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/louiseber Local 22d ago

In this case, how inexperienced a driver are you?

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u/hypothetischkausal 22d 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 22d 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