Wild Atlantic Way
Discussion
Anyone done this route or maybe part of it?
Looking at doing it next Spring time.
https://www.thewildatlanticway.com/route-stages/
Looking at doing it next Spring time.
https://www.thewildatlanticway.com/route-stages/
I really enjoyed it, as much for the journey and destinations. It has a few fast stretches, but nothing really that technical. If it's raining/foggy, it's pretty boring seeing absolutely nothing other than grey skies/fog/drizzle as you don't really get that Scotland/Canadian wilderness scale. We stayed in Giants Causeway for a week and then headed south on the WAW.
You could do the whole thing in 4 days without seeing much. The south is lovely with great proximity to fantastic towns and villages, but we've done the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula in previous holidays and the Mother In Law lived nearby in Millstreet. We did a day trip to the Aran Isles. When we approached the Cliffs of Moher from the North, we came down the mountain and saw the humongous car park filled with rows and rows of coaches and decided there's no way that's as good as Slieve League and drove straight on!
My personal recommendation is to drive to the upper car park on Slieve League (open the gate at the lower car park and drive up the rather interesting road!) and hike up to Slieve League itself. Really enjoyed the Inishowen Peninsula and Malin Head. Mrs V. wanted to visit the Doagh Famine Village and I thought it would be boring bull. In the end I gave in and went in. It was fantastic. To think they only got electricity there in the 80's. And they theme it so that it's like a welcome into someones home, by giving you tea/coffee/biscuits! There's a fantastic community cafe at Malin Head. https://www.malinheadcommunity.ie/cafe/ We ate there for brunch and also had early dinner for the Vikingettes there. It's probably the only public toilets on the peninsula.
I've yet to do the NC500, but It's a much more relaxed pace and would visit again.
You could do the whole thing in 4 days without seeing much. The south is lovely with great proximity to fantastic towns and villages, but we've done the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula in previous holidays and the Mother In Law lived nearby in Millstreet. We did a day trip to the Aran Isles. When we approached the Cliffs of Moher from the North, we came down the mountain and saw the humongous car park filled with rows and rows of coaches and decided there's no way that's as good as Slieve League and drove straight on!
My personal recommendation is to drive to the upper car park on Slieve League (open the gate at the lower car park and drive up the rather interesting road!) and hike up to Slieve League itself. Really enjoyed the Inishowen Peninsula and Malin Head. Mrs V. wanted to visit the Doagh Famine Village and I thought it would be boring bull. In the end I gave in and went in. It was fantastic. To think they only got electricity there in the 80's. And they theme it so that it's like a welcome into someones home, by giving you tea/coffee/biscuits! There's a fantastic community cafe at Malin Head. https://www.malinheadcommunity.ie/cafe/ We ate there for brunch and also had early dinner for the Vikingettes there. It's probably the only public toilets on the peninsula.
I've yet to do the NC500, but It's a much more relaxed pace and would visit again.
^^ That's great thank you.
What I tend to do on a road trip is wherever I'm staying I have an early brekkie then off in the car. The next major stop would be my next hotel, other stops would be for fuel, coffee, taking pics and a smoke hence only short ones! Not a great one for stopping somewhere for a few hours to have a walk around, usually on my own for these trips as the OH cannot get time out of her shop otherwise we would be having stops.
So in effect, solid driving. My car (Vantage V12S) is a wonderful thing to drive and the interior is such a nice place to be it's easy to happily spend 7-8 hours driving it and be able to get out at the end of the day not knackered.
Have a totally free hand so just need to plan to go either North to South or South to North.
What I tend to do on a road trip is wherever I'm staying I have an early brekkie then off in the car. The next major stop would be my next hotel, other stops would be for fuel, coffee, taking pics and a smoke hence only short ones! Not a great one for stopping somewhere for a few hours to have a walk around, usually on my own for these trips as the OH cannot get time out of her shop otherwise we would be having stops.
So in effect, solid driving. My car (Vantage V12S) is a wonderful thing to drive and the interior is such a nice place to be it's easy to happily spend 7-8 hours driving it and be able to get out at the end of the day not knackered.
Have a totally free hand so just need to plan to go either North to South or South to North.
Now that I have dispensed the Vikingettes to Uni, I'd be inclined to do it your way. 
