AdrienneB

Booking airfare to either Shannon or Dublin. What's your take on a week in either city? Help, please? I know very little about either city and just have to have a break. The airfares fit my emergency-stay out of the nuthouse-fund and I would love to go to Ireland.
I just need your ideas on which end of the island to visit!
Thanks!

nytraveler

I think you need to do a search on each above to get an idea of what's in each place. Basically, shannon is a place to land and start a trip from. dublin is the capitol, with castles, museums, theater and a ton of irish history. So make a list of what you want to see and then lay out an itinerary. Either way, I doubt you would want to stay a full week in either place considering everything else there is to see and do.

isabel

Shannon. I think the west of Ireland is the most interesting and worth the most (if not all) of your time. Shannon is an easy airport to get in and out of. Dublin airport is harder to get in and out of and Dublin itself just didn't do it for me. I know lots of people love it, but I didn't think it could compare with London, Paris, Rome, etc. And since the "Best" part of Ireland is the scenery and small towns, and they are "better" on the west, I would stick to that. You'll get lots of different opinions but I know our feeling was we wished we had skipped Dublin and the east (though some of it was nice) and concentrated all our time on the west.

Powell

To add to other respondents:

-If your preference is for culture, history, nightlife, top restaurants choice would be Dublin.

If your preference is for scenery, small towns, friendly people choice would be Shannon.

Retired_teacher

If you're planning on spending the entire week in the city, you'll definately want to book your flights in and out of Dublin. If you plan to rent a car and see the countryside, I agree with Isabel that the Shannon side would give you the best feel for Ireland. Of course you could elect to do both. In that case, I would suggest flying into Shannon, renting a car to see the sites, and spending the last couple of days in Dublin before your return flight. The advantages I see in driving west to east are:
(1) You would learn to drive in Ireland on the least congested side of the island.
(2) You could get by with a 4/5 day rental fee as you would not need a car in Dublin.
(3) You would avoid the Shannon to Dublin hop that many tourists encounter on their return flights.

Lorena

Considering a trip to Ireland mid-June for about 10 days. Would like to rent a car in Shannon and visit the small towns and soak up the scenery. The idea is for a relaxing vacation. However, some friends who have done it say that during the summer there's nothing relaxing about driving on the left side of very narrow roads with tourist buses barreling towards you. It can't be that bad, or is it?

Your experiences might help me decide. Thanks.

kodi

Adrienne, it really all depends on whether or not you are planning on renting a car, and whether you would be comfortable doing that. If you do not want to drive, then fly to Dublin and do the cultural things described in other posts. But if you are planning on driving, then DO fly into Shannon, which, BTW is not a city, just an airport. Then you could really get away from it all, and visit wonderful small Irish towns and see the most amazing scenery.
Good luck..

Gabriella_Shari

Ive never been to Dublin but I did use the Shannon airport and rented a car 2 years ago. I was very happy with my decision. Partly decided to go to Shannon based on the fact that I was getting a car and it was recommended to me as a first time driver easier than a big city. It was easy and very little traffic, my B&B in Bunratty was only 10 minutes from the airport.

isabel

Lorena - no it's not that bad. I had heard the same things but it really isn't bad. The roads are very narrow, you can't make the kind of time you can make on US roads - figure on average of 35-40 miles per hour. But I was there last August and did not encounter huge crowds or tour buses everywhere. We chose not to do the Ring of Kerry because of the stories of hoards of tour buses - we did Beara and Dingle instead and saw very few tour buses. There is another thread on just that subject which is active right now. And if you a search you'll find lots of opinions on how to avoid massive crowds. But we were pleasantly surprised at how un-crowded it really was.

Retired_teacher

Just FYI, all of the tour bus companies are required to drive the Ring of Kerry in the same direction......... counterclockwise if memory serves me correctly.