take the ferry and drive some of the wild Atlantic way on the west coast.

Having never been before I have no idea. I’m open to ideas. I wish I’d asked my grandad where he was from because I’d have loved to visit there.
I don’t drive, no, so we’d fly over then use trains. I know it’s a big place with lots to explore and I’m open to going anywhere a train will take us. I shamefully know nothing of Ireland beyond beautiful pictures so I’m happy to hear suggestions of where people recommend.

These might be helpful:
https://irelandwide.com/traveling-ireland-by-train/
https://www.ireland.com/en/a-sites/plan-your-trip/travel/travel-by-train/
https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/travel-information/visiting-ireland/explore-ireland-by-train
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-ireland.htm

Trains will take you to Kilkenny, Sligo, Galway, Cork, Athlone, and all around Dublin (which has some lovely beaches). Local buses (coach type) will take you beyond those places

The St Kevin's bus service will take you from Dublin to Glendalough in the Wicklow mountains for some fab hiking and touring ancient monastic remains.

You can also get to Tralee and Killarney by train. You can get local bus services to scenic areas and there are also day trips by private coach companies from bigger towns and cities.
The most scenic areas are all along the west coast and there are castles dotted all over the country.

That sounds wonderful, thank you! Dd wants to go to Italy but ds is scared of planes (never been in one) so Ireland seemed perfect. Dd thinks it’s not different enough to the UK to count as a different country so I’m keen to show her otherwise. She can go to Italy when she’s paying for it.
I think I’ll spend today looking at Irish castles and daydreaming 🥰

Since you seem to be mad about castles, here are a few ideas to whet your appetite. I can recommend Malahide Castle and grounds and it's very easy to get to from Dublin on the DART commuter train. It's by the sea also and it's a very pretty village with lovely pubs and restaurants.

https://www.visitdublin.com/guides/castles

More castles around the country.

https://www.tripadvisor.ie/Attractions-g186591-Activities-c47-t6-Ireland.html

Getting around is easy enough once you have selected A-B. Try Bus Eireann.ie and Irish Rail.ie. There is also a Local Link bus service for out of the way places that connect the smaller villages and towns. LocalLink.ie. See also the Transport for Ireland website. TFI.ie

You could also fly into Belfast, get the train to carrickfergus (castle) and trains also go to Derry, portrush etc. there are day trips you can book from Belfast that take you up the Antrim coast (giants causeway, carrick a rede bridge).
you could then get the train to Dublin, generally quite reasonable. I paid £16 a few weeks back one way to Dublin.

You’ll need to use buses as well as trains to get to many beaches. Are you flying into Dublin or one of the other airports?
You can get a train to Galway on the west coast. Another option is to get the train to Kerry (it’s the Dublin-Cork train, you change at Mallow to the Kerry train). That will bring you to Killarney (famous for its lakes and there is also Muckross House and Ross Castle, a ruin) or Tralee. You can get buses to see the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle peninsula. The aquarium in Dingle is well worth a visit, especially for the 11 year old. Parts of the Dingle peninsula and Co Galway (Connemara) are Gaeltacht areas where Irish is the first language so that’s a bit different for DD maybe. Everyone speaks English too though. There are loads of beaches in both areas, but tbh many are most easily accessible by car, not by train or even bus. You have a good while to plan things carefully though, taking accessibility into account.

Wishing you and your family a lovely holiday.

If you have a child scared of flying, wouldnt it be kinder to go by ferry?

And Limerick! We always get forgotten and we have a lovely castle 😀

kingjohnscastle.ie

Can’t go from Limerick to Galway by train though (well, not directly) and that’s a shame.

I know Superger it’s so annoying. So close together and takes ages. There is a train but it stops in loads of places

Although looking now appears there is a direct train from Limerick to Galway - well Irish direct anyway. Just 7 stops! Takes two hours.

