Ireland - looking for tips!

kintop

My fiancé and I are thinking of Ireland for our honeymoon. We are looking for tips on where to stay and what to do - any help on an itinerary would be appreciated. We are going the first week of June, 2015. Do we need to rent a car?

CMGragain

I would not recommend driving a car in rural Ireland.  Their roads are not what we in the USA/Canada are used to.  (Sheep, one lane roads etc.)  Their train system is excellent, and will take you to most places.  My husband and daughter bicycled around the Dingle peninsula with an organized tour some years ago, staying in bed and breakfasts along the way.  The best scenery is in the west of Ireland.

OliveOilsMom

I've been to Galway, Cork and Dublin.  They are all very different from each other! 

While in Galway, I took a tour of the smallest Aron Island.  It was great!  We rented bikes once the ferry dropped us off and rode all around the island.  The other two Islands are bigger and more touristy.  While I didn't stay there (I stayed with friends), the Galway Bay Hotel in the Salthill portion of Galway was beautiful!  We had drinks there before.  This one is alittle out of the town center.

I always used the bus system when going to Ireland.  While in the City Centre's you don't really need a car, it's mostly all walking.  And like the Aron Island tour,the tour company provides a bus to the ferry terminal.  On one trip to Ireland, my friend and I took a bus down to Cork, kissed the Blarney stone, then got on another bus and headed back towards Galway.  We did stay at a B&B for one night in Cork.

I really want to see the Cliff of Moher.  My H has never been to Ireland, so its on our list of places to go.  And I will not rent a car while there, its not needed.

JoanE2012

DH and I went to Ireland several years ago.  We started in Dublin and then rented a car and drove around clockwise.  We stopped in Cashel, Blarney Castle, Dingle Peninsula, Cliffs of Moher, Killarney, etc.  We LOVED the freedom renting a car gave us.  It was amazing to pull over at any time and admire the landscape, the sheep on the side of the road, etc.  We did not feel scared or uneasy driving. (We did pay extra to ensure we would have an automatic, not stick)  Now, I would NEVER drive in some other countries, such as Italy. But Ireland, no problem.  I understand driving may not be for everyone, but it was the right decision for us and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. 

OP - If you want our itinerary, PM me and I'll give you the names of the places we stayed at.  We loved them all.

LittlePeachBlossom

I love Ireland! June is a great time to go and daylight will be on your side. I definitely recommend renting a car as long as one of you is comfortable driving in general. There's a learning curve so I recommend only one person being the dedicated driver. I drove a standard car and it was pretty easy to shift with the left hand. If you go to their airline's website, they have great vacation packages in the Vacation Store. I started in Dublin, drove south to Kilkenny, Cork, Killarney, Limerick circling back to Dublin. I loved every single city-each one had it's own particular charm- and the entire drive around southern Ireland. Like PP, we loved the freedom of being able to come and go as we pleased. I'll also be happy to give you more info in PM. Let me know.

AerLingus

eta: click link above 

MsNise812

Ireland is one of the places on my bucket list to go. The Cliffs of Moher is a top destination I would go. Everyone who has been have told me its an amazing experience, and the pictures alone are breathtaking.

JoanE2012

MsNise812 said:

Ireland is one of the places on my bucket list to go. The Cliffs of Moher is a top destination I would go. Everyone who has been have told me its an amazing experience, and the pictures alone are breathtaking.

This was my favorite place in Ireland!

CheezayBoxGurl

ireland is amazing driving there is defiantly stressful but if you want to get the most out of your trip it is a must there are so many fabulous places to see and half of them aren't on tour routes!! MAKE SURE TO GET A GPS. I found ours off of ebay for half the price of renting one from the car company. Aran Islands are absolutely beautiful one of my favorite stops. I HIGHLY recommend staying in a castle one night. We stayed at ballyseede castle and upgraded to the honeymoon suite can I say claw foot bath tub overlooking the gardens and gorgeous mountains!!! If you're into breweries at all Gallway Brewery is a must! We defiantly got guinnessed out a couple days in. Kilarney and the ring of Kerry was our favorite, we did pay for a tour there the roads are a bit scary on the peninsula! As for places to stay we did B&B's the whole way except the castle and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maggie O's in Kilarney was by far our favorite!That being said it's a great place you'll enjoy it

dalm0m

Check out CIE tours.  They are partially owned by the gov't & offer good value. 