The Ring of Kerry/Dingle Peninsula/Conor Pass are great scenic drives. Conor might be a bit bum squeaky in a V12S! We drove onto Valentia Island and came back onto the Ring of Kerry on a ferry. If we go on a road trip we like to ferry it where possible and also crossed on the Tarbet ferry.The advantage of Kerry/Dingle are the great choice of hotels/food.
Our circular trip was basically: Kent to Carlisle> Ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast> Farted around for a week in Northern Ireland based around Giants Gauseway> Inishowen/Malin/Doagh/Slieve League/Sligo> Castlebar/Westport/Galway/Aran Islands>Dingle (Dolphin Watching)/Ring of Kerry/Kenmare/Cork>Waterford and Rosslare to Pembroke and back home to Kent. We covered around 2,600 miles and I probably missed loads of places.
The Ring of Kerry/Dingle Peninsula/Conor Pass are great scenic drives. Conor might be a bit bum squeaky in a V12S! We drove onto Valentia Island and came back onto the Ring of Kerry on a ferry. If we go on a road trip we like to ferry it where possible and also crossed on the Tarbet ferry.The advantage of Kerry/Dingle are the great choice of hotels/food.
Our circular trip was basically: Kent to Carlisle> Ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast> Farted around for a week in Northern Ireland based around Giants Gauseway> Inishowen/Malin/Doagh/Slieve League/Sligo> Castlebar/Westport/Galway/Aran Islands>Dingle (Dolphin Watching)/Ring of Kerry/Kenmare/Cork>Waterford and Rosslare to Pembroke and back home to Kent. We covered around 2,600 miles and I probably missed loads of places.
I have done WAW a few times at the bottom bit. We are now working north and do some each time ww go over to Ireland.
We tend to drive till about 5pm then look for somewhere to stay. That way if we want to stop somewhere or stretch legs etc we are not on a time critical bit. There are so many places to stay whether it be B&Bs hotels whatever we have never had a problem. This has been in an AstonV8VR. Great route to do. Sometimes we go down the waw sign with the starburst sign which means a view point. We have a look then back to the route. It is very well signposted with the waw symbol. Would make it easier if you are on your own.
It is interesting that their website gives the route from the north down now. This is because the tourist places in the north complained that people gave up about half way and so they never got any visitors.
You are bound to enjoy it. Lovely roads and people. Not cheap though. If you are fussy about petrol ie E5 or E10 beware as not always a choice. Just had a choice of petrol or diesel at one place but as we were running on fumes we took what we could get.
We tend to drive till about 5pm then look for somewhere to stay. That way if we want to stop somewhere or stretch legs etc we are not on a time critical bit. There are so many places to stay whether it be B&Bs hotels whatever we have never had a problem. This has been in an AstonV8VR. Great route to do. Sometimes we go down the waw sign with the starburst sign which means a view point. We have a look then back to the route. It is very well signposted with the waw symbol. Would make it easier if you are on your own.
It is interesting that their website gives the route from the north down now. This is because the tourist places in the north complained that people gave up about half way and so they never got any visitors.
You are bound to enjoy it. Lovely roads and people. Not cheap though. If you are fussy about petrol ie E5 or E10 beware as not always a choice. Just had a choice of petrol or diesel at one place but as we were running on fumes we took what we could get.
Aston Traveller said:
I have done WAW a few times at the bottom bit. We are now working north and do some each time ww go over to Ireland.
We tend to drive till about 5pm then look for somewhere to stay. That way if we want to stop somewhere or stretch legs etc we are not on a time critical bit. There are so many places to stay whether it be B&Bs hotels whatever we have never had a problem. This has been in an AstonV8VR. Great route to do. Sometimes we go down the waw sign with the starburst sign which means a view point. We have a look then back to the route. It is very well signposted with the waw symbol. Would make it easier if you are on your own.
It is interesting that their website gives the route from the north down now. This is because the tourist places in the north complained that people gave up about half way and so they never got any visitors.
You are bound to enjoy it. Lovely roads and people. Not cheap though. If you are fussy about petrol ie E5 or E10 beware as not always a choice. Just had a choice of petrol or diesel at one place but as we were running on fumes we took what we could get.
