Every question you have about booking a trip to Ireland, answered. Plus the guides we wish we’d had before our first trip over.
This page is for people about to book a trip and trying to figure out the basics. When to come, how to get around, where to sleep, what it'll cost, what to actually do once you're here.
Ireland rewards a loose plan. The island is small (about the size of Indiana), but the roads are slow, the weather changes by the hour, and the best moments tend to be the ones you weren't scheduled for. We'd aim for a rough itinerary with built-in slack, not a tight hour-by-hour grid.
Use the sticky nav above to jump to whatever you're trying to figure out. Or scroll the whole thing top to bottom, which is roughly the order most people think about a trip.
Every season has a case for it. Here’s how we’d describe the four, then a deeper month-by-month read if you want to weigh them properly.
Country-wide road trip plans plus city-level weekend itineraries. Most people end up stitching one of each.
Our two-week-shape framework you can shorten or stretch.
If you can’t do the full route, these are the places to prioritise.
Slieve League, Connemara, the Burren. Built around where the light is.
Itinerary, the right direction to drive it, and what to skip.
A 48-hour Dublin plan that doesn’t try to do too much.
Ireland’s accommodation spread runs B&Bs (still common, often the best for the price), guesthouses, hotels, self-catering cottages, Airbnbs, castle hotels at the top end, and hostels at the budget end. Outside the cities, family-run B&Bs are still our default for the warmest welcome.
City-centre rooms in Dublin can climb past €250 a night in summer. Book early if you’re coming in July or August, or come during shoulder season and pay half. The where-to-stay-in posts below break down neighbourhoods so you don’t end up 20 minutes from where you actually want to be.
What to bring, where it’s actually legal, what the weather will throw at you.
Cars drive on the left. If you've never done it, the first ten minutes are awkward and then your brain adjusts. What does not adjust is the width of the rural roads. Country lanes are often a single car wide with no shoulder, fringed by stone walls or hedge, and you'll be reversing into a passing place at least once a day on the back roads. Manual transmission is the default and cheaper to rent; if you want automatic, book early.
Iarnrod Eireann runs the rail network in the Republic. Useful for Dublin-Cork, Dublin-Galway, Dublin-Belfast (cross-border), and a few other intercity routes. It will not take you around the Ring of Kerry, into Connemara, or onto the Wild Atlantic Way. For most of the scenic stuff you need a car or a tour bus.
Bus Eireann covers the Republic. Aircoach runs Dublin Airport routes. Citylink and GoBus run between Dublin, Galway, and Cork at low prices. In Northern Ireland it's Translink. The intercity bus network actually reaches more places than the train, but it's slower and the timetables can be sparse outside the main routes.
Dublin uses the Leap Card (tap-on tap-off across buses, the Luas tram, and DART commuter rail). Belfast uses Translink fares. Both cities are walkable in the centre, so we'd skip the rental car until you leave the city.
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are different countries with a soft border. No passport check, no signs really, the speed limits switch from km/h to mph and the currency switches from Euro to Pound. If you've rented a car in the south and plan to drive into the north, check your rental agreement covers it (most do, but a couple of budget agencies don't).
Cards and contactless work almost everywhere. Pull out €40-50 in cash for rural B&Bs, tips, small-town parking, and the odd old-school pub.
Same card-first story across the border. If you're doing both sides, hold a small amount of each currency or just lean on Apple/Google Pay.
Card is the default. Tap-and-pay works on most buses, the Luas, taxis, restaurants, and almost every shop. You can go a whole trip without touching cash.
ATMs are everywhere, including small villages. Use one attached to a bank branch where possible. Avoid Euronet machines if you can; the conversion rates are noticeably worse. Always choose to be charged in local currency, never your home currency. Dynamic currency conversion is always worse.
10% in sit-down restaurants if service was good. Check for a service charge before you double-tip. Pubs don't expect a tip on drinks. A round-up on a taxi is fine. Tour guides usually appreciate €5-10 per person.
