bayareagirl

We're traveling to Ireland in July, 10 days and have a couple of train/bus journeys planned. I'm not too worried about rail transport but I'm reading terrible reviews about bus companies and bus travel. In particular, we're going from Killarney to Oranmore (outside of Galway) and by train there would be too many changes. We could do it in 2 buses, going via Limerick. I'm ready just to get a taxi the whole way as it's beginning to seem like an unpredictable hassle.

Any recent experiences of buses to get around Ireland? Or West Coast drivers/taxi recommendations? Thank you!

nylilly

I was in Ireland in April and had nothing but good experiences with the buses, although we only used them to go back and forth between Dublin and Galway. What issues are people having?

bayareagirl

That's great to hear! The number of complaints I've read about buses not showing up, being cancelled without warning, showing up very late (which would mess up connections) and generally being extremely dirty, rude drivers was just not encouraging. Usually we enjoy taking public transport for the experience but I was reading a lot of negative, particularly in the last year.

mjdh1957

Where are you reading all this?

Buses in Ireland are used by a large proportion of the people who live here. They are a normal method of transport and as long as you don't expect to be treated like royalty and your every whim catered for you will be fine. Buses can be late, they do break down but that is normal in every country of the world, and only a small proportion of journeys will be impacted in this way.

Travellers whose journeys are OK tend not to leave reviews so you might be getting a skewed impression by only listening to the complainers.

bayareagirl

I'll be sure to leave my tiara at home!

greytop13

We used a private driver from Coastline Tours to get from Dingle to Galway in the fall of 2019. They gave us a couple of options. The straight transfer from Dingle to Galway was 330 Euro and the all-day tour with stops along the coastal route was 440 Euro. With Killarney just south of Dingle and Oranmore just south of Galway, it would probably have been about the same prices. I imagine prices have increased since then. Buses and trains take longer but will cost significantly less money.

AlessandraZoe

bayarea girl--I'm afraid I'm going to have to recommend a taxi. And that recommendation is a surprise to me.

We just completed our 6th trip to Ireland--five trips in the Republic, one trip in Northern Ireland. We have never rented a car on any trip and have relied on taxis, trains, Translink and Bus Eireann. We have NEVER had any problems with Bus Eireann--until THIS trip.

Our bus that would take us from Westport to Galway never showed up. No bus drivers who were driving different routes sharing the stop were helpful for more information. The little old ladies who were in town to do their shopping and college students were left stranded. The phone number listed on the bus sign no longer worked. Luckily, a young man who was relying on this bus to get to work in Galway found a way to contact Bus Eireann, threaded his way through the system, and was persistent enough to get correct information, which was...
--Our bus was cancelled without warning because of a staff shortage.
--The NEXT bus was cancelled too because of the same reason.
--They could not verify that the following bus would go.

We know we were lucky that we had options. We trotted the few blocks back to our hotel and begged for help from the hotel staff. They found a driver for us.

However, we thought about the little old ladies who had no such options. When we relayed our experience to our taxi driver, she was very upset. The same thing had happened to a friend of hers the previous week.

Because of this experience, we decided NOT to rely on Bus Eireann to get us from Killarney to Cork later on in the trip. We could have taken a bus/train combo or just one bus, but we booked a taxi driver. It increased our travel costs, but we did not want to repeat our Westport experience.

Greytop13 was right about price increases--private transport from Galway to Dingle (no stops--just transfer) runs around 440 Euro now and with touring, is about 200 Euro more (we got prices from a variety of companies). But I'd contact the hotels you are using in Killarney or Oranmore to see if they have a recommended service, taxi, etc.

Good luck--and do enjoy your trip. I miss Ireland already.
AZ

bayareagirl

Thanks for your reply. We had our trip in Ireland in July which was wonderful and ended up taking mostly trains which worked very smoothly - no problems. The one bus we did take was the Big Green Bus from Killarney to Limerick where we then got a train onwards to Oranmore. Sorry you experienced those cancellations; when you are relying on public transport on vacation it's hard to know if it's all going to work out - that applies anywhere. The plus is that at all our accommodation, all hosts, hotel staff etc were unfailingly helpful so if the buses had fallen through for us, I think we would have had help. I think my advice to anyone would be, public transit is good but to be prepared if a backup plan is needed at the last minute!