Relocating from Dublin & remote working

Grassey

I can't believe nobody has said yet n4 to sandyford will be about half the travel time on a normal day!

inisboffin

Javion Plump Packaging wrote: »

And I’m not denying it takes 2.5 hours from leaving the station to drop of in Dublin but that’s not a truthful comparison.

Get in your car and drive to Dublin you are immediately on the way, allowing the time to drive to the station, park board etc and then get to your destination on the other end could easily add an hour and most likely up to 2 hours depending on where you are going on the other end.

If I was to get the bus (at an off peak time early in the morning say so no traffic) I’d have to leave the house 40 mins before the departure time. Id be almost in Athlone by the time the bus left the station if I just drove.

We are all imposing our variables, like the fact that some would need to drive to the bus station vs walk, cycle, taxi, that some would have parking the other end, vs having having to look for it, when on public transport you just walk in. Bus lanes make a HUGE difference, as does the ability to eat a sandwich and drink tea while driving, not having to stop to use the loo, pull in etc. :P

Even the train (which I like too) is very subjective. The train has more space and if you have good headphones, is grand, but it is SO much noisier than the bus. I find the bus better for focused work, and warmer (no announcements and doors opening). But sure some people prefer driving, it doesn't mean one is the ultimate and the other isn't - it's what you need yourself to get stuff done.

LostDuck

Jazlyn Teeny Teapot wrote: »

If I was to get the bus (at an off peak time early in the morning say so no traffic) I’d have to leave the house 40 mins before the departure time. Id be almost in Athlone by the time the bus left the station if I just drove.

OP keep this in mind if you happy to be moving in with them.

Wompa1

Javion Plump Packaging wrote: »

And I’m not denying it takes 2.5 hours from leaving the station to drop of in Dublin but that’s not a truthful comparison.

Get in your car and drive to Dublin you are immediately on the way, allowing the time to drive to the station, park board etc and then get to your destination on the other end could easily add an hour and most likely up to 2 hours depending on where you are going on the other end.

If I was to get the bus (at an off peak time early in the morning say so no traffic) I’d have to leave the house 40 mins before the departure time. Id be almost in Athlone by the time the bus left the station if I just drove.

You live outside of the city. This is a city forum and the OP is talking about living in Knocknacarra\Salthill\Barna area. Off peak into the city from there is far less than 40 minutes and he'd have go by the city anyway

CowboyTed

irishguy wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. I would only be looking at going to Dublin once a week, possibly once every 2 weeks. No way I'd do it every day. I can start late 10ish and finish early 4/4.30ish on the travel days. So would be getting off Galway motorway about 6/6.30. I assume it would be quick enough getting a cross Galway at that time? I would hope it should be <3hrs door 2 door

I have a good job which I like, stable employer, so would be happy there for a good while. Company has always been very flexible around WFH, but obviously if that changes I would need to find a job in Galway. I work in IT so I'd say Id get something, but there are obviously less opportunities, less money and the roles don't look as interesting there. I would have to look for something more junior.

Obviously East Galway would be better commute wise, but we want to be by the sea in a nice area, walking distance to shops/cafes/restaurants etc and have a good bit more space in the house.

I was doing this once every month from Knocknacarra to Merrion Rd or Leopardstown... I would stay one night and return home.

I used to leave 7am and would arrive in well before 10am... There is little traffic at the time and you fly across the city in 15 min... When you get to Dublin at about 9:15am ish there is little traffic on the M50... Trip up is relatively stress free...

Coming home you need to leave by 4pm... Traffic really builds up... A tip go into the office for 7am, it is great to get on top of things and also get one on one meetings with people you would find harder later in the day. This is a long day and leave early as fatigue can be an issue if in long lines of traffic.

One thing to note... You will use Dublin for meetings and face to face time and your other productivity goes down while in Dublin.. But you will see it go back up when back.

Working from home. This has pitfalls... But you are moving from Dublin so I presume you are used to higher side of property prices... When looking at properties consider a Garden office. They create a division between your work and home life (so no work in the house and no house stuff in the office).. There is a fair backlog (about 6 mths) on them at the moment.

Saying that what you are doing is far from unique... IT companies in Dublin have been supporting this for a few years.

Hope that helps and Good Luck...

CowboyTed

Javion Plump Packaging wrote: »

I couldn’t think of anything worse, it’s a handy and fast drive. The bus is probably doubling journey time and halving the comfort. 4 hours Dublin to Galway??

Drive... Quick in and out...

MrMusician18

CowboyTed wrote: »

I was doing this once every month from Knocknacarra to Merrion Rd or Leopardstown... I would stay one night and return home.

I used to leave 7am and would arrive in well before 10am... There is little traffic at the time and you fly across the city in 15 min... When you get to Dublin at about 9:15am ish there is little traffic on the M50... Trip up is relatively stress free...

Coming home you need to leave by 4pm... Traffic really builds up... A tip go into the office for 7am, it is great to get on top of things and also get one on one meetings with people you would find harder later in the day. This is a long day and leave early as fatigue can be an issue if in long lines of traffic.

