One hour from Dublin

namurt

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but because it's covering a few counties the region section wouldn't really have suited. Basically we're looking to buy a new home in the foreseeable future and would like to be no more than about one hour from Dublin (not for commuting, unless the worst happens, just for things to do and places to go occassionally).

By doing various searches it looks like the main outer limits making a semi-circle around the city centre are Drogheda, Navan, Enfield, Naas, Blessington and Greystones. Does this about cover it or could we go a bit further out by excluding rush hour?

Just looking for info from people who actually drive the routes because housing websites seem to say loads of places are "only half an hour from Dublin" either by counting driving times in the middle of the night or something or probably by using the most outer limits of County Dublin.

Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance.

john.west

namurt wrote: »

Just looking for info from people who actually drive the routes because housing websites seem to say loads of places are "only half an hour from Dublin" either by counting driving times in the middle of the night or something or probably by using the most outer limits of County Dublin.

I'd certainly take any estimations provided by Estate Agents with a serious dose of salt in this regard. Many times they are downright dishonest. I was looking at an online ad for a house for sale in County Limerick and the estate agent says its half an hour commute from Limerick city. Even in the dead of night you would need to be breaking the speed limits by a long shot to make the city in 30 minutes.

Sorry I cant help with your specific query as am not overly familiar with areas around Dublin/ Dublin traffic bottlenecks etc. but AA's online route planner may be of some assistance. Punch in your departure place and destination and it will provide you with the route, distance and estimate travel time.

namurt

Thanks. Yeh, it was the aa routeplanner that I used to get those destinations. It would be great if there was a map available with estimated travel times already on it.

Jo King

You need to say where exactly in the city you are going. It can take 15 minutes to move from the South City Centre to the North City Centre.
Journey times are not fixed and can change over time as new areas develop. The introduction of Bus Lanes also slows things down. I had a colleague who was 10 minutes drive from his house in Lucan to work near the City Centre. A housing development down the road led to increased traffic and he found that it was much slower getting out of his estate and his journey time increased to 30 minutes.

thenightrider

I live in dundalk and my girlfriend works in dublin it takes her a hour to get to work and that is in traffic.

So that might be some were else to look

athtrasna

namurt wrote: »

By doing various searches it looks like the main outer limits making a semi-circle around the city centre are Drogheda, Navan, Enfield, Naas, Blessington and Greystones. Does this about cover it or could we go a bit further out by excluding rush hour?

Drogheda and Greystones within an hour by train maybe. I don't think any of these are driveable within an hour at rush hour...it takes me 40-70 mins to travel 9 miles into the City Centre from D15. The city centre usually takes half if the total journey time...

convert

Blessington is also within an hour of the city most of the time, perhaps excluding really bad rush hour traffic.

mikemac

athtrasna wrote: »

I don't think any of these are driveable within an hour at rush hour...it takes me 40-70 mins to travel 9 miles into the City Centre from D15. The city centre usually takes half if the total journey time...

Get a scooter!
It's the only way to do that commute

Once you get a bit of experience and confidence you'll be filtering through the traffic saving even more time

the_syco

Hrm. Look for places that have bus and rail links, and that also have nightlink routes.

As someone said, where in Dublin do you want to go? If, say, you worked in the IFSC, commuting on the train could be ideal as you may be dropped at Connolly. Southside, the Luas, etc.

dory

He said he's not commuting, and I doubt he's going to leave for his trip to the zoo at 7.45am. I think Drogheda is nice, and Ashbourne. Maynooth is also close.

iceman777

Athlone or Mullingar on the motorway?

At off peak times you'll make it from Athlone to Dublin city centre in just over an hour. You'll only hit traffic once you get to Lucan and at off-peak times you'll still be moving at the speed limit.