We share this website: http://www.ireland.com/en-us/map with everyone who comes to visit us over here. Great way to get your bearings and discover some things to do that you may not have found otherwise. Other websites worth checking out, besides tripadvisor:
http://www.reddit.com/r/irishtourism
http://www.discoverireland.ie/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Ireland/TravelGuide-Ireland.html
I'll try to add things to this post as we get closer to the big day, if anyone is looking for anything specific, please ask. Also, if this is helpful to you, please let me know, otherwise I'll probably just not post any other tips.
So, my wife and I live in Ireland in Co. Kildare, which is the first county west of Dublin. We're postgraduate students here and I also teach. We've had a lot of friends and family come visit us, so we've collected a lot of information that we pass on to them, thought I should do the same for our fellow Knights. Hopefully someone who is wavering on the idea of coming for the game stumbles across something here and decides to come. Not to mention that most of the stuff that I'll put here comes from emails that I've sent to our families before their trips, so it's just copy and pasting it over here.
Getting Around
I cannot recommend strongly enough to rent a car for this trip if you'll be here for any longer than 4 days and want to see the country outside of Dublin (which you absolutely should).
Public Transportation
If you aren't renting a car, there is no train that runs to Dublin, how un-European of them, eh? So, you'll want to take the airlink 747 Bushttp://www.dublinbus.ie/Your-Journey1/Timetables/Airport-Services/ into town. The bus will cost you €6 one-way, they leave every 20 min or so. You need to either buy a ticket in the Spar convenience store in Terminal 2, where you arrive, or have €6 in coins as the buses are exact change only. The bus picks up on the ground level outside Terminal 2.
The bus will take you to a few stops in City Centre, but it will go to Connolly station, which is the main station where you can catch the Commuter, Intercity, and the Dart train lines. Dart is a local line, which is supplemented by the Luas, which is street level tram system and leaves from the front of Connolly. You can get around pretty well within the City Centre on the Luas, but will need to take the bus if you in one of the outer Dublin areas.
The rail station for Croke Park is Drumcondra, one station from Connolly on the Sligo commuter line.
Bus info:
http://www.dublinbus.ie/Your-Journey1/Timetables/Airport-Services/
Iarnrod Eireann: Irish Rail, includes Intercity, Commuter, and Dart lines
http://www.irishrail.ie/
Car Rental
Do not rent your car through an intermediary like Holiday Autos (usually the cheapest option on Kayak, be careful), they book your rental with one of the car rental companies but they will ask to put a huge hold on your account, like €1500 Euros. If there is an accident, they will keep the deposit and you'll have to fight with the intermediary and your insurance to try to recoupe the money. It will also take you more than 30 minutes at the car rental desk for them to sort out all the extra paperwork, it's a huge pain and doesn't really save you much money.
If you are even remotely considering going to Northern Ireland, which I love and totally recommend doing, then only book your rental car through Dan Dooley http://www.dan-dooley.ie/, they do not charge a cross-border fee and I believe they are the only company that does not. I recommend getting a Sat Nav, but they are €10/day, which can be pretty pricey over a whole week. Even if you don't go to N.I., Dan Dooley is great, in my experience.
When you return your car and are preparing to depart for the US, you return the car to a car park that is a little bit away from the airport, give yourself an extra 20 minutes to drop it off and get the shuttle back to the departures area.
Will update with pub recs, where to stay, off the beaten path places, avoiding issues that our families have had, and anything else that we discover in the next few months. Hopefully at least one person finds this helpful.
http://www.reddit.com/r/irishtourism
http://www.discoverireland.ie/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Ireland/TravelGuide-Ireland.html
I'll try to add things to this post as we get closer to the big day, if anyone is looking for anything specific, please ask. Also, if this is helpful to you, please let me know, otherwise I'll probably just not post any other tips.
So, my wife and I live in Ireland in Co. Kildare, which is the first county west of Dublin. We're postgraduate students here and I also teach. We've had a lot of friends and family come visit us, so we've collected a lot of information that we pass on to them, thought I should do the same for our fellow Knights. Hopefully someone who is wavering on the idea of coming for the game stumbles across something here and decides to come. Not to mention that most of the stuff that I'll put here comes from emails that I've sent to our families before their trips, so it's just copy and pasting it over here.
Getting Around
I cannot recommend strongly enough to rent a car for this trip if you'll be here for any longer than 4 days and want to see the country outside of Dublin (which you absolutely should).
Public Transportation
If you aren't renting a car, there is no train that runs to Dublin, how un-European of them, eh? So, you'll want to take the airlink 747 Bushttp://www.dublinbus.ie/Your-Journey1/Timetables/Airport-Services/ into town. The bus will cost you €6 one-way, they leave every 20 min or so. You need to either buy a ticket in the Spar convenience store in Terminal 2, where you arrive, or have €6 in coins as the buses are exact change only. The bus picks up on the ground level outside Terminal 2.
The bus will take you to a few stops in City Centre, but it will go to Connolly station, which is the main station where you can catch the Commuter, Intercity, and the Dart train lines. Dart is a local line, which is supplemented by the Luas, which is street level tram system and leaves from the front of Connolly. You can get around pretty well within the City Centre on the Luas, but will need to take the bus if you in one of the outer Dublin areas.
The rail station for Croke Park is Drumcondra, one station from Connolly on the Sligo commuter line.
Bus info:
http://www.dublinbus.ie/Your-Journey1/Timetables/Airport-Services/
Iarnrod Eireann: Irish Rail, includes Intercity, Commuter, and Dart lines
http://www.irishrail.ie/
Car Rental
Do not rent your car through an intermediary like Holiday Autos (usually the cheapest option on Kayak, be careful), they book your rental with one of the car rental companies but they will ask to put a huge hold on your account, like €1500 Euros. If there is an accident, they will keep the deposit and you'll have to fight with the intermediary and your insurance to try to recoupe the money. It will also take you more than 30 minutes at the car rental desk for them to sort out all the extra paperwork, it's a huge pain and doesn't really save you much money.
If you are even remotely considering going to Northern Ireland, which I love and totally recommend doing, then only book your rental car through Dan Dooley http://www.dan-dooley.ie/, they do not charge a cross-border fee and I believe they are the only company that does not. I recommend getting a Sat Nav, but they are €10/day, which can be pretty pricey over a whole week. Even if you don't go to N.I., Dan Dooley is great, in my experience.
When you return your car and are preparing to depart for the US, you return the car to a car park that is a little bit away from the airport, give yourself an extra 20 minutes to drop it off and get the shuttle back to the departures area.
Will update with pub recs, where to stay, off the beaten path places, avoiding issues that our families have had, and anything else that we discover in the next few months. Hopefully at least one person finds this helpful.
