Hi I need help!
My fiance and I have decided to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. We are going the first week in September and due to lack of funds, we are using his parents' timeshare in Dublin. We will not be staying in other hotels. Does anyone have suggestions for day trips? Also, what is the best form of transportation? Should we rent a car or use trains and/or buses? All suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Where is the timeshare in Dublin?

The Fitzpatrick Castle, close to the airport

The Fitzpatrick Castle that I'm aware of is nowhere near the airport. It is in Killiney SE of Dublin proper not far from Bray.

It is a beautiful place near the water. I would rent a car . . . . .

Fitzpatrick Castle is not close to the airport. It is in Killiney which is a suburb of Dublin.

There is a DART Station nearby (a light rail) - about 15 mins walk from the hotel which will bring you to the city. It is also near a bus stop.

So you don't necessarily need a car, but it might be nice to hire one for a day or two for sightseeing.

To clarify - I didn't mean you'd need a car for visiting Dublin - but for day trips out to the countryside.

Oh, I was given incorrect information on where the Fitzpatrick is, thank you for the clarification. Is it feasible to take day trips to a variety of regions (i.e lower Shannon region, Cork and Kerry, Waterford, Sligo and/or Galaway)? If so, is it more efficient to take the train or rent a car? How long would it take if we took a bus to the Fitzpatrick from the airport?

Janisj, I just saw your posting on renting a car, after I wrote my last posting.

Its your honeymoon - splurge and take a taxi.

To get there by bus - you will have to change which is a hassle - it will take over an hour and a half.

Or you can take a bus and a train (dart), which won't work out much quicker.

What time of day do you arrive? If its rush hour it will be a nightmare whatever you do.

A taxi fare will be 40-50 euros.

The cheapest less stressy option would be - get bus to dart station (. Get dart to Dalkey. Get taxi from Dalkey to Hotel.

Day trips from a south Dublin suburb to the west coast are not really an option. You could make it to Waterford for a day trip, but the others are too far and it would take too much time. Kilkenny is also another nice option. Renting a car would easily be the most efficient but can also be pretty expensive if you are under 25. It might be Dan Dooley that has the lowest cost for folks under 25, but I can't remember. You'll need to do some research on that. I haven't been under 25 for a long time.

Here is a link to the Irish Rail map. It looks like you you get to the rail stations in Bray perhaps. This is not my area of expertise.

http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/your_jo...ercity_map.asp

Bill

Great info! luckily my fiance is over the age of 25, so which car rental place do you suggest? Since Western Ireland is not much of an option, does anyone have suggested sites to see over by Southeast Ireland. Is it worth taking a ferry ride to Whales for a day? I'm interested in seeing it for a family history lesson.

The nearest place for you to rent a car is probaby at the Ferry in Dun Laoghaire

http://www.dan-dooley.ie/car-rental-...haire-port.htm

it is Wales. What part of Wales - it is a big place.

You can take a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead in NW Wales, or from Rosslare to Pembrokeshire in SW Wales or you can fly cheaply from Dublin to Cardiff in SE Wales.

If you pick up a car the first day, you can get it at the airport. It may end up being cheaper than renting for 3-4 days because of a weekly rate. Kemwel\autoeurope is a good option. Lots of folks have used Dan Dooley. O'Scannlain travel (in the US NW) sometimes has some good deals on Hertz. I used irishcarrentals.com and had a good experience up to the point that they were out of cars when I arrived. It was late in the day so that's not unusual. They moved me over to europcar at the same rate. Murrays Europcar is another.

Be forwarned that renting a car in Ireland can be particularly painful. There are multiple hoops to jump through and comparing apples to apples with different prices can be a real challenge. There are countless threads here about it. You might want to do a search to get started.

A day trip to Wales seems like a bit much to me. I just went to the irish ferries website and put in some numbers for a midweek day in Sept. If you took the Swift crossing, you could get about 6.5 hours in Wales for E128. I'm not sure what you could do in Wales on foot for 6.5 hours other than say you were there. If taking a car which may not be possible with most rentals, the price jumps to E296.

There is plenty to do in the E and SE to keep you occupied for a week. There are sites north of Dublin that would be relatively accessible by car also.

In the SE: Kilkenny, Hook Head, Wexford, Glendalough, Powerscourt, areas south of Kilkenny (Jerpoint Abbey, Inistioge etc), Some fun at Johnny Foxes etc. The locals here can tell you of all sorts of little places, nooks and crannies to go along the east coast. To me, a week in one place sounds perfect, anywhere in Ireland. There would be some longer driving days but that comes with the territory when staying in one place and doing day trips.

Have fun!

Bill

I wasn't advocating going to Wales - just explaining the logisitcs. (was actually hoping when you saw the difficulties you'd decide on your own it wasn't such a good idea )

Nice day trips near Dublin include Glendalough (extensive monastic settlement in a beautiful setting between two lakes)and Newgrange (neolithic site, a World Heritage listed site, you may need to book in advance to visit). Both are an hour or two from city center if I recall correctly.

My husband and I just returned from Ireland this past weekend. We rented a car at the airport in Dublin and drove all over the place. (Ireland doesn't have the extensive train network found in other countries, unfortunately.) I found a very good rate at Thrifty, but be warned: they require a ridiculous 900 euro "deposit" before you can rent. One couple we talked to from London had to call their bank and transfer funds. (We just put it on our credit card.) One big warning about driving around Dublin: it's crazy and treacherous. If you do go in, get very explicit directions (and not from someone Irish). Otherwise, you'll be driving in circles. From Dublin, you should go to Clonmacnoise. It's midway between Dublin and Galway – it's an ancient site on the River Shannon, south of Athlone. The scenery is breathtaking and you can get some fabulous photos of High Crosses. If you're into that, you should also head to Newgrange (a little north of Dublin). If you're going, get there early, as the tours out to the various tombs sell out and then you're stuck.

Yeah janis, I was sure you weren't suggesting Wales.

As was suggested on the Newgrange/Knowth visit, you would want to get there early to check in as the tours do sell out. You could use a day to do a short northern loop fitting in places like Trim Castle for instance or Hill of Tara, Hill of Slane, Monasterboice. There is lots up there that could easily fill more than a day but all in pretty close proximity.

Bill

haven12,

I've trained from Wicklow up to Dublin and there is beauiful scenery on the way. You could train all the way down to Wexford and back in a long day. I also trained up to Dundalk from Dublin, but the scenery is better going south. Check out the trains.

My Best, Joan

If there's a family connection with Wales, let's be clear what you can and can't do in a day from Dublin.

- You can get a superferry to Holyhead - which is on an island off an island off the coast of Wales. There's a just about OK train service to a few North Wales coastal towns, and nowhere else you could possibly get back from in time to catch the return ferry. Unless your family came from Holyhead, there's nothing you can learn about them there you can't get off the internet. But Welsh is widely spoken in parts of Anglesey (the island off which Holyhead lies)

- you can fly to Cardiff. Although it's the capital of Wales, it doesn't have the breadth of family history information that's kept in Edinburgh or Dublin: a lot of the key genealogical documents are actually in London, or in the archive departments of the Welsh regions (or again, on the internet). BUT there are family history facilities (including some clinics) at the National Library of Wales (www.llgc.org.uk), and - if your family comes from Glamorgan - at the Glamorgan Record Office (www.glamro.gov.uk). You'll struggle to get anywhere other than Cardiff, and Cardiff airport's a surprisingly long way out of town.