I’m tired of all these MF snakes…or the geopolitical climate, so I figured it is time to visit Éire. It’s been a long-time desire, but the idea of perhaps living much of the year outside the US has become increasingly appealing for some reason. I’ll add some of my thoughts and situation details regarding soft-immigration at the end.
Key points:
I am thinking September, because the weather should still be ~pleasant, and it is outside the main tourist season. Alternatives welcome.
My goal is to get a real feel for what it is like to be there for, say, months at a time. I’m not particularly looking for the “tourist experience”, but of course would want to visit important places if they fit in the itinerary.
Probably a fortnight, but flexible; see next two points.
Likely fly into Dublin, then try to visit areas throughout the country. For an area I might consider spending a month or two someday, maybe I’d spend 2-4 days there; for someplace to admire the scenery, maybe 1-2 days.
It would probably make sense, given the cheapness of RyanAir, to hop over to, say, Scotland for a few days.
Notes about Dear Wife and myself:
We’ve had two weeks in Wales 25 years ago, specifically Aberystwyth, and loved it - everything about it.
We are non-drinkers, to the extent it would matter in Ireland.
We are mid-60s and capable of long walks, but challenging hikes (extended inclines) would be difficult for one of us for pulmonary reasons.
Regarding immigration: even if we absolutely loved the place, actually truly immigrating there to live full-time probably isn’t practical. With effort, I could probably obtain a residency permit, based on my reading. We have assets and income, are self-sufficient, and not a burden on The State. Ancestrally, my great-grandfather was born in Belfast, then a part of Ireland (his daughter, me grandmum, was born in England, which might be an easier route to European residency). My wife is very close to her family here in the US, so even if we could live there permanently, we would end up being in the US somewhat frequently anyway.
Travel tips very welcome, including what to see, how long to stay, and what type of accomodations we should consider.
I’ve vacationed in Ireland twice, though the last time was well over 10 years ago, so take my info with that in mind. I’ve only visited the Republic - nothing in the North. It’s absolutely lovely.
I loved the west coast more than the east - wild, beautiful, and quiet. Galway was a lovely base for a couple days, as was Killarney. The Dingle peninsula is gorgeous and I would recommend it over the Ring of Kerry. We basically drove around the west coast looking for beautiful scenery and ruins to explore, then trying to find a pub with a session every night for some music. (The town of Doolin was grand for some traditional Irish music sessions).
I would normally recommend Skellig Michael for a special day trip, but given your parameters about hiking, I’d say probably not - there are a LOT of steep stairs. Nevertheless, maybe google it and decide for yourself. Requires a short boat ride and when we went, the # of visitors per day was limited.
Dublin is…fine. It felt like a fairly generic European city. I only spent a couple days there and that was more than enough; it didn’t really do a lot for me.
We did a one-night stopover in Kilkenny, which is a cute little town with a nice castle, and a good option if you don’t want to drive from the east to the west in one day, but I wouldn’t spend more than one day there.
We stayed in small B&Bs on the west coast - there are lots of nice ones, and you can get yourself a hearty Irish breakfast.
Outside of the main highways, driving can be … intense. You’re on the other side of the road, and the roads are incredibly narrow with close hedgerows or stone walls on either side. It can be quite stressful. Prepare yourself.
To calibrate our hike parameters: we were fine visiting the Acropolis and Parthenon; tiring, of course, with quite a few steps to climb, but we had no difficulty keeping up with the group.
You make an important point about driving in the countryside, and that does give me pause, but I don’t know of a reasonable alternative. At least, though, I know to try to avoid small country roads where practical.
While I have owned several vehicles with manual transmissions, I’ve never shifted with my left hand; hopefully there will be small cars with automatic transmissions available.
You need to check carefully what the entry rules are. It may be more difficult than you think.
To come for an initial shortish stay is one thing, but staying longer is another. If an immigration officer suspects that you’re planning long-term residence, as opposed to tourism, they might not let you in as a tourist.
