LyonsOnTour - relatively new owners seeking tips and guidance

[Lyonsontour]

"Lyons on tour" - 5 months in - lots of weekenders so far - a mix of CLs, CAMC sites, independents via Pitch Up and the odd Pub via Park 4 Night ......now looking at our first longer trip and fancy Eire probably West Coast area - so looking for any tips from others on how to identify sites - so what's the Irish equivalent of pitchup or Park 4 Night as probably not worth a CAMC type membership for our short trip of 14/16 days. Early planning stages so any major do's and don'ts for a trip to the Emerald Isle would be appreciated - cheers Eamon and Sarah

 

[Hawthorn37]

Up front I’ll say that we’ve not yet managed to get to Ireland in the van. It’s been in the plan for around 18 months, and things have got in the way. The new plan is to visit next year with friends, as a convoy of 2 vans. But I’ve researched lots! This is what I’ve found, to the best of my knowledge (I’m sure people will correct if I’m wrong).

No equivalent /coverage of Pitchup for Eire. The private sites don’t like the model.
Very few CAMC / CCC associated sites (couple in the north, one associated site in Dublin).
For the size of the country there aren’t many touring sites.
Quite a number of Motorhome park ups.

To get info on sites, I followed a guy on youtube, channel name is Charlie & Me. He’s got tour videos of most of the sites in Ireland, visiting with his dog (Charlie). Good tips and an honest assessment. On many videos he uses drone footage. He’s also a contributor to a podcast, The Camping Crew, which chats about camping in Ireland.

I’ve plotted a route, around the south of the island, and another round the north. Both for 3 weeks, and taking in the Wild Atlantic Way, Ring Of Kerry etc. Primary sources have been Google, Charlie & Me, and forum contributors visiting Ireland, and those members living in Ireland. I made a list of the top rated sites, chose a general route, and located sites along the route.

Let us all know what you decide on for route / sites. Sharing is caring!!

 

[Lyonsontour]

Up front I’ll say that we’ve not yet managed to get to Ireland in the van. It’s been in the plan for around 18 months, and things have got in the way. The new plan is to visit next year with friends, as a convoy of 2 vans. But I’ve researched lots! This is what I’ve found, to the best of my knowledge (I’m sure people will correct if I’m wrong).

No equivalent /coverage of Pitchup for Eire. The private sites don’t like the model.
Very few CAMC / CCC associated sites (couple in the north, one associated site in Dublin).
For the size of the country there aren’t many touring sites.
Quite a number of Motorhome park ups.

To get info on sites, I followed a guy on youtube, channel name is Charlie & Me. He’s got tour videos of most of the sites in Ireland, visiting with his dog (Charlie). Good tips and an honest assessment. On many videos he uses drone footage. He’s also a contributor to a podcast, The Camping Crew, which chats about camping in Ireland.

I’ve plotted a route, around the south of the island, and another round the north. Both for 3 weeks, and taking in the Wild Atlantic Way, Ring Of Kerry etc. Primary sources have been Google, Charlie & Me, and forum contributors visiting Ireland, and those members living in Ireland. I made a list of the top rated sites, chose a general route, and located sites along the route.

Let us all know what you decide on for route / sites. Sharing is caring!!

Hi there - thanks for the info much appreciated we will review those sources as part of our planning - will come back and share our plans once mapped out - best wishes Eamon and Sarah

 

[Hawthorn37]

Here is a link for Charlie & me latest video

 

[Graham CH]

"Lyons on tour" - 5 months in - lots of weekenders so far - a mix of CLs, CAMC sites, independents via Pitch Up and the odd Pub via Park 4 Night ......now looking at our first longer trip and fancy Eire probably West Coast area - so looking for any tips from others on how to identify sites - so what's the Irish equivalent of pitchup or Park 4 Night as probably not worth a CAMC type membership for our short trip of 14/16 days. Early planning stages so any major do's and don'ts for a trip to the Emerald Isle would be appreciated - cheers Eamon and Sarah

Hi we did this trip earlier this year world lovely people. Weather was interesting it isn't called the wild Atlantic way for nothing . What we learned was as we went from Stranraer through NI to Fannad Head then right down the coast the first few days were space for food drink and sites once you get to Gallway it improves . Some of the better sites we booked said they were fully booked in the main season.
I have attached our itinerary if it helps .

