Touring - Light touring in Ireland

My wife and I are planning our honeymoon in Ireland. We’ll be flying into Dublin on the 6th of August and after a few days in the city we take a train to Galway... from there we plan to visit and ride around the Arren Isles on rented bikes for a day or two. We also hope to take a bus to the Dingle/Kerry area and rent some bike there too.

We'd like to spend a few days biking on the Dingle peninsula but don't know what makes the most sense... do we rent bikes in Killarny and bike from there, do we take a bus or taxi to Dingle and rent bikes there?

If anybody has any suggestions or advise we would surely appreciate it.

Cheers,
David

The Raleigh rent-a-bike scheme is pretty widespread, you can hire for a few days and sometimes for different pick up and drop off points. Independant schemes are also widespread but you have to do circular rides.
The Dingle peninsular is a one-day bike ride. The Beara peninsula is highly recommended.
I took my bike on the ferry to Inisheer which is small but really pretty.

Unfortunately I can't tell you how the going is by bicycle but I can give you a few ideas/hints. My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Ireland as well. We started in Galway and rented a car which we drove from Galway to Dublin via the western, southern, and then eastern coast of Ireland over about a 2 week period. The roads there are decent but small and very very winding. I would recommend trying not to be on the road after dark whether you're in a car or on a bicycle because the Scania trucks are crazy. More importantly though is to remember that Ireland is hilly and the roads are not very "direct" so you'll want to leave yourself extra time to get places. We had such an amazing trip, the scenery was gorgeous and the people were wonderful. We can't wait to go back and hopefully next time we'll do it on bicycles. I'm totally envious of you and wish you the best of luck!

Andrew

Wow thanks!

Good advice... we'll only be bikeing durring daylight hours.

I think we'll just be doing one or two loop or sleep over type trips with packed bikes. If the Dingle is a one day trip maybe we should rent bike while there and bike around for a day and stay there that night(?).

Also... we usually would bring our bikes, but because we didn't want that to be the focus of the trip, and didn't want to be lugging them around we're going to rent.

from Galway, what would you recomend as a day trip on bike.

I'll post more as we put this together.

As for hills... we did 325 miles in Nova Scotia last August... the hilss we're pretty good so I'm not worried :)

Hey I just got back from a 16 day vacation in Ireland...Shannon over to the west coast( burren &cliffs area)down to Dingle(take the ferry), across the south, through the Wicklows and up to Dublin. We didn't bike and I've got to say be careful. I have never seen cars drive so fast on such tiny, tiny roads. Lots of hills and blind curves. There are roads that actually have vegetation carved by the side view car mirrors. It's that tight. I saw a few bicyclist but surprisinly not many. I'm not saying not to bike but do be careful.
Must see places:
The Burren
Cliffs of Moher(walk past the tourist area that says do not walk past this sign). The best views and few tourist
Doolin for local musicians
Dingle Penninsula(awesome beach where Ryans Daughter was filmed)
Beara Penninsula(east side best)
Wicklows mnts./ Glendalough
and of course the Guinness
If you have touristy Q's drop me a line. I'm fresh off the boat
PS: we had almost NO rain for the entire trip!!!!

Ive ridden that area and guided tours there....

The roads are narrow, but drivers do know to look out for cyclists.

There are two bike hire outfits in Dingle, one is right next to the small hostel in town. There is a nice hostel out of town one mile that is called Ballintagart house, nice place.

I must reccomend that you ride out from Dingle on the southern road, to a small town called Dunquin (Dun Chaoin). There is an amazing hostel there with a very nice owner, and the Blasket Islands are accessible by ferry from Dunquin, and they are a must-do.

From Dingle, I usually head south to Anascaul and around to the Ring of Kerry. That is a good 2-3 day loop. Lots of nice campgrounds and hostels down there, I would highly reccomend Mannix Point in Cahirsiveen, Mortimer (the owner) is a great guy that always has a peat fire going in the common room. he has wonderful cooking facilities too.

I considered this touring Ireland this year but ended up picking Italy.

My plan was to ride the Dingle Peninsula also. You might want to consider Shannon instead of Dublin. Shannon is closer to Dingle and Shannon is smaller and easier to get around. There is a very nice hotel in nearby SixMileBridge. The only problem is that I do not know how available bike rentals are there. I would consider bringing your own instead of renting. But if it is truly just a few days then by all means rent.