31 Helpful Websites For Planning a Trip to Ireland
I am a bit obsessive about Ireland travel planning. I save everything, including tried and true online travel resources. There are a jazillion (yup—a jazillion) sites available to determine where to stay, what to do, and general advice for planning a trip to Ireland. Because I am all about making sure everyone can easily plan a trip to Ireland, I thought I would share some of the best online Ireland travel resources with you. I log on to many of these sites daily and can vouch that they are really helpful (and some can even transport you there, if only for a moment).
Whether you need travel tips or a dose of inspiration, these sites have you covered.
Planning A Trip to Ireland
1. Discover Ireland: National Tourism Board of Ireland website–details accommodations, activities, events and offers in all regions of Ireland
2. My Discover Ireland Route Planner: A neat tool that shows what attractions are between point A and point B of a route using Google maps
3. Trip Advisor Ireland Forums: Most of the regular posters on these boards live in Ireland and are experts in Ireland travel–they’ll go out of their way to answer specific and strange questions
4. Trip Advisor Hotel/B&B Reviews: Best place to hear from other travelers about their hotel/B&B experiences (always drop the worst and best reviews to get a better sense of the place)
5. B&B Ireland: Useful site that can be used to either book a B&B or simply as a baseline to begin your accommodation search
6. AirBnB: An alternative accommodation that ranges anywhere from regular B&B standards to staying in a spare bedroom-–often less expensive than traditional lodging
7. VRBO: Vacation rentals for those who want self-catering accommodations (organized by county)
8. Former Glory: A great site to spend hours dreaming of a stay in (or even the purchase of) a historic home or castle
9. AA Roadwatch: The best route planner for Ireland
10. Google Images: Search Google images for pictures of nearby attractions after deciding which area(s) you will be visiting
11. US Passport Site: Passport guidelines for US travelers
12. XE: Easy to use currency converter and live currency rates
13. Wikitravel Ireland: The who, what, where, when–basic details about Ireland
14. SeatGuru: Find out which seats are the best on your flight, including those with the most leg room
15. Momondo: An excellent aggregate airfare search engine that will find the obvious and obscure cheap flights around the world.
16. Abarta Audio Guides: Super interesting and helpful audio guides for popular visitor attractions throughout Ireland (some are even free!)–fantastic for the history buff before or during your trip
17. Ireland Travel Kit: All the best attractions not found in travel books.
Ireland Travel Tips
18. 101 Irish Travel Tips: A great post with over 101 tips compiled by travelers to Ireland
Regional Tourism Websites
Just like Discover Ireland, most regions have their own travel resource website with accommodations, activities and event information.
19. Dublin
20. Midlands
21. Inishowen
22. Connemara
23. Ring of Kerry
24. Southeast
25. Northern Ireland
Ireland Inspiration
26. A Fortnight Plus Half: Not a travel website per se but if this video doesn’t inspire you to plan a trip to Ireland I don’t know what will
27. Ireland Family Vacations: Fellow travel writer and Ireland enthusiast, Jody shares her love of Ireland with her family and you
28. Irish Fireside: A travel, culture, and a little bit o’ everything site about Ireland
Ireland Discounts
29. Heritage Ireland Card: Visiting several OPW Heritage locations? Use this site to add up the cost of the entrance fees and decide if it is worth investing in the Heritage Card, which gives you free admission to all Heritage sites
30. Dochara: A very helpful Ireland travel site including an especially valuable page with a variety of discounts
31. Skype: Instead of racking up international calling charges—load $10.00 on a Skype account and call anywhere in the world (with free wifi in many B&B’s, who needs a cell phone?)
Of course there are many more travel sites out there. Which am I missing? Are there other sites you use when planning a trip to Ireland?
Hi Stephanie, You have a fabulous list of blogs & websites here for anyone planning a trip to the island of Ireland to source. Thank you so much for including my blog too.
That’s such an informative list, and thanks for including a photo of our lovely Sheep’s Head peninsula. On our own website at http://livingthesheepsheadway.com, we pull together all the local info on accommodation, walks and activities, and it’s so much more enjoyable for people to plan their holidays when all of that material is available in one place for them.
Welcome Siobhan! We love Sheep’s Head are always happy to promote the area.
Hi Stephanie!
My husband and I are getting ready to leave for Ireland next Tuesday! I already have taken a lot of your advice and bought items on your website. My question is: Is AA Roadwatch an app I can download to my phone? (I looked for it on my phone, but came up empty.)
Thank you very much for your checklists!
Trina
Eeeee!! You must be so excited!!
I don’t think AA Roadwatch has an app (although, they really should!). You can g to their regular site https://www.theaa.ie/routes/ or I have found using Google Maps works just as well now (and you can download an offline version of Ireland to save your data!).
I hope this helps! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!
Stephanie