Ireland Campervan Road Trip: The Wild Atlantic Way and the Ring of Kerry in About Ten Days

Before you put a wheel on Irish tarmac, accept one thing: this trip doesn't drive like anywhere else. Driving on the left, narrow hedge-lined roads, passing places too tight for two wide vehicles — mental preparation matters as much as the route itself.

Before you hit the road: driving a campervan in Ireland

Driving on the left throws you off for the first few kilometres, especially at roundabouts and when overtaking. Nothing insurmountable, but it's best not to plan too ambitious a stage on day one, while your reflexes settle in.

The real challenge comes from the roads themselves. In counties Kerry and Galway, small coastal roads wind between tall hedges that cut down both visibility and usable width. Passing a tour bus or another campervan on some stretches means slowing right down, sometimes stopping completely to let the other vehicle through. This isn't a minor detail: it's the very rhythm of the trip that needs adjusting.

Count on a real average of 50 to 60 km/h on these coastal roads, well below what Google Maps promises. A journey that looks like 40 minutes on an app can take twice as long once you're behind the wheel of a campervan, with stops to let vehicles pass, farm tractors, and viewpoints worth pulling over for.

As for timing, aim for late May to early September: the weather is kinder and the long days leave time to enjoy the evening light on the coast. July and August are best avoided if possible — that's peak season on the Ring of Kerry, with tour buses making crossings even trickier on an already narrow road.

The trip starts from Shannon, a logical pick-up point for then looping south-west and on to Connemara without retracing the same roads.

Why this trip doesn't cover the whole Wild Atlantic Way

The Wild Atlantic Way stretches over 2,500 km, from Donegal down to Cork. At campervan pace — especially on the narrow roads described above — covering it all in ten days would mean constant forcing: three hours of driving in the morning, three more in the afternoon, no room to stop for a view that deserves it. That's not the kind of trip the Carnet recommends.

So we chose to focus this trip on the south-west: the Burren, Connemara, the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry. It's the stretch richest in scenery over a distance that stays reasonable to drive, with short stages that leave time to stop, walk out to a cliff, or change plans if the weather turns.

In practice, that means leaving out Donegal, Mayo and Sligo. These are counties with their own devoted fans, and we're not claiming they're any less beautiful. But fitting them into this trip would mean either seriously lengthening the journey or turning every stage into a straight motorway run to make up lost time — exactly what you're trying to avoid in a campervan.

If you have two or three weeks rather than ten days, Donegal clearly deserves its own extension: spectacular cliffs, quieter roads, a different mood from the more touristy south. But for a first visit to Ireland with limited time, leaving it out isn't a loss. The south-west already packs in enough to fill ten days without feeling like you're racing the itinerary.

This choice has another direct benefit: it lets you complete the loop without driving the same roads twice, heading south from Shannon and then back up through Connemara. That's the route we detail in the next section.

Where to sleep: campsites and sites suited to campervans

The choice of campsite changes the evening. Stopping early on the west coast means catching the low Atlantic light rather than the headlights of cars hunting for a parking space.

On the Dingle Peninsula, Dingle Camping & Caravan Park remains a practical option for anyone who wants to stay within walking distance of town in the evening while keeping the campervan parked for the night. Near Killarney, the pivot point before the Ring of Kerry, Fossa Caravan & Camping Park is known for welcoming campervans without any particular access issues.

Further round the ring, at Cahersiveen, Mannix Point Caravan & Camping Park has a reputation for open views over the bay — worth checking on arrival, but it's the kind of stop where it pays to arrive before late afternoon to enjoy the site before dark.

In the Burren, near the Cliffs of Moher, Nagle's Doolin Camping & Caravan Park makes a logical base for visiting the cliffs early the next morning, before the coach tours arrive. Finally, in Connemara, Clifden Eco Beach Camping lets you end the trip on a wilder note, away from the tourist density of the south-west.

Wild camping rules aren't uniform. It's tolerated in some rural areas, by the roadside or on open ground, but banned in national parks and on car parks at tourist sites — exactly the places you'd want to spend the night for the view. Where a campervan service area exists nearby [à vérifier leur présence en Irlande], that's the legal alternative to favour rather than chancing it on a signposted car park.

Budget and choosing your vehicle for this trip

Over a trip of roughly 900 to 1,000 km, fuel costs stay reasonable compared with other European countries covered by campervan, but you need to add two lines that often get forgotten: the ferry and the campsites.

The Tarbert–Killimer crossing, which lets you cut across the Shannon estuary rather than loop round via Limerick, costs €30 one way or €45 return for a campervan. Over a ten-day trip, that's a detour avoided and time saved that easily justifies the cost.

For accommodation, budget between €25 and €35 a night at the campsites listed above. Over ten nights, that adds up to a sizeable share of the total budget — well above fuel itself on a trip this packed with short stages.

That leaves the choice between campervan and coachbuilt motorhome, and it settles quickly once you've driven the roads of Kerry or Connemara. A wide coachbuilt, comfortable on major roads, becomes a real handicap the moment you need to pass another vehicle on a narrow, hedge-lined stretch. Every crossing turns into a manoeuvre, every passing place into a width calculation. A compact campervan, on the other hand, blends into local traffic: it parks more easily in the evening, slips into passing places without hesitation, and leaves more margin when the road narrows without warning — which happens often.

Frequently asked questions about this trip

The route, leg by leg