If you can drive a manual with your right hand it’s not too difficult to do it lefty. Twice in the UK I was supposed to be renting a manual compact and in one case when I showed up the car was the next larger ford automatic and another it was a mini-SUV automatic so of course I was always reaching for the non-existent stick. The slightly larger issue is justifying the car correctly. Initially I tended to stray a bit too far leftwards, so having my wife mind where I was and let me know was a big help.
Also, if your car doesn’t have built-in-GPS (most rented cars did) and you’re using your phone, set it for kilometers. I had gotten so used to km in Ireland then went back to miles in the UK.
When younger I likely would have relished the challenge, but now it would be more angst. But likely not insurmountable, as long as Dublin traffic isn’t worse than Atlanta.
Dublin? Dude, find a park and ride and use the buses (double-decker - sit up top and front and pretend to drive) or the Trams or DART. They are all good.
I mean, where are you going in Dublin? It’s a walk-able city yet are you looking for: the Temple Bar area? Trinity University? Guinness Brewery? Phoenix Park? Driving might be not too bad, parking I’ve no idea (except good in Phoenix Park)
Flying into Dublin, I still need to drive out of it with my rental car, right? I don’t have any specific plans on remaining in Dublin, so the local bus won’t help.
Okie Doke. Like most airports, DUB is not in the center so you can head North or West (South will bring you to Dublin and East will put you in the Irish Sea). Erin go Bragh!
Check to see if it does that automatically. When i was in Italy last summer, i used Google maps, and was happy to see that it had automatically converted to km, so what it said matched the road signs.
Also, oh my stars, Google maps is a godsend. It’s not perfect, but i wandered over a lot of secondary roads in the hills of Umbria, and it got me where i wanted to go. It worked when i was hiking, too.
That’s why we save Dublin for last, doing the island counter clockwise. Pick up a rental car at the airport and head North. We like one week for ourselves exploring the North on our own. A bit of surfing in Donegal. A bit of hiking in Clare. And then spending time with friends and relatives in Cork and Dublin.
I spent some time in Dublin and Carlingford last September. The weather was mild with the usual rain. We flew into Dublin then took the bus into the city where we stayed for a few days. Then back to the airport, picked up the rental car, and drove to Carlingford. The trip was mostly motorway and the roads only got really small when we got near our farmhouse B&B. I’m in the UK so driving on the wrong side wasn’t an issue. We had an Audi A4 for two days that cost £115.
My wife and I went in 2002 at that time of year so, in our mid-40s. The weather was perfect with only one day of rain in two weeks We rented a car with no real itinerary other than visiting family of some of our Irish immigrant friends. This was pre-Airbnb but we bought a coupon book for actual BnBs that ended up costing $35 per night. Not all BnBs accepted them but it was easy to find those that did. We did a couple of nights in hotels, IIRC and three nights with the aforementioned families. Having locals show us around was a big plus.
The back roads can be pretty thin but buses and trucks regularly pull over to let cars pass. We started with an auto transmission but wifey made an instinctive right turn to pull into a place with a payphone. I grabbed the wheel just enough to avoid a head-on but we still hit the oncoming car with significant damage (no injuries) to both cars. That is a story on its own. In any event, the new rental car was a manual and she wasn’t allowed behind the wheel for the remainder of the trip as part of the rental agreement. I found shifting with my left hand to be bit awkward but not too bad. Other than the motorways (limited access, high speed) allow yourself double the travel time you would guess by looking at a map. I guess with GPS this is probably a non-issue. ETA shows up on the map.
Even if you are non-hikers, get out and walk a bit. We did a lot of walking on trails and paths, although I would hesitate to call it “hiking”. We stuck mostly to coastal roads and towns. The Irish were universally friendly and helpful. Some landmarks we hit that are worth checking out if you are near them:
The Rock of Cashel - ruins dating to 12th century. Quite impressive.
Cliffs of Moher
Doolin (mentioned upthread)
Slieve League - sea cliffs, alleged to be tallest in Europe. (another separate story). You wouldn’t want to hike this but the views from the parking lot are great
Giants Causeway & the Antrim coast, in general
Arran Islands
Galway City
Belfast - some our Irish friends are from here. They are Catholic and still lived there during the Troubles. Their families showed us around and pointed out some of the more infamous locations, including where they were still living at the time. They were clearly on edge when we passed through Protestant neighborhoods.