This is what we did. We had nothing booked and in the afternoon I would get Mrs V. and the Vikingettes to choose a hotel. They mainly used booking.com and I don't think we paid more than €100. We stayed in a quad room at this place: https://www.claytonhotelsligo.com/ It took a good 5 minutes walk to our room! Another notable hotel I liked was the Connacht in Galway which off the top of my head was €70ish for the four of us. It has an annex with car parking below it and I used it to unload the car, clean the interior and tidy up! Very PH. We tend to drive till about 5pm then look for somewhere to stay. That way if we want to stop somewhere or stretch legs etc we are not on a time critical bit. There are so many places to stay whether it be B&Bs hotels whatever we have never had a problem. This has been in an AstonV8VR. Great route to do. Sometimes we go down the waw sign with the starburst sign which means a view point. We have a look then back to the route. It is very well signposted with the waw symbol. Would make it easier if you are on your own.
It is interesting that their website gives the route from the north down now. This is because the tourist places in the north complained that people gave up about half way and so they never got any visitors.
You are bound to enjoy it. Lovely roads and people. Not cheap though. If you are fussy about petrol ie E5 or E10 beware as not always a choice. Just had a choice of petrol or diesel at one place but as we were running on fumes we took what we could get.
I live on part of this route and it’s very busy in the summer with hire cars and camper vans also a lot of the roads will be busy with tractors etc at silage harvesting.
A lot of hotels are taken up with Ukrainian refugees at the moment so prices are higher than normal.
North west Mayo, to Galway is lovely as is the north Clare coast. As stated above the Cliffs of Moher is a tourist trap as is Dingle in Kerry, but the Slea head drive there is lovely.
We did that part in October and stayed in Tralee and Kenmare.
Definalty stop off in Sligo at the Beach bar in Aughris for lunch and do the Aughris Head loop walk there - takes about 30 mins.
If you like a bigger walk and the weather is decent climb Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo.
A lot of hotels are taken up with Ukrainian refugees at the moment so prices are higher than normal.
North west Mayo, to Galway is lovely as is the north Clare coast. As stated above the Cliffs of Moher is a tourist trap as is Dingle in Kerry, but the Slea head drive there is lovely.
We did that part in October and stayed in Tralee and Kenmare.
Definalty stop off in Sligo at the Beach bar in Aughris for lunch and do the Aughris Head loop walk there - takes about 30 mins.
If you like a bigger walk and the weather is decent climb Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo.
Hey Moktabe, hope all well and you’re enjoying the V12V
Some great advice on here already, so don’t have much to add other than the West Cork part is my particular favourite. And you have the likes of the Healy Pass as you head down from Kerry into Cork too
I’m down in Schull a fair bit, and also Waterford, so if you’re going to be passing let us know
Some great advice on here already, so don’t have much to add other than the West Cork part is my particular favourite. And you have the likes of the Healy Pass as you head down from Kerry into Cork too
I’m down in Schull a fair bit, and also Waterford, so if you’re going to be passing let us know
Leins said:
Hey Moktabe, hope all well and you’re enjoying the V12V
Some great advice on here already, so don’t have much to add other than the West Cork part is my particular favourite. And you have the likes of the Healy Pass as you head down from Kerry into Cork too
I’m down in Schull a fair bit, and also Waterford, so if you’re going to be passing let us know
Hello mate, how're you? Loving the car!Some great advice on here already, so don’t have much to add other than the West Cork part is my particular favourite. And you have the likes of the Healy Pass as you head down from Kerry into Cork too
I’m down in Schull a fair bit, and also Waterford, so if you’re going to be passing let us know
Looking at starting from Donegal and working my way down and across the bottom as will be getting the ferry back from Rosslare so will give you a shout.
moktabe said:
Hello mate, how're you? Loving the car!
Looking at starting from Donegal and working my way down and across the bottom as will be getting the ferry back from Rosslare so will give you a shout.
Great stuff, all good thanks. Still got the GP, nearly 8 years nowLooking at starting from Donegal and working my way down and across the bottom as will be getting the ferry back from Rosslare so will give you a shout.
When you’re heading across the bottom this place is worth checking out for a bit of food: https://tannery.ie/
It’s in Dungarvan, about half way between Cork and Waterford
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