Non-EU visitors can claim a VAT refund on goods over €75 from participating retailers in the Republic. Look for Tax Free signage at checkout, fill in the form, get it stamped at the airport. Northern Ireland follows UK VAT rules.
Layers. That's the headline. Ireland's weather will throw four seasons at you in a single afternoon, even in July. The trick isn't packing for warmth or for rain; it's packing so you can shed or add a layer in two minutes when the sky shifts.
The month-by-month packing posts (we have a few above in the when-to-visit calendar) get into the specifics for the trickier months.
Irish food has had a quiet renaissance over the last decade. The pubs still pour the best Guinness in the world, and the distillery scene has exploded since 2010. These are the food-and-drink posts to bookmark before you go.
Which distilleries are worth your afternoon. Across all four provinces.
The bottles you may not have heard of, and what to ask for at the bar.
Where afternoon tea is worth booking ahead, not just a hotel afterthought.
Castles, hikes, coast, sights, and the activity-specific posts that go deeper. If you want the full Things to Do hub, that’s the parent page. The picks below are the cross-cutting greatest hits.
Connemara’s lakeside abbey plus the walled Victorian garden.
The actual count, plus where to see the most interesting ones.
Ireland has more festivals than weekends. The big-ticket ones are below; for the smaller trad sessions and county-level events, the local Failte Ireland tourist office is your best source on the ground.
Galway Arts Festival, Longitude, county shows, plenty more.
Rose of Tralee, Puck Fair, Fleadh Cheoil. The peak month.
Galway Oyster Festival, Electric Picnic, the harvest season.
Cork Jazz, Belfast Film, Wexford Opera. The good off-season ones.
Ireland splits four ways. Pick a corner and we’ll show you what’s there. (Region pages are in final pre-launch; the links resolve once they go live.)
If your phone supports eSIM, the easiest route is an eSIM from Three, Vodafone, or Airalo before you fly. Coverage is excellent in populated areas, patchy in remote Connemara, the western Beara, and parts of inland Donegal. Most EU carriers include Ireland in roam-like-home, and many UK plans cover the Republic too.
Type G plug (the big chunky three-pin UK plug), 230V, 50Hz. Both the Republic and Northern Ireland use the same plug. Most US/EU travellers need an adapter. Almost all modern electronics handle 230V natively, so you don't need a voltage converter.
English is universal. You'll see Irish (Gaeilge) on road signs across the Republic, usually with the English translation underneath. In Gaeltacht areas (parts of Connemara, the Dingle Peninsula, Mayo, and Donegal), Irish is spoken as a daily first language by some residents, but anyone you need to talk to will speak English. Northern Ireland is English-only on signage.
Ireland is one of the safest countries in Europe by most measures. Standard traveller awareness applies: keep an eye on belongings in busy Dublin pubs and on trains, don't leave valuables visible in a parked rental car. Solo travel is fine. Late-night Dublin city centre on weekends can get rowdy but isn't dangerous.
Dial 112 or 999 anywhere on the island. Both numbers work in the Republic and Northern Ireland. Operators speak English.
Pharmacies are common (look for the green cross) and well-stocked. EU citizens with EHIC/GHIC get reduced-cost care in both jurisdictions. Non-EU travellers should have travel insurance; we wouldn't fly without it.
Many small-town shops still close earlier on Sundays. Bank holiday weekends (six in the Republic, a similar number in the North) crowd the tourist towns and push prices up.
The M50 (Dublin's ring road) is a barrier-free electronic toll. If you drive on it in a rental, you (or the rental company) need to pay by 8pm the next day. Other Republic motorway tolls are pay-at-the-booth. There are no toll roads in Northern Ireland.
The first couple of hours on the ground go smoother if you know how to get to your bed and what people are saying.
Every guide on Your Irish Adventure is written by someone who’s been on the ground in the place they’re writing about. No recycled press releases, no template descriptions. If we say a pub is worth the detour, we’ve been to that pub.
We’ve been blogging about travel for over a decade, and Ireland is the corner we know best. If a post on this site helped you shape your trip, that’s the whole point.
