West coast of Ireland on a low budget

[Quietlysnacking]

Me and me and teenage DS would love to visit Ireland ( West coast) and I’m just wondering if it will be possible to do on a budget in the summer holidays? We are in the Highlands of Scotland and love the scenery up here. His school breaks up here on 29th of June so looking at going for a week from then. We would like to drive around and stay in some different budget places if that would be better than staying in the same place for a week?

Im also trying to work out if flying to Cork
or Shannon from Edinburgh would be cheaper and then hiring a car over there or taking the ferry and my own car!

Has anyone got any tips or ideas about accommodation to help me plan this please?

Thanks

I can’t really help with accommodation as we’ve only done AirBnB in a specific location (visiting family) but I would cost up both ferry and car hire/flight options. The ferries from Holyhead seem to have increased a lot but that might not apply to your routes.

We were travelling from England last year and chose flight/car hire for speed purposes, but the ferry would have been cheaper. However, this year, once allowing for overnight stops on the way, it would have been the same cost for the dates I looked at.

Fly to ireland west and hire a car. Straight away you are between mayo and Galway.
Stay in hostels there really are some fab ones BUT the ones in Galway city are pricey.Theres a new one in Ballina called the heyday hostel which is North Mayo but from there you could do sligo and North Mayo. Then onto Galway/ clare etc. I mean hostels with a bedroom for just yourselves. We booked a hotel in galway for August . Omg I had to literally close my eyes booking it soo exp

Thanks @CatStoleMyChocolate. I’ve just had a look at flights and they are £300 return for both of us and thankfully don’t need an overnight hotel in Edinburgh. I will price the ferry to Belfast also, and then need to factor in travelling / overnight stay to get to the South West coast. It feels a bit overwhelming to organise now!

I think air b&b’s will be out of our budget unfortunately if it’s going to be €1000 for the week.

Thanks @Radyward . Looks like the Heyday hostel is fully booked for the summer. I’ve maybe just left it all a bit late this year.

Check out Ceide glamping . Things like that. Omg air b nb is so exp now too in mayo/ galway gone ridiculous!!
B and B s too. Some pubs do accommodation. We stayed in a supercheap pub in Cong a few yrs ago after being at a wedding in Ashford Castle.

Ceide Glamping only accept 7 nights minimum unfortunately and are booked up from our dates! I appreciate your suggestions though!

Our area is so expensive for tourists too. I feel for people trying to have a holiday on a budget.

I know it's very expensive there but very lovely. Could you base yourself in Westport? Westport House does camping . There is also An file wedtport which my kids have stayed in and loved. Mc carthys pub has apartments which are pretty reasonable
Mayo coastal cottages also offer some nice accommodation. At better prices than air b and b And I have stayed in apparments at The Helm pub which are adequate.

Also Castlebar is an ok town easy access to north mayo and Westport with beaches scenery etc?
I know the area v well and am happy to answer any questions

Ferry will cost more than flights, though possibly not more than flights and car hire. Though you'd have to factor extra petrol in too if you get the ferry.

We also found it very expensive, @Quietlysnacking - we were staying in a small coastal town in Mayo to visit family so were restricted on location. The AirBnB for 5 nights was about £150 a night and one of the cheaper options. This year, some of them are closer to £200! On the plus side, the town we were in did have an Aldi. 😊

Unfortunately for you, Scotland schools are closed the same time as Eire so its the expensive time, plus you have the exchange rate to contend with :(

Ferries will cost the best part of £400 Cairnryan to larne return with car :( You might look at flying Belfast International for the cheapest flights ( Im doing BFS to EDN for £38 return )

I know you are looking at Eire, but have you even thought about Northern Ireland?

We have the lot here, the mountains, the beaches, the culture , the history, the friendliness, plus holidays up here start the 12th so you would just about scrape in with cheaper prices

Come up to the NW coast and its a spit to Donegal

Im next to the Causeway and its 2.5 hrs to Dublin in the car

I’m from the west coast, it’s so gorgeous and very easy to navigate using the Wild Atlantic Way. To be honest, £1000 will be tight. You’ll need to bring picnics and be conscious of which activities you choose. Also 1 week on the west coast will result in a LOT of driving and not a lot of stopping. The roads are mainly narrow and winding so what looks short on a map will take 3-4 hours.

I think you should look into basing yourself somewhere and travelling from there. Mayo/Galway/Connemara/Clare are very different to Limerick/Kerry/Cork.

We went to switzerland on hols last summer. Omg the price of hotels. I basically spent hrs on google maps and found a little apt within our budget. Finding somewhere reasonable will involve that anount of research. . Everywhere to go on hols now is exp. We cooked in a few nights and went out for desserts. . The loft in Ballina does rooms as well . Lovely lads run it and its reasonable . There has to be places like that in lots of towns. Killala has pubs with rooms and stand up paddleboarding at the quay iykwim

If you're driving, stay in a small guest house or B&B a bit out of a town. Some can be very very cheap.