 

[GeoS4]

Hi, I’m Irish, living in Cavan. Everyone has different tastes but my favourites are Clare & Kerry (the Ring of Kerry & the Dingle Peninsula). A couple of useful resources are the Facebook page ‘The ultimate road trip resource Ireland’ https://www.facebook.com/share/ge54Fbru6zTsobWx/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
and Ireland Camping, Caravan and motor home guide (a website & a physical book) https://www.campingireland.ie/order-a-brochure/ . There are some great sites along the Wild Atlantic Way - Nagles (Doolin, Co Clare), Woodlands (Tralee, Co Kerry; Flemings, Whitebridge, Killarney) but there are some lovely smaller sites in particularly beautiful inland areas: Loughcrew, Co Meath - small campsite next to Loughcrew Megalithic tomb (a passage tomb older than the pyramids on a hill with a view of 18 of Ireland’s 32 counties); Glen of Aherlow camping, Tipperary (gorgeous campsite in a gorgeous area); Wave Crest, Caherdaniel, Co Kerry (stunning location). The weather gets ‘interesting’ at times! We always carry Mac-in-a-sac type things - both coats & trousers, to layer over lighter clothes. I have a blog (not updated in AGES!) that has some of our Irish travels / stays on it … feel free to have a look or to fire any questions. Happy planning! https://vwcalifornia.wordpress.com/

 

[DaveT54]

"Lyons on tour" - 5 months in - lots of weekenders so far - a mix of CLs, CAMC sites, independents via Pitch Up and the odd Pub via Park 4 Night ......now looking at our first longer trip and fancy Eire probably West Coast area - so looking for any tips from others on how to identify sites - so what's the Irish equivalent of pitchup or Park 4 Night as probably not worth a CAMC type membership for our short trip of 14/16 days. Early planning stages so any major do's and don'ts for a trip to the Emerald Isle would be appreciated - cheers Eamon and Sarah

We used the campingireland.ie website last year on our trip around Ireland.

 

[Hawthorn37]

Hi, I’m Irish, living in Cavan. Everyone has different tastes but my favourites are Clare & Kerry (the Ring of Kerry & the Dingle Peninsula). A couple of useful resources are the Facebook page ‘The ultimate road trip resource Ireland’ https://www.facebook.com/share/ge54Fbru6zTsobWx/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
and Ireland Camping, Caravan and motor home guide (a website & a physical book) https://www.campingireland.ie/order-a-brochure/ . There are some great sites along the Wild Atlantic Way - Nagles (Doolin, Co Clare), Woodlands (Tralee, Co Kerry; Flemings, Whitebridge, Killarney) but there are some lovely smaller sites in particularly beautiful inland areas: Loughcrew, Co Meath - small campsite next to Loughcrew Megalithic tomb (a passage tomb older than the pyramids on a hill with a view of 18 of Ireland’s 32 counties); Glen of Aherlow camping, Tipperary (gorgeous campsite in a gorgeous area); Wave Crest, Caherdaniel, Co Kerry (stunning location). The weather gets ‘interesting’ at times! We always carry Mac-in-a-sac type things - both coats & trousers, to layer over lighter clothes. I have a blog (not updated in AGES!) that has some of our Irish travels / stays on it … feel free to have a look or to fire any questions. Happy planning! https://vwcalifornia.wordpress.com/

Thanks - useful info. I’ve bookmarked this post!

 

[kurienp]

Who needs a site? 10 days through the bottom part of Ireland covering the lower part of the WAW and we used some nice overnight parking spaces with toilet facilities all through. Only used one site at Mannix Point (primarily to dump our waste) and another paid dumping station along the way. (Edit And a campsite right outside Dublin on the last day, that's two campsites in 10 days)

Look for it, and you will find excellent parking spaces at a few euros a night and all of them had either 24 hrs paid toilets or open at 6 am kinds.

Started from Wexford, down to Cork, Skibbereen, Kerry, Dingle, Limerick and Galway and back to Dublin. Part 2 of WAW starting from Galway and up in the planning.

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