Ireland by train
 

>>but driving a manual shift on the left side of the road is a bit daunting.<<

You can always pay extra for an Automatic shift. That would certainly cost less than hiring someone to drive you around.

Sure you can get some places by train, but you'll have to use local buses to get to many of the scenic/rural bits.

If you really REALLY don't want to drive - consider a small group tour with Rabbies

https://www.rabbies.com/en/ireland-tours/from-dublin

The train network in Ireland is not extensive and is mostly a series of main lines radiating out from Dublin.

You can see full details on Íarnród Éireann/Irish Rail's website Ireland rail travel information - Iarnród Éireann - Irish Rail

There are also more extensive bus networks, a lot operated by Bus Éireann but you will find details of all public transport here www.transportforireland.ie

Arrive in Dublin, spend a few nights then pick up rental car (with automatic transmission); visit Galway, Killarney / Kenmare, then Cork area then back to Dublin. Return car spend last night in Dublin. I don't know why you are under the impression you can only rent a manual transmission. I would skip Limerick.

An even better plan would be to purchase open jaw air tickets - arrive Dublin, depart Shannon. I throwing this in case you have not purchased airfare yet.

Trains will take you to all those cities and then take tours to nearby rural sights - and buses go everywhere you want. For lots on trains check www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Airlink bus into Dublin for a few days, then a bus from Dublin to Cork can be as low as 10E, I think the train was double that from Hueston Station.

You could then pick up a rental car at the Cork airport, an 20 minute bus ride from downtown. Check out the Lakes of Kilarney and Galway. Try to fly back from Shannon as someone said. I would skip Limerick and spend the time in some random spots along the way. Those are some of the best times, where you have to google what the heck it was that you have tons of pictures of.

Enjoy your trip.

cos8mati--I will be echoing a lot of the suggestions above, but I do want to tell you that we're returning to Ireland for the 5th time in 20 years this summer, and we have YET to rent a car. We've always had a lovely time.

Yes, I also think you'd be best served if you flew into either Dublin or Shannon and left via the other (open jaw ticket).

Yes, the rail system is limited, but it works well. And the bus system is brilliant. We had one problem where we needed to get from Adare to Cork to get picked up by our cycling group and the bus would not work. We hired a local driver for the trek. It was pretty cheap! We've also just signed up for day tours with a company or two, and that's worked quite well.

I am wondering why you've listed Limerick. And quite frankly, I'm not that into Cork, either. But then our interests tend to be trad music, so I'd be zeroing in on Ennis near Shannon Airport, Galway, Dublin etc anyway.

What are YOUR interests? That would dictate a lot.

Happy Planning!
AZ

i am going to eliminate Limerick ��. Since plane reservations haven’t been made I will look into an open jaw ticket flying into Dublin and home from Shannon.>

Limerick is right near Shannon Airport - makes a nice last night's stay before plane.

PalenQ--But Ennis is also really close to Shannon. And Ennis is a good pit stop (there are good pit stops) if they start the trek from Shannon to Galway via Lahinch/Cliffs of Moher and they can also visit the Burren on this route. And I love all the trad music pubs in Ennis.
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Again, you guys can route yourself point to point by taxi or public bus for much of the above option.

When you finally get to Galway (if doing this option) you can do a daytrip to the Aran Islands. Or you can do the Burren and/or Connemara tour from there.

Egads, there are so many options.

We don't drive in Ireland and we do great. We just spent five nights in Ballycotton, three buses a day but hooked up with the best taxi driver and he picked us up several times. We took bus and train plus local tours. Galway tour company is great but try for an Aran island tour. Galway coach station is the best. All tours depart from the coach station. Cork itself is not a place I like but enjoy Cobh and Kinsale. Ballycotton was the best, I am going back and don't care if I do anything but go to Ballymaloe cookery school. The village has beautiful cliff walks, lighthouse tours, good pubs and food. We are leaving today after four nights in Dublin. We have both been sick and have not done very much. I am so bummed but Fallon and Byrne had great takeout. We had to cancel the last nights dinner reservation. I am getting motivated to go see something this am before our afternoon flight. We did get to meet up with two friends on the first night and second night at least. We used the city link bus to get to Cork from Galway and then bus to Midleton where we took a cab to Ballycotton. We ran into a marathon in Limerick and the bus driver had us all on our phones finding him a way to get around the blocked streets. It was funny. Trains and buses have wifi so nice.

