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Getting to Ireland:
To come to Ireland by air is simple, with Aer
Lingus (www.aerlingus.com),
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com)
and Aer Arann (www.aerarann.com)
among the airlines offering very cheap flights to Ireland.
Sometimes special promotional flights are even available free!
The principal airports in Ireland are Dublin (www.dublin-airport.com),
Cork (www.cork-airport.com)
and Shannon (www.shannonairport.com), and although I do
not like Dublin airport because it is a bit chaotic and
impersonal, it does offer the greatest frequency of flights.
Details of other airlines flying to Ireland are available on the
airport websites.
To travel to Ireland by boat, the principal ports in Southern
Ireland are Dublin, Rosslare and Cork. Due to traffic congestion
problems in the Dublin area, Rosslare and Cork are the more
suitable ports for access to the south of Ireland. Among the
ferry companies serving routes from France and the UK to Ireland
are Irish Ferries (www.irishferries.com), Brittany Ferries (www.brittany-ferries.fr),
Swansea-Cork ferries (www.swansea-cork.ie), Stenaline (www.stenaline.ie),
P&0 (www.poirishsea.com)
and Steam-packet (www.steam-packet.com).
Travelling within Ireland:
Travel within Ireland should not pose
difficulties. Car hire is popular, with the airlines and ferry
companies promoting various hire companies that can be accessed
via their websites. Public transport is by bus, train or taxi.
The largest bus company is Bus Eireann (www.buseireann.ie),
and it has scheduled services running throughout the country.
There are private bus companies also operating scheduled
services, but not typically in a co-ordinated manner. Details of
many of their websites are available at www.bushq.com .
The other form of public transport is by rail (www.irishrail.ie)
, although not all parts of the country are served by train, and
it is generally more expensive than bus travel.
Getting to The Apple:
For people travelling to The Apple by public
transport, the nearest railway and bus stations are in Cahir,
Co. Tipperary (6 km) and Clonmel, Co. Tipperary (9km). Both of
these towns are well serviced by bus, but rail services are
infrequent, with the nearest well-served railway stations being
Limerick-Junction and Thurles, both of which are over 30km from
us.
There are a number of local taxi firms in Clonmel and Cahir,
should you wish to travel the last few km to our farm in this
way. The Apple Farm is located on the main Limerick/Waterford
road (N24) between Cahir (6km) and Clonmel (9km), and is well
signposted from this road. (See
map).
If You are using GPS navigation our location is: N52.3766840° and
W 7.8434000°.
Impressions of Tourists driving in Ireland:
Fáilte Ireland recently published the findings of a survey of 900
holiday-makers who toured Ireland by car in 2003. The average distance
travelled be each driver surveyed was 1200km, so with a total distance
of over 1 million km covered, it represents an important profile of
Irish roads.
In all, two thirds of visitors rated their overall driving experience
as good, while one in ten rated the experience as poor.
The aspects of driving in Ireland which came in for most criticism were
the condition of secondary roads and directional signposting. Over half
of visitors stated that the condition of secondary roads was poor, with
over a third stating that directional signposting was poor. The condition of main roads was viewed more favourably, with half stating
that they were good, however, a significant one in five considered them
poor.
The level of traffic in urban areas was greater than expected for 48%
of visitors. Outside of urban areas visitors were less surprised by
volumes, with 21% finding levels greater than expected, but 22% finding
levels less than expected. The aspect found most stressful by overseas
drivers was small narrow roads. However, this was not a feature for
British drivers, being mentioned by just 8% of drivers, probably
because they are used to driving on the left.
When asked to compare the experience of driving in Ireland compared
with their home countries, 52% considered it worse, while 20% considered it better, and 28% said that it was the same. In this case
it again appeared that being used to driving on the left was a factor,
as the British were least critical.
Overall, 56% of visitors said that their experience of driving in
Ireland would encourage them to return for a car-touring holiday; a
good result overall.
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