Ireland
 

Where to stay and be centrally located for travel but stay in one place?

Galway.

Mark

What area of Ireland would you like to stay in? Can you be a bit more specific so people can advise you. Our first visit to Ireland we focused on the west coast. We visited Killarney for 3 days, did the Gap of Dunloe tour while in that area, then headed to Galway city where we spent 5 days at a lovely hotel. We loved Galway and made day trips from there. We have relatives west of Galway so visited them and went out to Aran Islands for a day. What do you want to see in Ireland?

Others like to stay in Dublin and do sightseeing from that point. We visited Dublin last year on a cruise so there is lots to do there. You need to decide what you want to see and what part of Ireland before we can advise you. Also, when do you want to visit Ireland, time of year could make a difference.

"be centrally located for travel but stay in one place?"

You can't, unless you focus on just part of Ireland.

The conventional more or less all-Ireland visit, covering West Cork and Killarney, the Ring of Kerry, Galway and Connemara, Belfast and the Giant's Causeway and Dublin and its hinterland requires at least three different hotels.

Ireland's railway system is patchy, slow and links only the major cities: apart (arguably) from Dublin and Belfast, all Ireland's tourist highlights are in relatively remote countryside. Ireland's motorway system gets you across big distances quickly, but you then take forever to get to the pretty bits, and even longer to get in and out of Dublin.

There are 4 provinces of Ireland and whilst one base can cover (just about) an individual province no one base can cover the whole Island. Here in East Galway we are pretty central and can reach a considerable amount of the Island within a couple of hours or so radius. The extreme North and South would take anything up to 4 hours to reach.

It's not a big counry - but it's not THAT small.

And as noted, local roads are very small and slow - so assume 30 mph once you're off a major highway (a good part of what you will be doing).