DrToonz

My family of four will be visiting Ireland this summer.
For THIS part of our trip we will have no car.

I'd like to fit a visit to Newgrange in between my stay in Derry (Thursday and Friday nights) and my stay in Dublin (Sunday night).

What I'm wondering is where we should stay on Saturday night. We could stay in Derry, Belfast, Drogheda, Dublin or anywhere in-between.

I thought we would try this:
Saturday morning:
Explore Derry early morning then train to Belfast.
[Leave Derry 11:50a / arrive Belfast 2:00p]

Explore Belfast for a while then train to Drogheda.
[Leave Belfast 4:10p or 6:10p / Arrive Drogheda 5:41p or 7:41p]
((This offers 2 to 4 hours in Belfast for poking around))

Sleep in Drogheda on Saturday night.
Sunday morning: Bus to Bru na Boinne visitor's center and tour Newgrange (and maybe Knowth).
Sunday afternoon: make our way by bus back to Drogheda and then train to Dublin (where we will meet friends and already have booked our hotel for Sunday night).

So...should I stay in Drogheda? Better to stay in Belfast and commute to Newgrange in the morning? How about just going all the way to Dublin and then taking a tour out of Dublin to Newgrange in the morning?

Is there any other option that I'm not thinking of? Other creative ideas?

Transportation/ accommodation cost is a consideration, but not necessarily a deal-breaker.

Thank you in advance! ~DrToonz.

jaja

The tours at Newgrange fill up fast, so I would advise getting to the Interpretive Centre as early as possible. It would be very depressing to go to all that trouble and then not be able to visit the site. And you cannot book in advance.

Last trip we stayed at Smarmore Castle Hotel the night before Brú na Bóinne but we had a rental car. Not sure how you would get there from there except perhaps by taxi.

Look at http://www.lougherfarm.com/ . Same transportation issues here although the hostess might have some suggestions if you e-mail or phone her.

DrToonz

@jaja: Thanks, I'll check it out. Yes, that's one of my concerns. I would love to get there early which is why I've considered staying in Drogheda and busing in first thing in the morning.

Hopefully I'll find some carless soul whose done this before to give me their insight too! ~DrToonz.

Itallian_Chauffer

Highly regarded tour, but out of Dublin:

http://www.newgrangetours.com/

Mary Gibbons Tours

Bob

longhorn55

We did Newgrange by car, so I can't give you a definitive answer to your question. However, I think your best bet would be to go with an organized tour out of Dublin as they are probably set up to make sure that you get to go out to site. You wouldn't have that assurance if you just took a bus from Drogheda--and who knows what kind of schedule they would have on a Sunday morning?
Also, a note about Belfast. We spent a couple of days there last spring. If you only have a few hours in the city, I would recommend going to the city center to get on an open-top bus sightseeing tour. The tour takes about 2 hours and covers all of the highlights of the city. We really enjoyed our tour and our guide on the bus was both informative and entertaining.

DrToonz

IC and LH: I'll certainly check out the Belfast hop-on-off bus and will look up the Mary Gibbon Tours. We'll check the logistics of both.
Thanks!
DrToonz.

DrToonz

I've found that most tour buses don't do Sundays and that's our day. We'll be using the 'shuttle' to Newgrange. Thanks, everyone!
DrToonz