Ireland on your own
Two and a half thousand kilometres of ragged coastline, cliffs plunging into the Atlantic, sheep on the road and a pub at the end of every peninsula: Ireland is Europe's king of road trips.
When to go
May and June are the crowning months: endless days (sunsets at 10 pm), gorse and rhododendrons in bloom, statistically the driest. July-August concentrate the crowds and prices on Kerry and Moher; September stays mild and quiet. Winter has its fans: photogenic storms, pubs by the fire — but 8-hour days and rural B&Bs closed. Year-round, the real rule is "four seasons in one day": the rain leaves as fast as it arrives.
What it costs
City car or compact rental €35-65/day in summer (far less off season), but beware the €2,000-3,000 excess: full excess waiver (super CDW, €15-25/day) or a credit card that covers Ireland changes the budget. Petrol/diesel around €1.75-1.90/L, B&Bs €100-140 for a double room, pub mains €15-25. Budget €2,000-3,000 for two over 10-12 days excluding flights; campsites and the month of September lighten the bill considerably.
Driving & transport
Left-hand driving — the reflex comes within a day, except at roundabouts (yield to the right) and on the first start each morning. The real difficulties lie elsewhere: single-track R roads and "boreens" between stone walls, where you pass in the widenings with a wave of the hand; the left wing mirror in permanent danger; sheep reigning over the tarmac from Connemara to Donegal. Take the smallest car possible, refuse ambitious daily mileages, and note that in Northern Ireland the limits switch to miles and the prices to pounds sterling — the border itself is invisible.
The Wild Atlantic Way — 2,500 signposted kilometres from Kinsale in the south to Malin Head at the very top — gave an official name to what travellers were already doing: tracing Ireland's west coast peninsula by peninsula, at the pace of the detours. The Cliffs of Moher, Connemara's black lakes, the Ring of Kerry, Donegal's ends of the earth: every bend opens a landscape the weather reinvents by the hour. And up north, Northern Ireland's Causeway Coast adds its 40,000 basalt columns to the picture.
This is a country driven on the left, on roads often narrower than the car would like, between dry-stone walls and fuchsia hedges. You sleep in B&Bs — the national institution, full Irish breakfast included — and you quickly learn the trip's two rules: never plan more than 200 km a day, and never trust the weather beyond two hours. The rest is the magic of Atlantic light.
The destinations that matter
6No. 021 to 2 nightsCliffs of Moher and the BurrenTwo hundred and fourteen metres of vertical cliff above the Atlantic, eight kilometres of dizzying edge and, in spring, ledges full of puffins: Moher earns its legend — provided you dodge the herd.No. 032 to 3 nightsRing of KerryA 170-kilometre loop between mountains, lakes and the Atlantic, with the Skellig islands as the reward at the far end: Kerry is the absolute classic — and it survives its reputation very well.No. 042 nightsDingle PeninsulaThe densest of Ireland's peninsulas: early-Christian ruins by the roadside, beaches beneath the cliffs, Gaelic in the pubs — and Dingle, the port that raised the pub evening to an art form.No. 052 to 3 nightsDonegalCliffs three times higher than Moher, beaches worthy of the Hebrides and empty roads all the way to the island's northernmost point: Donegal is the reward for those who push to the very end.
No. 061 to 2 nightsCauseway Coast (Northern Ireland)Forty thousand perfectly hexagonal basalt columns, a rope bridge over the void and ruined castles on the headlands: the north coast earns the detour into Northern Ireland — passport unnecessary, pounds sterling useful.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Ireland on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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