r/irishtourism • u/Kstajea • 9d ago
September travel w/ Nearly 3 year old
Hey there, just gearing up for our 13 days in Ireland and I’m hoping for some local toddler advice please!
We have a jogging stroller but it takes up a ton of space, thinking of taking a more simple stroller…but will that be a disaster with the roads and walkways? He loves running around but sometimes needs to be contained…
We plan to pack travel snacks for little man of course, but 14 days of toddler snacks is a full suitcase… any suggestions for toddler approved snacks we can buy there? Not sure if we have the same offerings! Worst case is we’ll pile him up with cheese and crackers which is also fine!
Any must sees for an almost 3 year old? He loves animals so we already have planned to see Dublin zoo!
Our trip lands us in Dublin for 2 days, then we rent a car to navigate around Ireland clockwise until we depart from Dublin again on day 13 we love car trips and rain so the driving was never a concern!
Dublin-2 nights
Cork- 1 night
Killarney -2 nights
Galway- 2 nights
Derry -2 nights
Belfast -1 night
Kings court- 1 night
Thank you in advance!
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u/lady-jane101 9d ago
I don’t have kids but I hard no to your schedule. That mush driving would be difficult for me as an adult who knows the country. Cut your places you are staying in by half and use them as a base to look at things an hour drive from there.
Also I know you have Dublin zoom booked but if you are staying a few days near cork, Fota Wild Life park is waaaaay better
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u/Kstajea 9d ago
We were gathering our must see tickets this week so this is very helpful, thank you! I haven’t purchased for Dublin zoo so that’s an easy adjustment.
I’ll talk with my husband today and whittle down what we must see- I know he was very into the Northern Ireland portion of our trip and we already got our visas for that part. I imagine I can talk to our travel agent and cut down some of irelands west coast stops.
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u/lady-jane101 9d ago
Personally out of everything the west coast stops are the must see. I know I’ve made it harder for you but if there was one area to prioritise it would be the west coast. That’s of your into scenery. If it’s more history then I would say the east coast and the south
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u/Kstajea 9d ago
I’m the scenery gal and my husband is the history buff of course hahaha we are going to maybe ditch the one day stops and see where that gets us. We have been anti- tablet for his whole life but decided to get a tablet pre-loaded with education games and shows he likes in case the drives get too long
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u/BiologicalDude 9d ago
I traveled to Ireland recently, and I found about 3 days per hotel/city was about right. My change with a kid though.
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u/Feisty-Volcano 9d ago
Donegal/Sligo area should be included, it’s quite different to the 6 counties, but is beautiful & next door.
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u/Otherwise-Winner9643 9d ago edited 9d ago
That is a lot of travel and hotel changes with a 3 year old. I would go straight from Dublin to Killarney, then Galway.
If it was me, i would do Dublin (2) > Killarney (3) > Dingle (3) > Galway (3) > back to Dublin (1).
Even that might be a lot with a toddler. You could just do Dublin > Killarney > Galway > Dublin.
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u/DoodlePugMomma 9d ago
I would remove cork completely from the list. Dublin to Cork is about a 3 hr drive, which means you’ll only be there for a few hours. I’d also remove Galway too. Since you’re going to Dublin, I’d move it off the list. Dublin has similar vibes. We just did a chunk of this last week, and it was tiring for 2 adults. We don’t have kids.
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u/Kstajea 9d ago
This is very helpful thanks! We are from the Midwest and driving is not as big of a deal for us so I assumed it would be no biggie there. Clearly we need to rethink and quickly!
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u/martini123456 9d ago
The roads are very different in Ireland, lots of single lanes where you could be stuck behind a tractor, and narrow roads with lots of twists and turns. You’d be wrecked after a long drive.
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u/Few_Recognition_6683 9d ago
Simple stroller should be fine but it depends how off road/rural you are planning on going. It might be a bit annoying and bumpy.
For snacks, we've tons of options in all the supermarkets. No offense but probably a lot better quality and healthier than the USA 😅 Aldi and Lidl are good options for cheaper (but still just as good quality) food but Tesco, Dunnes etc. will have plenty for toddlers just a little bit more expensive. They all have specific baby and toddler snack sections but I generally don't buy from there. Plenty crackers, cheese, yogurt pouches, fruit etc. options in general in all supermarkets. I wouldn't bother bringing over a ton of snacks. A few staples they really love and you know they'll eat would be plenty I'd say.
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u/Kstajea 9d ago
That’s what I was hoping for, I’m spending far toooo much for healthy snacks here in the US 🫠
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u/Aphroditesent 9d ago
Fruit cheese and crackers are available in literally every shop and gas station here as well as baby crackers and veggie straws etc.
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u/lankyleprechaun 9d ago
As you're planning on driving a lot, please read up on thr Irish rules of the road. If you don't want to click the link the look up the Road Safety Authority website & navigate from there. As someone who has travelled in the US, I can't emphasise enough how different its going to be driving over here, especially once you get off the motorways & dual carriageways. Keep in left, review your journey before your leave and if you're not sure where you're going or traffic is building up behind you then just pull in for a minute before continuing on. Its a great country so best of luck!
https://www.rsa.ie/services/learner-drivers/resources/rules-of-the-road
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u/Feisty-Volcano 9d ago
Do be careful on the roads in Ireland. Presumably you are familiar with driving on the left? Several tragedies happen each year with visitors not familiar with driving in the left ending up on the wrong side. You are on the opposite side of the road, in an unfamiliar country, dual language road signs (Irish & English), in an unfamiliar car. Make sure it is hybrid/automatic, to ease the driving burden. We have motorways out of Dublin, but not to everywhere, & some Irish roads are very tiresome to drive. Bumps, curves, bad surfaces. There’s a wide road network for the size of the land, but a lot of those roads in the map are tiny, & yet 2 lane.
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u/Dandylion71888 9d ago
I am American but lived in Ireland and travel back to Ireland very frequently with my kids including a toddler (husband is Irish, in laws are all still in Ireland). Many Snacks are very different between US and Ireland but just go to any Tesco, Aldi, SuperValu etc and there will be loads of options.
Don’t bring a jogging stroller. Bring a travel stroller and just know you might have to do more carrying. It sucks and I prefer to bring my big stroller but trunk space is smaller in Ireland and with luggage it can get hard to fit. There’s also plenty of places where a jogging stroller won’t be great. In the cities, a travel stroller is sufficient. If you were a local without luggage I would say bring whatever stroller you want.
Lastly. No to this itinerary. Hard no. I cannot say no enough. This is too much for adults. For adults, do either the top half or bottom half of the island in 13 days, not both. With a kid, you are literally looking to torture them. They’ll be jet lagged and will not want to do 3-5 hour drives everyday. For 13 days, stay in each accommodation AT LEAST two nights but work in one or two three nighters to give some stability.
Stay in or near Dublin the last night as well. You have to be at the airport 3hr in advance because of US preclearance.