Have you ever thought about traveling to the Emerald Island? Here's the guide with the top 8 must-visit places in Ireland. If you have 10-14 days and you don't want to rent a car in left-side driving country, this guide is perfect for you as I traveled to all these places by buses and it was exactly 10 days. And this guide is for budget travelers so if you want to have a bit more comfort in your trip, just replace buses with taxis/personal transfers and hotels that i propose here with more expensive hotels,

Ireland

The pearls of Ireland in 10 days

And of course Dublin has its particular atmosphere in the evening, so you need to go to the pubs. 

When you arrive to Dublin airport, you have a few options to get to the city center. As I was traveling on budget, I chose buses.

There are a few buses that can take you from the airport to the city center (somewhere near Trinity College). Some of them are “express” buses, they cost a bit more (about €6) and you can find them right at the exit of the airport. But if you leave the airport, cross the road, pass through another terminal then you can find an ordinary bus stop where you can get on the bus № 16. A ticket for this one costs only €3,5 and although it has many stops before it reaches the city center, it’s the cheapest way to get to the city. It takes about an hour to get to the city center so get on the top deck and enjoy the ride. By the way, if you want to stop a bus raise your hand. The buses may pass by if you’re just standing at the bus stop. 

If you are a beer fan, I'd recommend going to the Guinness storehouse.

And if you prefer whiskey, there's another place for you - Old Jameson Distillery.

If you are a history fan or just would rather visit classical sights - go to the Dublin castle.

When the weather is good, take a little walk in St.Stephen’s Green. It's a very lovely park.

But the place that I personally loved the most was Phoenix park. As you can feed and pet real deers there! They aren't afraid of people (still you need to approach them carefully) so you can have your little Bambi moment there.

Also don't skip on free walking tours if you stumble upon any (you can also google in advance when and where they take place). It's a good way to explore the city. These tours are called free but normally in the end everyone give tips to the guide (a few euros). 

Maybe you've seen on instagram some photos of Trinity College library. It's very beautiful and quite impressive. So if you have time, go straight there. You need to pay an entrance fee to the library (19€).

The most famous is Temple bar, but it's too crowded and expensive. So you can just take a photo outside and go to another pub.

I went to The Oliver St.John Gogarty. It was also touristy, but not that crowded and not that expensive. So if you want to go for a pint of Guinness, you can go there too.

Near a little town called Killarney there's a huge and very beautiful national park. If you like active tourism, you can rent a bike and go for a ride there. if you don't, just go for a little walk. You won't be disappointed.

To get to Killarney, I got a bus from Dublin. I chose Dublin coach company. You can buy the ticket at the driver’s or online. I did it online and that was so right cause later I found out that if you plan to buy the ticket at the driver’s you can wait the whole day as buses can simply be full. And even though the buses come every 30 minutes, no pleasure in waiting all day at the bus stop. So better book in advance (not later than 3 hours before departure). The bus was pretty good, with WiFi. There were no places to charge the phone but not so many bus companies provide this so this is not that unusual. The only thing I didn’t expect was that it took 6 (!) hours to go to Killarney. The bus was stopping in every little village and then sometimes there were small traffic jams. But the views around were totally worth all this. 

So in Killarney you start your bike ride with a very pleasant and easy road. And then you can take a little boat ride (with your bike in it too).

You will have to go back to Killarney via an ordinary road so there will be cars but don't worry, they respect cyclists there. 

Next big part of this trip is Galway. You need to take a bus from Killarney to Galway. Actually it's 2 buses: Killarney-Limerick and Limerick-Galway. So in total it's about 4 hours ride. So when you arrive in Galway, you will have some time to go on a city tour or just walk around the city center. 

Next day you can take a bus to go to Cliffs of Moher. For me it was the most important part of this trip. I can't even describe how beautiful these cliffs are. You just need to visit it.

And the next day you can go to Aran Islands. This is a group of small islands to the west from Ireland. If you ever heard about Red Bull cliff jumping – it was there in a place called Wormhole. 

To get to Aran Islands you need to get a ferry from a small port near Galway. If you book a ticket in Galway (in Kinlay House Eyre Square hostel) the bus ticket to the port is included. If you have sea sick this is probably not the best trip for you cause it takes about 45 minutes on a ferry and waves are super huge there.

If the weather is good there, you can rent a bike and explore the islands a little bit. There are a lot of historical sights (from Celtic times) and by the way, people speak Irish there (of course they understand English too). So I wouldn't miss this destination. 

Donegal is a little town on the north of Ireland (not in the Northern Ireland). There's nothing to do in the town but nearby there are some interesting places to visit. 

For example, you can take a tour (or get a transfer) to go to Slieve League Cliffs.

Also from Donegal you can go to to the Northern Ireland coast. For example, to Giant's Causeway. You need to take 3 buses. It may seem a lot as it's 4h one way, but otherwise you need to take a car (by car it's just 2h one way). So if you travel by public transport, it's your only option. And I must say that Giant's Causeway was very impressive.

In the end you will have to return back to Dublin to take a plane home. Take some time to get some rest after such an intense trip, that's why I recommend to stay for one more night in Dublin and fly back the day. But if you're short on time and plane time allows you to, of course you can leave straight away.

And here's the list of hostels and hotels:

I hope this guide was helpful. If you have any questions about trip to Ireland or any other trip, you can contact me, I'll be happy to help.

Gap Of Dunloe Traditional Boat Tours - Killarney Lake Tours | Ring of Kerry

 Then you will have a very steep road up the hill. I wasn't in a very good shape so I was walking and pushing the bike near me. But it was still worth it. Because in the end you arrive to the Gap of Dunloe. The view there was amazing. So don't miss it.

The pearls of Ireland in 10 days

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