Travel around Ireland and UK

My wife and i are planning a trip to Ireland, Scotland, and England, but i'm not sure how we're going to travel from place to place. I've heard that trains are the best way to travel around England, but what's the best way to get around Ireland, from Ireland to Scotland, and from Scotland to England? Thanks!

Ireland: If you can afford it, get a car. Public transport ain't great. Ditto Scotland outside the central belt (most places within 40 miles or so of Edinburgh and Glasgow). Assuming you're a yank (pot luck, you never know), fuel prices are roughly double what they are in the States, so get yourself a diesel. If you drive automatic only, specify this to the hire car company well in advance as most people in Europe drive stick. Hiring in Ireland and Dehiring in the UK will carry a hefty penalty, so avoid at all costs.

To jump from Ireland to Scotland consider flying or the ferry. From Scotland to England simply take the bus or train. How long are you coming over for then and when?

I can drive a stick, so that's an option. I thought maybe buses would be possible, but the travel times seem lengthy.

My initial thoughts are Ireland for 4 days, Scotland for 2-3 days, and England for 4 days. We're not really sure when we'll be traveling. Probably either this coming fall or next spring.

In principle, Fwoggie is right that a hired car is the way to go in Ireland, but it does also depend where exactly you want to go. If you're sticking to the main cities, then Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and Galway are all well connected to Dublin by train. There are good inter-city bus services for many other destinations. You might only need to hire a car for part of your trip, if at all (however, train fares in Ireland are expensive, so any savings might be slim). But many of the most interesting and scenic places in Ireland, naturally enough, are a bit out of the way and easier reached by car.

Hmm. This isn't a long trip :/

OK, you could maybe fly from Ireland up to Inverness and work your way down to Glasgow, stopping off for a look see at Skye and Glencoe on the way. From there you could take the train down to Stratford Upon Avon (change at Birmingham) for Shakespere, then over to Oxford (pretty, old Uni) before hitting the big smoke (London) and flying out from there. Would be a punishing itinerary though.

I would say instead of seeing such a small bit of each country spend the week in just one! London its self has so much to offer. It would be such a waste to go all the way and to only visit a couple of the highlights and race off again.

I've never been to Europe before, and if i do go back, it probably won't be for several years. I'm just trying to see everything i want to see while i'm there. My wife has been to England and Ireland before, so she's letting me choose my sites.

Aer Lingus fly from Cork to Glasgow apparently - might be an option.

I would suggest that if you are only going to have 4 days in Ireland, you confine yourself to at most two regions (one might be even better, but you sound like you would like to see a good bit) - choosing two of the south (Cork and maybe Kerry), the West (Galway/Clare/Mayo), and Dublin and the east coast. My personal view is that the west is the most attractive and distinctive destination, but unfortunately I don't think you can get any flights direct from there to Scotland, so maybe either Dublin and Galway or Cork and Galway, depending on whether you want to see Dublin or not.

The places i'm most interested in visiting are Dublin and the Burren (Cork and Limerick, if possible). I keep hearing how this will be a rushed trip, but according to Google, it's just over a 2 hour drive from Dublin to Galway.

In Scotland, i'd like to see Edinburgh and Glasgow (possibly St. Andrews). I'd like to visit the highlands, but that may not be feasible.

In England, i'd like to visit Liverpool and London...other than that, anything else is a bonus.

Google doesn't know how narrow the roads are, how much traffic you could encounter, where the roadworks are, and where you could get a little lost.

I agree that England, Ireland,and Scotland are too much for 2 weeks. How about just England and Scotland, leave Ireland for later? Glasgow and Edinburgh are less than an hour apart on the train, so that would be easy. On the bus you could also go to Stirling to see the castle (more interesting than Edinburgh Castle, in my view). On the bus from Glasgow (or by car) you could get to Fort William in the highlands. We did a day trip to St. Andrews from Edinburgh on the bus--very interesting but no need to stay overnight. London to Scotland you could fly cheaply on easyjet or else take the train.

Personally, i would rather skip England and see Ireland and Scotland, but i understand that it may be easier to travel between Scotland and England.

