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Travel Guides
Ireland Travel Guide
Sean Horgan
County Guides
Getting to Ireland
We usually fly to Dublin as it’s cheaper than flying to other airports like Shannon even though it adds 2 more hours of driving down to Kerry (about 3 1/2 hours total), which is where usually stay. The road from Dublin down to Kerry is mostly highway, at least down toward Limerick and it’s relative smooth sailing.
Most flights into Ireland from the US are red-eye flights. If you fly direct from Boston to Shannon, expect to get in pretty early around 6am or 7am. Not much is open in Ireland at this time in the morning so if you want to grab breakfast, your best bet is to eat at the airport or a hotel. Both Dublin and Shannon aren’t huge airports by international standards. Shannon is especially small which makes it easy to get in and out of. There is just one main place to eat at Shannon and the food there is pretty good so we usually grab a bite to eat on arrival before we hit the road.
Dublin is a different story. It has 2 terminals with one roadway around them and it can feel like chaos when it gets busy. I like to get out of the airport and on the road to Kerry as soon as I can to beat any morning city traffic.
Play Airlines to Dublin
You can catch flights for ~$500 round trip from Boston to Dublin, with an easy layover in Reykjavik.
Other Airports
Renting a car
I usually go with a major US rental car company when booking a car in Ireland during the busy holiday season in the summer. They usually have more capacity and the ability to adjust to demands. I also find it really useful to have an upgraded status with the rental company, e.g. Hertz Gold, as that can save a lot of time and hassle at checkout. We ran into a situation in Scotland where the compute systems for Hertz were down and they were only expediting Gold members — everyone else was in line for about 2 hours.
Definitely get an email/letter from your credit card within 30 days of your trip that makes it clear that they cover rental car insurance in Ireland. Not all cards cover Ireland, e.g. American Express.
Watch out for speed cameras throughout Europe and especially in Ireland. They seem to be everywhere. Also make sure you don’t hop behind the wheel after a drink. The legal drinking limits are lower than in the US and even a single beer could put you over. Driving in Ireland requires your full attention.
We never traveled with our own large car seats when our kids needed to be in them. We either rented locally, and I recommend bring a cover or thin blanket in case they are stained, or brought these small ones that slide underneath the kid and simply provide a strap to pull the seatbelt down to their shoulder. These are easy to bring around. E.g. this .
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