If you’re based in Great Britain, you could get to Ireland in just two hours. If you’re in the United States, the journey is longer, but for those on the East Coast, it’s a quick 5 hours.
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Whether you’re in London, New York, or as far away as Australia, there are steps you can take to get to this welcoming vacation destination in 2024.
Traveling from Great Britain to Ireland by Air
From Great Britain (which includes England, Scotland, and Wales), you have the choice of getting to Ireland by plane or by ferry.
There are 7 airports on the island of Ireland that a visitor from Great Britain can fly to.
They include Belfast, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Dublin, Kerry, and Ireland West Airport in Knock, County Mayo.
So whatever part of Ireland you want to explore, there’s a convenient airport close to it.
If you are a British national, you won’t need to show your passport when you arrive in Ireland, but you should have some form of ID ready for customs.
The most popular airlines from Great Britain to Ireland include Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Ryan Air.
Feel free to do your own research using flight search engines like Google Flights, Kayak, Momondo, Priceline, and others.
Discover Ireland with Aer Lingus Vacations
Traveling from Great Britain to Ireland by Ferry
Three ferry routes operate from Great Britain to Ireland. If you are bringing your car with you to Ireland, be sure to have your motor insurance documents with you. A green insurance card for driving in Ireland (previously required for U.K. residents) is no longer necessary.
P&O Irish Sea Ferries
P&O Irish Sea Ferries operates a ferry service from Liverpool to Dublin, which runs 5 times a week.
That journey takes 7 hours and 30 minutes, with the average fare costing about £198 return (1 car, 1 passenger) depending on the season. Ferry tickets include meals.
The Stena Line
The Stena Line runs a service from Holyhead (Wales) to Dublin (Dun Laoghaire), providing seven weekly sailings in about 5 hours.
Round-trip fares start at £129 (includes 1 passenger and 1 car).
For Scottish passengers, you can get to the island of Ireland on its Cairnryan to Belfast route.
Travel on the Stena Superfast VII or the Stena Superfast VIII ferries, both crossing 6 times a day, can be completed in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Fares start at £119 for 1 passenger and 1 car.
In addition, the Stena Line offers a Liverpool to Belfast service twice daily. Passengers can take the Stena Edda or the Stena Embla ferries.
Fares start at £129 for 1 passenger and 1 car.
The Stena Line also offers the shortest travel time from South Wales to Ireland on its Fishguard to Rosslare route.
The twice-daily journey is available on the Stena Europe ferry in a travel time of about 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Fares are from £129 for 1 car and 1 passenger.
Irish Ferries
If you are interested in getting across the Irish Sea in a much faster time, Irish Ferries offers up to four crossings a day.
Those crossings include the Holyhead to Dublin service and the Pembroke to Rosslare service, with travel times between 2 and 3.5 hours.
If you’re traveling from Holyhead, you could travel in style on the Ulysses ferry, which contains two cinema screens, bars, shopping, and dining.
The W.B. Yeats ferry includes comfortable cabins and luxury suites, in addition to the Innisfree Club lounge and the Maud Gonne lounge and bar.
Other ships on this route include the Epsilon and the Dublin Swift ferries.
Fares with Irish Ferries range from about £173 to £188 round-trip during the high season.
Traveling from Europe to Ireland by Air
Getting to Ireland from mainland Europe is quite easy as there are several airlines that fly into the country.
The most popular airlines from Europe to Ireland are Aer Lingus and Ryan Air.
Others include Air France, KLM, Iberia, Lufthansa, Finn Air, Tap Air Portugal, and Scandinavian Air.
Traveling from Europe to Ireland by Ferry
If you are based in Northern France and you want to bring your car with you, getting to Ireland is accessible by ferry.
There are three ferry routes between France and Ireland, providing a total of eight sailings per week. They include Irish Ferries, Brittany Ferries, and the Stena Line.
Irish Ferries
This ferry route goes from Cherbourg, France to Dublin and runs four times per week.
The journey takes about 19 hours and 15 minutes. The average rate during the high season is €247 (1 passenger, 1 car), but check with Irish Ferries to get exact fares.
Brittany Ferries
This ferry service operates two routes from France to Ireland, one from Cherbourg to Rosslare (17 hours) and the other from Roscoff to Cork (11 hours traveling time).
Both ferries run twice a week.
Stena Line
The Stena Line operates a service from Cherbourg to Rosslare three times a week on the Stena Horizon. You can get fares from €189 (1 car, 1 passenger).
The journey takes about 17 hours.
Traveling from North America to Ireland by Air
From the U.S.
From the United States, there are several options available to passengers. They include the following airlines:
- Aer Lingus – Ireland’s national airline flies from several U.S. cities to Ireland. They include Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Hartford, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Newark, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, and Washington, D.C. (Dulles). While Dublin is served on all the above routes, Shannon is seasonal depending on the city you depart from. It is best to check on the Aer Lingus website.
An Aer Lingus plane over the cliffs in Ireland. Photo courtesy of Aer Lingus. - American Airlines – the airline flies from Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, and Philadelphia to Dublin.
- Delta Airlines – the airline flies to Ireland from Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul and New York (JFK). It also flies to Shannon from New York.
A Delta Airbus. Photo courtesy of Delta Airlines. - United Airlines – the airline flies to Ireland from Chicago, Newark and Washington, D.C. (Dulles). It flies to Shannon from Chicago and Newark.
Icelandic airline called PLAY offers a transatlantic service from Stewart Airport in New York (about 1.5 hours from Manhattan) to Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as from Washington Dulles Airport.
When you book with PLAY, your connecting flight to Dublin is automatically included in your booking (see image below).
Canada
From Canada, travelers have a couple of different options, including the following:
Aer Lingus – the airline operates a direct service from Toronto to Dublin. Passengers in other cities, including Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Vancouver, must get connecting flights to Ireland.
Air Canada – operates flights from Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Traveling from Australia to Ireland by Air
Qantas, Australia’s official airline, operates flights to Dublin from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney.
Other airlines going into Ireland from Australia include Virgin Australia, Emirates, Delta, British Airways, Etihad Airways, and Air Canada.
Traveling from Asia and the Middle East to Ireland by Air
Traveling from this part of the world to Ireland is admittedly more difficult since you will need to get a connecting flight somewhere.
Your best bet will be to search for flights into London and then make a connection to Dublin or one of the other airports in Ireland.
Are you curious about how to get to Ireland in 2024 or perhaps you are planning a vacation sometime in the future? If so, let me know in the comments below.
