Nocas

Hi everybody!

We are 3 young people going to Ireland for one week in September. We want to travel around by train or bus and I would like to have some opinions/suggestions on this itinerary.
30/08 - arrival in Dublin - sightseeing
31/08 - still Dublin
1/09 - train in the morning Dublin - Killarney - sightseeing
2/09 - Killarney - or spend the day in Kenmare?
3/09 - bus Killarney - Dingle - rent a bike?
4/09 - Dingle and at 4 p.m. catch the bus to Limerick
5/09 - 1 day tour to Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, The Burren - back to Dublin
6/09 - back to Portugal

What do you think? Any other place we can't miss?

Thank you in advance!

Padraig

I don't think Kenmare is a good idea if you are reliant of public transport. It's not a destination in itself, but rather a good place to overnight if you are fully in control of your itinerary as you would be if you hired a car. The road between Killarney and Kenmare is particularly beautiful, but how do you propose to travel?

In my opinion, Dingle is a better town for young people than either Kenmare or Killarney, so it might be worth fine-tuning a bit and making a bit more time for Dingle.

tayjamarie

Hello!

I'm not sure how young is young to you, but I went to Ireland last year for 2 months (I am 24) and here is my opinion. Of course, there are many other places to suggest, but you are only there a week so you certainly cant' see it all!

You could spend two days in Killarney if you wanted to do a tour of the Ring of Kerry for instance (leaving your other day in Killarney for the national park). Otherwise, I would also reccomend moving right on to Dingle as Kenmare is difficult without a car (at least I found it was) and Dingle is amazing - my favorite place in all of Ireland, with lots to do. It has approximately 52 pubs in a relatively small size town, which I found fun! Plus it is right on the ocean. Try to do a tour of slea head - either bike, car tour or make friends with someone with a car

Are you staying overnight in Limerick for any reason? I would not recommend Limerick personally. I didn't hear many good things about the town and drove through one day and I was happy I hadn't stayed. I'm also wondering about your day on the 5th. Are you planning on doing a tour of the cliffs, burren, doolin AND going back to Dublin all in the same day? Do you have a specific tour lined up for that? That will be a really, really long day either way.

It might be more fun to skip limerick and head to Galway. You could do a tour of the cliffs from there and/or burren. Plus Galway is a very young town with lots to do and would have easy trains/buses back to Dublin.

Let me know if you have any questions!

30/08 - arrival in Dublin - sightseeing
31/08 - still Dublin
1/09 - train in the morning Dublin - Killarney - sightseeing
2/09 - Killarney - or spend the day in Kenmare?
3/09 - bus Killarney - Dingle - rent a bike?
4/09 - Dingle and at 4 p.m. catch the bus to Limerick
5/09 - 1 day tour to Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, The Burren - back to Dublin
6/09 - back to Portugal

What do you think? Any other place we can't miss?

Thank you in advance!

GreenDragon

tayjmarie pretty much summed up my advice and my suggestions, so consider this a confirmation of those!

Nocas

Thank you for your suggestions!
Me and my brother are 24 and 25 and we're taking our 16 year old cousin.
So I think we'll stay 1 night in Killarney and then go to Dingle for 2 nights. I'm more excited to go and explore Dingle, rather than Killarney.
About the night in Limerick, I was planning on catching the last bus from Dingle, which arrives in Limerick at night. I'm planning to sleep here because the next morning there is a tour (www.cliffsofmohertours.ie) and they told me they can pick us up in Limerick and leave us in Dublin, which is good because we catch the flight home in Dublin the next day.
It isn't too much to go from Dingle to Galway and make a tour to the Cliffs of Moher? I would love to go to Galway but without a car I don't think we have enough time... How would you suggest we do? Sleep one night in Dingle and move up to Galway?

Thank you so much!

tayjamarie

Good morning,

Now that you have explained it, that does make sense then and that tour sounds like it would take you to everything you want to see. I would still pick Galway personally, only because I thought it was a great place for younger people. If you did want to do that, it is a fair bit of bus time though. For example, if you leave Dingle at 8:30 you can get to Tralee around 11:30, catch a bus to Limerick, and then to Galway and arrive at 2:45 (I just looked at the routes quickly, there could possibly be a faster one). Then you could have the rest of the day and night to explore Galway and take a tour of the Cliffs the next day (the burren I didn't think was all that great anyway, but I'm not sure what it looks like in September. To me it was just a whole lot of rock). There are buses that leave Galway to Dublin pretty much every hour, so you could leave as late as 8:30 and get to Dublin before midnight.

Either way, Ireland is amazing! Are you staying in hostels while you are travelling? Because I could give some recommendations.

jent103

I, too, would head straight to Dingle if you can. Neither Kenmare nor Killarney (especially not Killarney) have tons to see in the towns themselves - the main attraction is the surrounding area, and you'll need some sort of transport/tour to see it. So I really like the idea of going straight to Dingle, renting bikes and doing the Slea Head loop that way. That trip, especially on bike, seems like it would be a full day anyway, which you don't have in your original itinerary.

