Ireland: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Arrival to the Emerald Isle

When I was first getting this trip booked I read a lot and one thing that I read that stuck with me was, if you are flying give yourself buffer time in cases of flight issues. Listening to that advice saved us a big headache. We were supposed to fly DFW to London from London to Belfast. I’m not sure what exactly happened with the connecting flight but it was no longer going to work for us. I was able to move our tickets to a flight direct from Dallas to Dublin. The trick then was, how do we get to Belfast? Thank goodness for public transportation.

Irish Rail: Dublin to Belfast

After getting the flight situation sorted out, we pre-booked our tickets on the Irish Rail to Belfast. The process was easy and it only cost us about €32 total. We also pre-booked our bus tickets from the Dublin Airport to the stop nearest the train station, Connolly Station. The bus driver was also really helpful in telling us the stop to get off at and pointing us in the right direction.

The train runs between Dublin and Belfast every two hours. We had tickets for the 2pm train but were able to grab seats on the noon train. The train was fairly busy but it wasn’t too bad, everyone mostly kept to themselves. The train did have a snack cart that came by and I think I heard an announcement for the restaurant car but honestly, we were running on fumes and didn’t visit the food car. From the train station in Belfast we were able to walk to our hotel.

Car Rental

We took a taxi the next morning to pick up our rental car from the airport. If you rent a car in Ireland, here is what I learned:

• If you rent through Enterprise you must be 25 and I think there is an extra fee if you are under 30.
• There is an extra driver fee, even for spouses.
• There is a fee to take the vehicle over the border from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland.
  • I think this is the cost of them getting the car back to the starting point.
• We rented the car in Belfast and retuned it to Dublin. The only Enterprise location that allowed that at the time of our trip was the Belfast International Airport.
• They mostly drive standard vehicles but automatics are available.
• Both countries drive on the left side of the road.
• Northern Ireland uses miles per hour.
• The Republic of Ireland uses kilometers per hour.
• It was worth it to get a car with a GPS so that we didn’t have to use our phone data for navigation.

All in all, we had no issue with transportation upon arrival, we just had a little bit longer journey than expected. Honestly, I was kind of excited to take the train. Check out my video below and let me know what you think of Ireland or what you want to see when you go. Remember to leave no trace and safe travels.

Thank you KW Photography for allowing me to use your wonderful photos!

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