Hi,

I'm planning a solo trip to Ireland for about a week and I'm wondering what advice you all have to make the most of my time without renting a car. I don't want to rent a car because I'll be alone and it's expensive. What do you recommend, trains or buses? Any tips? Time to allow? Routes to avoid? I'm especially concerned about Dingle, both to and from and once I'm there, but I don't want to miss it because it sounds to be the best of all.

I've been to Dublin and the north before (highly recommended!), so I'm just going to focus on a few places in the South that caught my attention. Here's what I've got so far:


Boat from Wales to Rosslare, go straight to Kilkenny
Cork/Kinsale + day trip to Rock of Cashel
Dingle
Galway + day trip to Aran Islands
Bus from Galway to Shannon Airport for flight

Any input would be greatly appreciated! More than anything I'd love some reassurance that it's even possible to do Southern Ireland without a car.

Thanks!

Having just returned from 2 weeks in Ireland (North & South) we were made aware of the few railway routes. I think the buses are probably more in service but must admit only saw them around the villages and towns - that's not to say there aren't many more buses criss-crossing Ireland. We did take a return train trip from Ballymena to Belfast which was great fun.
I hope someone can tell us more about the Irish transport system!
By the way, we did not motor around Dingle. We chose the Ring of Kerry instead, mainly because I had heard about really narrow roads around the Dingle Peninsula and we were driving a great big motorhome. Next time, as they say!

Bus Eireann is the national service. Plug in your proposed trips, and see how effective the routes are. You might find that re-sequencing things makes sense. http://www.buseireann.ie/site/home/

I made the mistake of trying to do that for a few days that were suddently added onto a business trip to Dublin. Trains are tantamount to useless - very sow and complicated routes. And by the time I got there the cars had all been reserved.

Perhaps bus is a better option - I don;t know.

but knowing what I do now I would definitely rent a car.

Trains are very good for some journeys. From Dublin to Cork, for example, they run every hour and are much faster than buses. Express buses are useful for routes where there are no railways. Local buses go to small towns and villages, but are not frequent so you need to look at timetables carefully.
From Rosslare, there are buses to Waterford and Cork. Kilkenny is on the railway from Waterford to Dublin.
There are buses from Cork to Kinsale and Cashel.
Buses to Dingle go from Tralee which has trains and buses from Cork.
There are buses from Tralee via Limerick to Galway.
Buses to Shannon Airport go from Galway, Limerick and other places.
www.irishrail.ie
www.buseireann.ie
There are passes covering buses and/or trains.