Funny how differently people feel about different places - the Burren is indeed a whole lot of rock, but there's sort of a sad beauty to it. I enjoyed driving through, myself, but I can see how others would not. I haven't been to Galway so can't comment on that choice.

If you do end up staying in Killarney, I stayed at the Killarney Railway Hostel near the train station. Perfectly pleased with it (we had a private twin room - not sure how the dorms are). However, you can also get b&bs for not much more money in Ireland, and those come with a usually good, filling breakfast.

Nocas

I thought of going to Killarney because it seems like a good stop between Dublin and Dingle. I was thinking of taking a horse riding tour to see the National Park, is it worth it? Spend the night in Killarney and the next morning straight to Dingle. 2 nights.
I will explore that option of Galway (I would prefer to go to Galway but I'm afraid it is a long long journey). Do you know of any tours to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren from Galway?
So far I have the first two nights booked in Dublin in the Four Courts Hostel. I'll accept recommendations to Killarney, Dingle and Limerick or Galway. How long before you think I should book?
THANK YOU EVERYONE

jent103

So your current itinerary looks like this, depending on your Galway plans?

30/08 - arrival in Dublin - sightseeing
31/08 - still Dublin
1/09 - train in the morning Dublin - Killarney - sightseeing
2/09 - bus to Dingle
3/09 - Dingle, bike Slea Head?
4/09 - bus to Limerick
5/09 - 1 day tour to Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, The Burren - back to Dublin
6/09 - back to Portugal

I can't help with either, but just to clarify - do you mean a tour on horseback, or a jaunting cart through the Gap of Dunloe or something? Horseback riding could be cool. The only part of the park I was able to see was the Gap of Dunloe and the three lakes, but it was beautiful.

As far as booking hostels, I'd just book as soon as you find something you like so you're sure you have it. Why wait?

TimS

You can leave Dingle by bus at 07:15, connect in Tralee and Limerick, and be in Galway at 13:45 which would give you most of the afternoon and a full evening in Galway. See the Journey Planner here: www.buseireann.ie. Bus Eireann offers day tours from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher and Doolin. You can pick from several departure times. See the Web site for details.

tayjamarie

I think I would still choose Galway, even with the longer bus routes just because I think you would enjoy it so much more than Limerick. There are tons of tours that leave out of Galway. I stayed at the Sleepzone Hostel there, and there are tours that leave right from the hostel (http://www.galwaytourcompany.com/gtc/daytours.jsp). I didn't take the Cliffs tour, but I did take the connemara tour and I liked it a lot. You can also just google tours out of Galway and you will find many. The Sleepzone hostel was quite nice, more like a hotel really.

In Killarney I stayed at the Railway Hostel as well and it was good. I stayed in a 4 person dorm ensuite and it was nice, nothing to complain about. It's also extremely close to the bus station which was helpful. In Dingle I stayed at the grapevine hostel for 8 nights actually, so I enjoyed it there obviously! It's pretty small but the owner was so friendly. Make sure not to book at the Rainbow hostel, only because it is out of town so not easy to get to and from the town without a car.

Nocas

About Killarney, I was thinking of a tour on horseback through the park but I don't know... have to research more... For one day do you suggest the Gap of Dunloe?

One question about the trip to Galway: do the buses run on time? In Tralee we have 25 minutes to connect and Limerick 20 minutes. Is it enough?
Almost convinced to go to Galway

jent103

I can't compare the Gap to other things in the park like the waterfall, since we only had one day and did the Gap hike (with Deros tours). But I really enjoyed it. One idea is to search for pictures on Flickr and see what jumps out at you.

tayjamarie

I didn't do the Gap as it was a little too long of a trek form me as I was sick when I was in Killarney. I did rent a bike though and bike to the national park, went to the Muckross house, torc waterfall, etc. The hostel had tours that ran out of the hostel, and lots of information. So you can always decide when you get there as well. If it is pouring rain that day, you might make a differenct choice than if the weather is nice!

I found that the buses and trains were always on time, or sometimes a little bit early.

jent103

Very true - the weather's an important factor. We booked our tour with Deros the day before, after confirming it was supposed to be nice - this was in June. I imagine you'd have even less trouble in September.

Haven17

We just spent four of eight nights in Ireland in Dingle and LOVED it. We spent our last two nights in Galway and it was fun but I would have rather spent more time in Dingle. However, we live in Chicago so we don't really need an exciting nightlife when we go away on vacation as we have it at home.

I also want to share that all four of us really loved our time exploring The Burren. Our B&B host recommended that we drive along the coast to through The Burren, and it was a fabulous recommendation. We walked to the edge of the cliff line on the coast and it was really amazing. I imagine going through the central part of it isn't likely to be very exciting. If you're adventurous, though, and you aren't scared to walk out to the edge you'll see some amazing coastal lines.