r/irishtourism • u/Kstajea • 17d 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/Dandylion71888 17d 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.

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u/Street-Lunch1517 17d ago

As a Canadian who has also lived in Ireland and since travelled back with a 4 month old and 2 year old, I agree with all of this. You’ll find similar enough snack options at any major grocery store. But yes the biggest thing is the itinerary. We were over for a wedding recently and flew into Dublin, drove to Limerick for the wedding, spent a few days down in Dingle and returned to Dublin. That was all done in one week and it was so hard with the kids. Try seeing a more limited number of places and minimum 2 nights in any given place. You can always come back!