Dublin to Galway took me 2 hours on Saturday last, good road, not much traffic 120Kmph. From Galway to the Burren and back would take much longer as the roads are narrow and you'll want to stop in a few places.
Day 1 Fly in to Dublin early and potter around town for the day. See earlier posts for things to do in Dublin.
Day 2 Pick up car, drive to Galway (detour to Clonmacnoise on the way) potter around Galway
Day 3 Drive to Burren, wander then back to Galway
Day 4 Drive to Dublin, fly on to Scotland/England
In Autumn days are getting noticeably shorter so allow for this when planning.

ambarush,
Instead of driving from Burren back to Galway, could i conceivably drive down to Cork, then back to Dublin the next day? I'm just trying to maximize my exposure to the countryside, etc. Are Bunratty Castle or Blarney Castle worth seeing? Are there any other sites along the way that may not know about but would be worth traveling to? Thanks

We liked both Cashel and Kilkenny a lot, spent a few nights in each on the way to Dublin from Kerry by car. We discovered that this was almost impossible by train and bus, so we got a car. Didn't go to Bunratty or Blarney because they sounded overrun with tourists.

You could drive from the Burren area to Cork but it would be on narrow roads meaning slow driving poss an average speed of 50 - 60kmph if you were lucky. Avoid Blarney Castle - a tourist trap. The trip from Cork city to Dublin on main road should take about 3 /3.5hrs depending on the time of day and amount of traffic.Why go that far south withiut the time to enjoy it? If you didn't want to return to Galway you could stay in any of the small towns in Co Clare or try to get a flight from Shannon to Scotland. but check out drop off charges for hire car if you are not going to drive it back to Dublin. Or go to Cork and fly from there , giving yourself a bit extra time down south. Personally I wouldn't try to squeeze it in.

#11 - you can fly to Scotland from both Dublin and Cork, and there is also a ferry crossing (though I doubt if that would fit in well with your plans and your tight schedule), so it would be perfectly feasible to just visit Ireland and Scotland. If that's what you want to do, of course.

My wife and I aren't necessarily interested in dawdling around and discovering places as we come across them, no offense if that's what you like to do. We like to come up with specific places to visit and try to see as much as possible while we're there. Personally, i think we can do Ireland in 3-4 days, Scotland in 2-3 days and England in 4 days. Is this an impossible goal? Is there anything that is mind-blowing that we have to see while we're in these three countries?

That's the thing though, what they're trying to say; on the one hand it isn't an impossible goal, but it would be a bit like seeing Florida, Washington DC and California in the same time frame. Travel distances play a big part and would chew up a lot of time, that's why people are suggesting to cut back some. That said, it is your holiday, so go for it if you want :)

I appreciate all of your input, because i have no doubt that Europe is completely different from the United States. From Scotland to England, is it possible to take a train during the night? Realistic? I'm trying to figure out how to minimize the time we spend traveling during the day. That will give us more time to actually see things.

There is indeed a Scotland-London night sleeper, sounds pretty good but also quite expensive. http://www.seat61.com/CaledonianSleepers.htm As you can see, you can take it all the way into the Highlands if you like.

Sounds like it would be more interesting in the London-Scotland direction, when you would get to see Scottish scenery in the morning - in the spring or fall, it will probably be dark by the departure times from Scotland. But maybe that doesn't fit in with your plans.

Edited by: fear_rua

If you want to go from the highlands (or central Scottish belt area around Edinburgh down to Glasgow) then yes there's the sleeper train that #20 cites. Alternatively you can train it by day (around 5 hrs door to door, nice scenery), or you can fly it (boring scenery, and not that much quicker door to door).

(I should add that for trains in the UK, the earlier you book the cheaper it is. Downside: it restricts you to a particular train, but I imagine your itinerary may be fairly fixed anyway, so this might not bother you much).

I sympathize to some degree with your goals. I, too, like to carefully plan an itinerary and see as much as possible on a given trip. My husband made me slow it down a bit and leave a bit of breathing room which has indeed made our trips more fun. We still cover a lot of ground. I don't really get people like my Austrian friend who just visited me in Boston, and then went to NYC for five days with almost no plans and ended up doing a lot of "walking around."

That said, 11 days for three countries is just plain too much. It seems like you want to say you've been. But even if it's years from now, save one of these places and just do it later. If you see three places in Ireland, you won't really have seen or experienced Ireland, but you won't be driven to return either, because you've "already been there." I have been to England/Scotland; we are currently planning 15 days in Ireland. Try to see too much and you end up experiencing nothing.

Definitely try to get a car because it is very difficult taking trains and buses around Ireland. I mean it is possible but its not as enjoyable as driving around the countryside, I took a life down to Clare last week and it only took about 3 hours where as it took 6 getting back using buses.