For us driving on the wrong side of the road plus Guinness = we did NOT rent a car.   

peachy13

Ireland is awesome! I went last year and we flew into Dublin. We took the Bus Éireann to Galway that same day (maybe an hour or so after our flight landed). We got to Galway and in walking distance was our hotel, The Park House Hotel which I could not recommend enough. Romantic hotel, great food, and amazing staff. There are also tons of B&Bs in the area as well. We had an awesome time in Galway... live music in bars every night and really good food. As a PP also mentioned, the Aran Islands are a must! We rented bikes for the day and it was probably the best day of the vacation.

We also took a train to Killarney and stayed there for a little bit and did the Ring of Kerry tour which was awesome. We took another train back to Dublin and spent a few nights there too before returning home. Dublin was fun but sooo touristy. I definitely recommend rural Ireland, so romantic and beautiful and the people are just so nice. Have fun!

simplyelise

My FI and I are going to Ireland for our honeymoon next month. We used this itinerary as a guide: http://www.tourireland.com/selfdrivetours/?category=2&tour=2&tab=itinerary We have a car reservation and we have our Dublin hotel reservation. Then we used IrelandB&B to reserve B&Bs along our route. It's been very easy to do. Got our tickets for a great price from Vayama. We're going to be getting international driver's licenses from AAA, but it's not strictly necessary for Ireland. We adjusted the above itinerary just a bit (added an extra day in Dublin on the front end and we're staying in Blarney one night instead of Cork City), but it was really helpful for us to plan out a basic day-to-day route. I also have purchased Lonely Planet Ireland which is my favorite guidebook brand. Goodluck!

schellzinator

We did a European tour for our honeymoon and spent five days in Ireland.  We did rent a car and it wasn't that stressful.  The only place that was stressful was in Cork - but that was because we were looking for a specific church and had been doing a LOT of country driving beforehand.  Definitely rent a GPS. Because we were renting a car in multiple countries - we just bought a GPS that worked in Europe then sold it on Ebay when we came home.  The nice part about the car was we were at our own leisure. For example, our plan was was to spend one night in Galway - but we were enjoying ourselves so much that we ended up being able to spend two.

nosietoes

As an Irish girl I would say if you can afford it, rent a car. The charm of the country tends to lie off the beaten path of the trains and busses are very slow and awkward a lot of the time. The west coast is gorgeous - Galway City is my favourite city but Westport in Mayo is a gorgeous town. The drive through Connamara between the two is breathtaking - it's like another world and it's well worth spending a night in Clifton as well. West Cork and county Kerry are lovely as well... I would probably skip Cork city, Blarney (it's a castle, with a rock, and a load of gift shops. There are nicer castles in Ireland.) and Limerick. There are some lovely seaside towns in Co. Clare - ballyvaughan and Doolin especially. And Dublin can be fantastic, and it would be a shame not to spend a couple of days in the capital...it's a city of over a million people so it's only the touristy spots like Temple Bar (which we avoid as inhabitants of the city) that are touristy.

loro929

I was just in Ireland in August. I stayed primarily in Dublin, which was fantastic, however, I did make an excursion to County Wicklow to visit some of the countryside. While I was there, I visited Glendalough which was really breathtaking and I think worth the trip. I travelled there in a bus from Dublin, and although, as some PPs have said, some of the roads were quite mountain-ish (i.e.narrow and curvy) I think if a giant tourist bus is able to maneuvre it - a smaller rental car can with no problem!