Public Transportation in Ireland?

Question

My best friend and I are planning a trip to Ireland and trying to figure out how much we need to save for the trip. Is it best to rent a car and drive ourselves around the sites or can we count of taking busses or public transportation?

Answer 1

I agree, public transport in Ireland is bad.  Dublin you can managhe alright as you have buses, luas and the DART but after that it is pretty bad.  Not sure where you are coming from but if you are not used to roundabouts etc you might want to think about public transport.  You can use it but you may find some places hard to get to.

Answer 2

Apart from Dublin, public transport in Ireland is a catastrophe.

If you don't want to be confined to the railway line Cork-Dublin-Belfast  (you can go to Limerick and Galway as well http://www.irishrail.ie/your_ticket/fare... you'd have to rent a car. Train fares are fairly high, e.g. Cork to Dublin 5 day return 64 Euro, so for 2 people it might be actually cheaper to rent a car, even so. Don't do that as long as you are in Dublin, parking is extremely expensive and traffic is just a single jam for hours on end.

In my experience it's quite hard and annoying to try to get to the nice small places like Baltimore (West Cork, one of the loveliest places on the planet) by public transport.

Answer 3

Public transport is really good in ireland. Well its really good in Dublin, there is the luas, the train, buses and its not expensive. If you are going to Dublin, it would be best not to rent a car because the traffic is really bad and petrol is expensive. the public transport is cheap aswel. Im not sure about anywhere else is Ireland because i live in Dublin.

Hope i helped,enjoy your trip :)

Answer 4

Outside of Dublin you will likely need a car, I took trains around, not sure where you are going so cannot really recommend...but the rail isn't bad, you can reach many places by train. Starting off in Dublin, trains from Heuston and/or Connolly station will get you to major towns throughout Ireland/the Republic and Northern Ireland. But, honestly, to see everything you want to, you will need to rent a car at some point.

Irish traffic/driving is very different for an American (I am assuming here) from driving on the opposite side of the road, to the roundabouts. Take it slow if you do rent a car. You'll be fine - lots of people do the same thing when touring.

Answer 5

Yes, rent a car. Many sites like cliffs of moher are not easy to visit without a car. The buses are unreliable.