Knowing ds he’d be absolutely fine and actually love flying. He wants to go to Billund in Denmark to the Legoland there so he’s said he’d do that. I think one flight and he’d be grand. He gets into a tizz about all sorts but is fine when it comes down to it.

Actually I’m well out of date! For a long time to get by train from Limerick to Galway you had to go via Athlone or somewhere mad. Just googled and the train line between them closed in 1976 but was reopened in 2010. I travel more by car these days 🫣

It’s still a bit mad that the journey takes about two hours though. It takes about two and a half to go Cork - Dublin which is well over double the distance.

I recommend Galway. You can get a Citylink Bus directly from outside the airport to the city centre in 2.5 hours (or three 🧐 but they leave almost every hour) then the city (big town really) is walkable with a seaside prom and beach also within walking distance. There is lots of history there and you can do trips to the Aran Islands, Connemara and other places from there.

I feel duty bound to make a case for Sligo as you can get a train there and could spend a lovely few days there using the beaches, trying out surfing, hiking, sea weed baths, pier jumping, sauna and dip, kayakjng, etc. Local bus services to places like Strandhill, Enniscrone, Rosses Point etc are not bad. It's not coming down with castles but there are a few and some very interesting neolithic sites like Carrowmore Tombs, etc. An alternative would be Westport in Mayo as a base, also on the train line, a brilliant town in itself and a great jumping off point for lots of activities, the coastline, etc. If castles are your number one goal, they tend to be clustered in the traditionally wealthier/better land parts of the country and not necessarily the Western coastal counties which are the most dramatic and beautiful. Whatever you decide, have a wonderful time

It all sounds amazing! I’m going to reread my grandad’s book and see if there’s anything in there about where the family is from. The name is associated with County Longford according to Google.

Bunratty Castle is probably the most famous castle and is a big tourist attraction.
Killarney has Ross Castle which is walkable from the town centre or you could hire a jarvey which your DC should enjoy. Though not a castle, Muckross House, and Gardens are in the National Park in Killarney and you can hire bicycles and cycle to the park from the town. You can also get coach tours for the Ring of Kerry and the stunning Slea Head drive.

If flying is problematic there is also the option to rail & sail - train to Holyhead & either Stena or Irish Ferries to Dublin Port. There is a regular bus from the port terminals to the city & Connolly Station (trains to north / north west / south east) & Heuston Station (trains west & south).
I would recommend pre-purchasing a travel card (leap card) for use in all major towns/cities local buses (also trains & trams in Dublin) don’t get the tourist one, get the regular one (www.leapcard.ie). You can get an app on your phone to Top-Up the travel credit.
Remember if you’re flying & you are travelling Ryanair then you’ll all need passports, Aerlingus will accept an official photo id.
Wherever you decide to go will be great. Dublin has some lovely costal villages (eg Howth or Dalkey). Galway is a favourite of mine, also Kilkenny & Waterford. Lots of lovely places to visit in Kerry & Cork. For some historic sits look at Newgrange & Glendalough (both would be a bus trip from Dublin).
Finally the Irish Census for 1911 & 1901 are freely available to search if you want to try & trace your family connections.

Getting into Dublin do Guinness and Christchurch night 1.
Drive 1 hour north to drogheda and stay, see newgrange and Oliver plunkett.
Stop 30 minutes north next day in Ardee for the jumping church. Drive 2 hours to antrim for the giants causeway, and 30 mins to stay in Belfast - great night out and Titanic museum.
One more day would get you over to galway, amazing evening and the wild Atlantic way. Another night down to limerick or Kerry.
Cork is a must, fly home or ferry from rosslare.

You've had lots of great suggestions for Ireland I just wanted to flag that if you see a great deal with Ryanair for Pisa or Naples in Italy both airports have exceedingly cheap and short train connections onwards to Florence and Sorrento/Amalfi coast [tram/light rail] so you could also look at cheap deals on weekends or mid week to do 3 days in those locations and give your daughter a brief taste of Italy too.

Re Ireland - how long are you planning to visit for and do you want a day or two downtime too?