Macross--I've never been to Ballycotton before! I can't wait to show my husband. Oh dear, we've not even started this trip to Northern Ireland before I've started on the next.
Like you, I'm not a fan of Cork, but did enjoy Kinsale.

I would suggest Ennis as an alternative to Limerick. Limerick is a urban center. Ennis has more charm.

Ballycotton was wonderful. I am hooked. I wish we could see the cookery school's gardens in summer. You could buy fresh veg, bread, eggs, cheese and the best treats from them.

We went into Cork for the day, visited the English Market. Strawberries so sweet and one butcher vacuum sealed the best rashers for us to have bacon buddies for breakfast the next morning. We visited Francision well brewery, Mutton lane inn and did a bit of shopping before heading home. I was freezing and found a two euro sweater in Dunnes. Ger Wall was our taxi driver and he took us to the train station via Ballymaloe House in the morning and by the Choctaw memorial in Midleton. The distillery tour was great. We really enjoyed that. If anyone decides to do Ballycotton there is a guy on TA that really helped me with logistics. We rented a great house. Four bedrooms 4.5 baths, It doubles in price end of May but we loved the views and the cliff walk was right beside us. There were four of us. Cobh is still a great day though we hit it on a cruise day. It was a bank holiday so we did Midleton distillery after.

The bus was 7 am 10:30 am and two returns from Midleton so was good. We did a cab twice for 20 euro. Cheaper than the bus for four. The roads are big enough for 1.5 cars. We saw a lot of backing up and room for only one vehicle on those roads. The bus seems to get preference. We all had beer and tasted at the distillery so no driving for us as no one wants to be the DA.

cos8mati-- I hope we hear from you soon as to your needs and wants in planning your trip.

I want to express that what Macross is reporting is so much of our own repeated trips to Ireland without a car. There ARE places in this world where you need to rent a car because you can't explore the culture without looking at sites. Sometimes other cultures can be hard to fathom because of social and language obstacles, so you naturally resort to some sort of check-off list.

Ireland does not fit that description.

For my husband and me, and for our beloved lovely daughters, now grown, Ireland will be forever be the stop in a pub and making it your own, whether you drink Diet Coke or a Guinness. We also agree with Macross that there are culinary delights. I loved all of my fresh greens, fresh salmon, fresh eggs and amazing cheeses.

Even now, after five trips, there are counties of Ireland we've not explored. Part of the problem is we want to revisit part of wherever we went on the last trip.*

AZ
*Except for Adare. We hated it. It's an attractive stage set.

I'm probably too late to this but as someone who moved to Ireland over 4 years ago from the states and someone who loves to travel around the country, you would be very limited in a lot of ways. Sure, you can take a train to Galway, or down to Cork, but you miss all the in-between stuff, which is the best stuff, and would have to rely on buses or taxi's to get you to the really good stuff, especially if you like hiking and or nature. If you're just interested in seeing cities, then you will be fine, but personally I couldn't imagine travelling to Ireland, or anywhere at that, and not renting a car.

As for driving on "the other side", it's not as difficult as you may think. You can rent an automatic if you're more comfortable with that. It might feel strange to you for about 5 mins but then it just feels like driving! Just do it, you won't regret it!

Driving on the left side of the road is really not that daunting.
You can follow the cars ahead of you and your brain adjusts quickly.
Just be sure to tell the person in the front seat with you to keep an eye out that you stay on the left.
The problems of driving on the left side are so over hyped.
Most roads are rate about 35 mph = 18 KM per hour anyway , much slower than I drive around my town.
If you are a confident driver in the US, then drive.
You will see so much more and really see places that the gigantic buses can't get to.

I would definitely recommend an automatic, though if this is your first experience driving in Ireland.

BTW, I am 66 years old and got back from Ireland 2 weeks ago.

I know it can be done, we have done it but would rather have a beer with lunch, be able to look at everything along the way and not concentrate on driving. I find you do need to concentrate. I live near a major holiday airport and oh my do we get accidents. People land and try to drive Orlando roads. The exits seem to really cause problems. They enter them from the wrong way even with all the signs now. We never have anyone in our group that wants to be the DD. We thought about it for Ballycotton but one day was Midleton Distillery tour and we went to Franciscan Well Brewery another day and we had no volunteers to not taste.