We never made it to Dublin. Other than Belfast and Galway, we were more intent on the “rural-ish” experience. We were in a pub every night. We loved talking with the locals, although in parts of Donegal the accent made things interesting. Not to mention directional signs being in Gaelic, only.
In summary;
wing it
chat with the locals
don’t be too worried about driving. Be courteous. That’s the norm.
get out of the car
have at least one Guinness in a local pub. You can do it!
find a session or three (people just show up with acoustic instruments and play)
If you settle there, post your new address here. We’re going back!
We went in September '23, thinking about the same as the OP about weather and being a bit off season. We only did five days, four of which were spent in Dublin. We’re a few years younger, fairly well travelled. We also tend to not splurge on hotels, since we figure it’s a place to sleep and not much else. I might go back to Ireland again, but I’m going to avoid Dubllin.
Some points.
Dublin is really, really, really expensive. We picked cheap accommodations, fully aware that it was shared bathroom in the corridor. But we wanted cheap and central so we could walk. Big mistake. About $150 a night for a broom closet (it was about six by nine feet) with only a small window. Food was OK in price, for what it was, i.e. pub grub.
We went out to the coast one day and got some nice fish. That was welcome after being served a lasagna with fries the day before. They serve fries with everything.
We did a tour of Trinity college and the guide was a student earning extra cash or credit. She was very good and it was worth it. WARNING: We were told they were about to start a several year long renovation of the famous library and it was about to be closed to visitors. If you’re planning Trinity to see that, see if it’s open before spending your money.
Guinness brewery was basically disneyfied and a four floor gift shop. It would have been OK, but they charged us for going in to shop.
We did a hop-on-hop-off bus with a good tour guide. Well worth it.
Not only did I find Dublin very expensive, it seems as if it’s the same for the locals. So many homeless, food banks with long lines, drug addicts of the more severe kind. I saw people lying in sleeping bags, in the rain, trying to find some shelter under trees.
Again, what little we saw outside Dublin seemed very nice. We went to Howth, just a short train ride out. I believe going on a road trip might be great.
Train was mentioned, and I admit I haven’t researched Ireland’s train system. I’d be curious if I can work it into our plans.
Earlier today, I was thinking that since frequently US-Europe flights arrive in the morning, and that I usually get near-zero rest in coach, that maybe it would make sense to spend the arrival day in metro Dublin just to chill and get a good night’s sleep before driving a very unfamiliar car on very unfamiliar roads; now, though, given the group opinion on the price and “fun” of Dublin, I’m not sure. Maybe I should try to arrange the first night’s lodging not too far north and just wing it long enough and safe enough with the car to reach Point A.
Trains certainly can. In the 1970’s my father could work small cars on even tinier (i.e. 1.5 lane) roads (which as MiikeF noted still exist yet usually there’s places to pull over. A wave or flash of your brights is the general custom for being granted courtesy ETA: If the other car is stopped, that is their signal that you may pass).
Yet when we went from Limerick to Dublin (pre-motorway, pre-GPS) my father wasn’t going to go that far - and it’s not really “far-far” yet 60 miles / 100km does not at all mean you’re getting there in even one hour or two. Nowadays, on any M (motorway) you can do a nifty 70MPH. Then there are class A roads (100 kph), B roads (do not follow the signs - you’ll see a “70” right before a zig-zag of turns) and C-roads where the bustle in the hedgerow (in case you don’t know) leaves that oft-limited 1.5 lanes. Even in the UK, if someone is basically tailgating me, I’ll stop at one of the pull-overs, put on my flashers and wave them by. And since they probably know the roads, I’ll follow them closely with enough room that their brake-lights indicate to me to let off the gas (petrol?) pedal or downshift.
You probably won’t need a train unless you’re doing a day-trip from like County Claire to Kerry (if you’re going in summer/late spring definitely see Kerry and/or Cork)
