How to Travel to Ireland by Train

Choose your route. Before buying your rail and ferry tickets, decide what your itinerary is. If you plan on traveling extensively by rail in Ireland and other European countries, you should consider buying a rail pass instead of a single journey ticket. Learn more about rail passes on www.eurolines.com.

Decide on your port of entry. Ferries generally ply routes from Stanraer to Belfast (3 hours, 15 minutes), Holyhead to Dublin (3 hours) and Fishguard to Rossiare (3 hours, 30 minutes). Check out seat61.com/Ireland.htm to see a map of rail routes and ferry crossings from Britain to Ireland.

If you want to explore Northern Ireland, including Country Derry, Portrush's beaches, the Causeway Coastform and Rathlin Island, you should plan on using the Stanraer to Belfast crossing. If you want to start with the lakes of County Roscommon, arrive in Dublin and then take a bus to your desired destination. For a retreat to Killarney National Park, start in Rossiare and continue on the train to Killarney.

Book your tickets. You can book combined rail and ferry tickets at a number of places. Eurolines and National Rail UK offer one-way tickets from London's Victoria Station to Dublin (12 hours, 30 minutes) for just £16 (about $26). Go to eurolines.co.uk to check combined rail and ferry rates between other cities. You can also book combined tickets on sailrail.co.uk, but the rates are slightly higher than Eurolines. On some ferry routes there are fastboat crossings and regular ferry crossings. The fastboat crossings take about half the time.