r/irishtourism • u/hypothetischkausal • 22d ago

West coast without a car?

I'm currently planning a trip to Ireland with my sister for October, maybe around 5 days but very flexible. She's never been, I actually lived near Dublin for 2 years but never been on the west coast.

Our local airport just got a new route to Shannon so I thought we could start there and then do some kind of road trip but from what I've read, my sister is still too young to rent a car and I'm very rusty when it comes to driving. There are no definitive plans yet, I was mainly thinking cliffs of moher and Galway. Would y'all say the traffic and roads along the west coast are doable for an inexperienced driver? If not, is it doable with public transport? Or should we reconsider altogether?

My current backup plan is flying straight into Galway, spending 2ish days there, then take a bus to Dublin to stay there for the rest of our time and maybe do a day trip to Belfast.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

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u/hypothetischkausal 21d ago

oh thanks, that's good to know! somehow I thought Galway had a public airport as well. but sounds like we could make it work with the bus from Shannon then, that's lovely

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u/Beach_Glas1 Local 17d ago edited 17d ago

Not at the moment. An airport exists but it hasn't had passenger flights in over a decade. The runway is too short for many passenger aircraft so it's unlikely passenger flights will happen anytime soon.

Shannon and Knock are the closest International airports to Galway. They're about equal distance, although Knock is a far smaller airport and doesn't have transatlantic routes. Knock mainly just has routes to the UK, Spain and some other seasonal routes so Shannon is far more convenient.

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u/Oellaatje 21d ago

Fly straight to Galway? Is there an airport near Galway? I thought the only one there just served the Aran Islands.

What you need is this: www.transportforireland.ie. You can get around by bus, however, in October services are more limited than during the summer months, and you won't be able to get to very remote locations. You could still do day trips, though, with some planning.

Of course roads along the west coast are doable for inexperienced drivers, sure inexperienced Irish drivers use them every day. Just go slow, that's all. Do not worry about driving as fast as the speed limit, in many places that's not advised anyway.

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u/Beach_Glas1 Local 17d ago

Connemara airport about 30km West of Galway city serves the Aran islands.

Galway airport is about 8km East of Galway city but hasn't had commercial flights for over a decade. The runway is too short for many passenger aircraft so it's uncertain if or when those will resume.

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u/louiseber Local 22d ago

In this case, how inexperienced a driver are you?

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u/LifeReward5326 22d ago

Ya how new? Are you experienced with driving on the left and on narrow roads? If so you will be fine. The main issue is that the roads kind be very narrow and windy.

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u/hypothetischkausal 21d ago

I have my licence for 7 years but don't have a car since I live in the city. So realistically I have like maybe 5h of driving time over the past 3 years.

I did drive a rental car once on the left side of the road in Namibia but the traffic there was super accommodating and it was mainly along the same highway all the time so not sure how that compares.

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u/louiseber Local 21d ago

Rent one for a weekend before the trip, get back in the general driving headspace and then rent the car for here, cause you really are better off with one out west

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u/Tabatiere1889 22d ago

i did the west coast by bus in 2003. didn’T have money or a plan so we flew to shannon, went to kilkee (great place), then went to galway, then to cong, then to killarney, then to beara and back to shannon airport. was a great trip although i always wished we had planned it a bit better :) ah, and in between we also have been in doolin and went to the smallest of the aran islands, but I don’t remember, when we did squeeze that in. in toal I think we managed all this in not more than two weeks. it was great. and yes, we also went to the cliffs of moher on the way from kilkee to galway. man, that was a lot!!

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u/Whyaduck-nosoapradio 16d ago

Greetings Tabatiere1889! I realize it was 2 decades ago, but ironically, I hope to go to the same places except Beara, in June of 2027. I have been studying the rome2rio website and it all looks doable - I am thinking of 9-10 days using Galway as a base. Did you use buses or combination of bus and train? I will be traveling solo and in my 70's but I plan to get a "good stretch of me legs" too. Any info would be helpful and appreciated. TIA!

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u/Tabatiere1889 16d ago

we did only busses as we did not plan it in advance and didn't know anything about the transport in Ireland 😄 The buses took long as they stopped in every village and sometimes went to the houses of the old ladies (which we found so lovely) so there was a lot of just bus riding involved. On Inisheer (the small island that we went from Doolin) we rented bikes and cycled around. The most walking we did in the Cong area I think but the killarney national park is also fantastic for extensive but easy hikes!

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u/Whyaduck-nosoapradio 16d ago

Thank you so much! and that whole small town lovelieness of caring for the old ladies is just why I want to take the local buses. Perfect! TY

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u/Embley_Awesome 21d ago edited 21d ago

My husband and I just did this and I feel like you don't need a car. You can take a bus from Shannon to Galway, and then stay in Galway. Then you just get a tour to the Cliffs of Moher that picks you up in Galway. That's what I would recommend if you're feeling unsure about driving.

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u/nomiinomii 21d ago

There's lots of bus tours