What about looking into a house swap? You mentioned you are in a tourist area?

What about looking into a house swap? You mentioned you are in a tourist area?

Doing this means you are stuck in the same village or town. Even if driving, all the best parts of the west coast are really spread out. To get the best of the Wild Atlantic Way, you need to stay in different places as you work your way up or down.

Thank you so much everyone for your helpful replies 😊. I didn’t expect such a response.

In my dream world, we would go for 3 weeks and explore all of the west coast staying in nice accommodation but unfortunately our budget won’t allow. We are quite good at budgeting and taking packed lunches when we have been away and previously. I would like to be able to take DS to see some of Ireland. There just seems to be so many lovely places to visit so it’s really hard to decide. We are used to driving in narrow winding roads up here so that isn’t an issue.

My DS loves the historical stuff and likes nothing more than an old ruin compared to big country houses.

Just looking at total costs and so far it is probably going not going to be achievable this year with most accommodation booked up already.
£300 flights
£700 accommodation
£500 spending money/food
£200 car hire. ( just a guess maybe a lot more!)
£150 fuel.

• Fuel to get to Edinburgh and airport parking. The downside for living in the Highlands!

I will have a look at Northern Ireland to see if that might be cheaper.

Hopeful of a lottery win one day!

Thanks again. I really appreciate all your help.

I would increase accommodation and hire car budget by probably 50%. Any breaks I've had in recent years the costs have been twice pre pandemic rates. A lot of hostels are block booked by schools, language schools etc as they no longer can justify hotels. Hotels are currently Hosting asylum seekers and that means any family functions e.g. weddings are concentrated in less venues hence the lack of availability.

There are advertising of a car for a week but when you add in Insurance and look at the car, e.g. an Aygo it may be worth putting a bit more towards it.

OP it would be so much cheaper if you could find an area of similar interest to you and your son in Wales or England. It's the getting-over-the-water costs that add so much to the holiday. I have to do it for family, but goodness the price stings!

I rather doubt she's looking at Eire as eire is the Irish word for burden.

If you are speaking English, you should call the country Ireland or, if you prefer, Republic of Ireland. If you are speaking Irish, the name of the country is Éire.

OP - it is a fabulous part of the country but unfortunately you are going in peak season. The primary schools are off for July and August so you have Irish holiday makers as well as foreign tourists.

Maybe if you look at less touristy areas you might have better luck. Donegal in particular is very underrated. It's an amazing county. Parts of Clare are also cheaper.

Westport is insanely expensive at the best of times but castlebar is less so and is a nice spot and close to lots of good stuff. Galway city and Cliffden are ridiculous but a smaller town that is within reasonable distance of the the city.

Our home is not really show home standard and I’m not sure how I would feel about house swapping!

The £700 for accommodation would not be affordable to me anyway and would probably have to put some on my credit card. Even hiring a campervan is just as expensive! Looks like Ireland is not going to be an option now unfortunately. I need to plan/ save better for next year!

We have been to a few different places in England before. I just think the West coast of Ireland would be somewhere as pretty as up here and it would be amazing to explore some of it.

Hopefully this thread will be helpful to others as there have been some great suggestions.

Northern Ireland has lots to offer, Ive been here 18 years and Im still discovering so much more

For a week, two days in Belfast and then work your way up the causeway coast road. I say two days as seriously the Titanic experience is half a day at least Or use your first and last if travelling in and out from there

Take the coast road out and straight away you are in Carrickfergus and your first castle and it just gets better and better as you go along all the way to Derry/Londonderry and the walled city

You can drive directly to Derry/Londonderry in 90 mins from Belfast

If its cheaper to go into Larne, thats only 20 mins outside of Belfast

I use my Tesco club card vouchers for the Ferry

Belfast is expensive but theres still loads of cheap eateries

Im up at the NW coast and prices arent so bad. Air BnB can be as little as £60 a night and B&B not much dearer. Petrol is about £1.35 A breakfast is around £7 and dinner can be as little as £17 for two courses

Driving is easy, our motorways are only 2 lanes, car parking is very cheap unless its National Trust, and it being such a small country it doesn't take long to get from A to B :)

@OchonAgusOchonOh If someone is typing on a keyboard and doesn't know how to get accents, or even that Eire has an accent, Eire seems perfectly acceptable and understandable.

I know a great air b and b in Donegal

www.airbnb.ie/rooms/37417690

Thank you so much for the language lesson and please do forgive me for missing out the fada on the E , I couldn't be bothered to find it on the keyboard and Im sure the OP knew what I meant

Hope the rest of your day is better for you