My wife and I are leaving relatively soon for 12 days in Ireland. We'll fly in and out of Shannon and visit Doolin, Clifden, Dingle and Kenmare. I'll be self-driving (and no doubt driving DW nuts....).

I have a 4 year old Atlas of the roads, and a 4 year old Garmin GPS loaded with Ireland. (We were going to do this trip 4 years ago until the Icelandic volcano literally blew up those plans at the very last minute.) Would those be adequate to get us where we'll be going? Upgrading the Ireland GPS map looks to be about $90.00.

We have iPhones 5 & 5s with Verizon, both unlocked. I'm trying to figure out whether to order a prepaid SIM card and have it shipped before we leave or buy a SIM card from Tesco in Ennis. And I really don't know how much data, text, or phone minutes we'll likely need. Night need to call on google maps. Don't plan on calling home but with aging parents, who knows. Would be nice to have internet access when there's no wi-fi.

Any thoughts or recent experiences sure would be appreciated! Thanks.

Tesco do have a reasonable amount of "buy in data" think you pay €6 out of your €10 credit but with 10 "free" you have enough left for calls I would have thought.

4yr old GPS will be fine for the most part but have something like a Colins glove box map as backup Road signage has improved of late so the sat nav system is just a comfort blanket, most folk over here manage without.

http://goo.gl/maps/xMOHV might give some points for SNN to Galway http://goo.gl/Ek8bpw & http://goo.gl/maps/uqIi8 for west of Galway and Clifden.

Dingle has enough disciples but from Kenmare you might find Beara a refreshing change from the over hype prevalent on the other peninsulas http://ireland.activeboard.com/t5000...lastPostAnchor

Tony, as usual, you are a wealth of information. (How else did I know about the Ennis Tesco store, lol.) So thank you!!

The links to the maps are great as is the Beara peninsula link. I was going to drive it in lieu of the Ring of Kerry anyway so that link is very helpful.

The map I have is the Ordnance Survey 2010-2011. Hopefully that and the "old" GPS map will suffice. I'm sure we'll manage to get lost more than once anyway, but hopefully we'll consider that part of the fun.

Given the locations you are not likely to get confused with road renumbering. Just be aware Galway has done away with a few Roundabouts in favour of traffic lights so taking the * exit will be defunct.

IMO maps are not so essential. I was concerned about having enough information to navigate and we covered quite a bit of the Republic. If you generally know the name of the next town toward your destination, just follow the signs to it and don't worry about route #s. Be prepared to drop your eyes down from the top word which is in Irish/Gaelic to the english word below on all signs.

jill, that's great info. Thank you.

My DW isn't the most comfortable navigating, so the other day I made my own version of an AAA trip ticket consisting of maybe 2" of xeroxed google maps getting us to and from our 4 B&Bs.

Probably overkill, but I'm trying to do everything to reduce driver (me) and passenger (her) road stress. I am planning to grin and bear all the wrong turns, etc, and, knowing we aren't on a tight schedule, I should be able to do that, somewhat, LOL!

The trip sounds good ! I think an upgrade might be a good idea when you don't want to get lost anywhere. Otherwise it's always a good adventure with a road map of course. You can always download portable map applications for your smartphone.
For sim cards I would advise a travel sim card. I use it in all Europe while I travel. The one I got it from was from www.tellinkroaming.com .

FYI, we're in Ireland now having a wonderful time. Upon arrival, we found the Ennis Tesco store (no small feat for the sleep deprived driver and navigator) and decided to buy a E16 phone and a E10 pre-paid plan. So far we haven't needed the phone, but it's nice insurance.

Regarding the GPS, thank goodness we updated our Garmin Ireland maps and brought the unit. It has sent us on a couple of strange directions using tiny, tiny roads, and we've cursed it more than once, but without it, we'd have been lost big time on several occasions with tons more stress than we were already experiencing. That said, IF you have a navigator with strong navigating skills and IF you have the OSI map and google maps, you'll likely be fine.

Tesco Ennis is a pain to find even for someone who goes there every few months.. Just a case of remembering which roundabout and not getting confused with going to Dunnes or Glór..

Glad you are enjoying yourselves.