One thing to note... You will use Dublin for meetings and face to face time and your other productivity goes down while in Dublin.. But you will see it go back up when back.

Working from home. This has pitfalls... But you are moving from Dublin so I presume you are used to higher side of property prices... When looking at properties consider a Garden office. They create a division between your work and home life (so no work in the house and no house stuff in the office).. There is a fair backlog (about 6 mths) on them at the moment.

Saying that what you are doing is far from unique... IT companies in Dublin have been supporting this for a few years.

Hope that helps and Good Luck...

You are having a laugh. The M50 is very slow southbound in the morning until will after 10am and northbound from 4pm to 7.

To be in the office at 7am he'd need to be leaving 4:30am latest. I don't think it's really feasible unless you're some sort of masochist.

cannco253

Taxi from Knocknacarra to bus station at 5am takes 10-15 mins and costs around 15 euro.
Bus return costs 23 euro return
Luas to Sandyford 4 euro each way (unless you have a leap card).
Total 46

Car has 2 tolls into Dublin (1.90 + 2.90) * 2 = 9.60
Fuel cost return to Sandyford (call it 450km round trip) ?? 8ltr/100km @1.20 diesel = roughly 45 euro
Total 55

The bus crosses over the M50 on the way to Heuston and the traffic is very heavy from 8am every day, not just on a Monday. People who work in the office always complain how bad it is in the morning....never mind the return trip home in the evening. Sandyford gets very congested, so the Luas stop is a handy way to get there.

Don't underestimate the effort involved in driving at that hour in the morning. It's fine for a while, but it also gets to you especially when the weather turns. I used to commute to Shannon and that was bad enough (before the motorway from Gort opened).

cannco253

cannco253 wrote: »

Taxi from Knocknacarra to bus station at 5am takes 10-15 mins and costs around 15 euro.
Bus return costs 23 euro return
Luas to Sandyford 4 euro each way (unless you have a leap card).
Total 46

Car has 2 tolls into Dublin (1.90 + 2.90) * 2 = 9.60
Fuel cost return to Sandyford (call it 450km round trip) ?? 8ltr/100km @1.20 diesel = roughly 45 euro
Total 55

The bus crosses over the M50 on the way to Heuston and the traffic is very heavy from 8am every day, not just on a Monday. People who work in the office always complain how bad it is in the morning....never mind the return trip home in the evening. Sandyford gets very congested, so the Luas stop is a handy way to get there.

Don't underestimate the effort involved in driving at that hour in the morning. It's fine for a while, but it also gets to you especially when the weather turns. I used to commute to Shannon and that was bad enough (before the motorway from Gort opened).

Max 5L/100 km for any half decent diesel on the trip which makes the car cheaper. I get around 4.8 out of my heavy 2L diesel. I’d nearly get 8 out of my second car which is a turbo petrol.

Aside from that even if the car does cost more it’s is just immeasurably nicer hopping in the car, audio book on and drive to your destination. Taxi’s, Luas, time tables etc absolute torture.

I regularly do a long drive early in the morning and back once a week, longer than Galway to Dublin and it’s not bad at all (when it’s only once a week), I couldn’t face it with a bus though.

CowboyTed

MrMusician18 wrote: »

You are having a laugh. The M50 is very slow southbound in the morning until will after 10am and northbound from 4pm to 7.

To be in the office at 7am he'd need to be leaving 4:30am latest. I don't think it's really feasible unless you're some sort of masochist.

Actually on it very regularly at 9:15 to 9:30 and it basics pretty free...

I would leave Knocknacarra at 6:45 to 7am and make a meetings at 10am in Merrion Rd.

Honestly I was surprised how easy it was... Coming home is a different kettle of fish... If you are not on M50 by 4pm latest you will take an hour to get to Lucan... Found it kind of strange...

CowboyTed

Javion Plump Packaging wrote: »

Max 5L/100 km for any half decent diesel on the trip which makes the car cheaper. I get around 4.8 out of my heavy 2L diesel. I’d nearly get 8 out of my second car which is a turbo petrol.

Aside from that even if the car does cost more it’s is just immeasurably nicer hopping in the car, audio book on and drive to your destination. Taxi’s, Luas, time tables etc absolute torture.

I regularly do a long drive early in the morning and back once a week, longer than Galway to Dublin and it’s not bad at all (when it’s only once a week), I couldn’t face it with a bus though.

For Sandyford I will drive everytime.. Too many connections and things to go wrong...

As for Airport, Always the Bus, Less connections and less problems...

mcbert

Pre covid I was doing similar. To dublin one morning, back to galway after work following day. Going from Knocknacarra, to blanchardstown, leaving by 7am, got to blanchardstown by 9:20/9:30. Leaving blanchardstown next day at 5:40, back to Knocknacarra by 8pm. Once in car by 7am, traffic was fine. 10min later it gets noticeably slower. Slowest bit was dublin traffic at 5:40 to 6pm. Overall it was OK, but now with covid, I hope I never need to go back to office. I'd hate to do both legs of journey in one day. You'd burn out doing that. Even split across 2 days, doing it fir 18mon, it took away from settling into galway properly. Its fine for a year or two, but not a long term plan really, not for me anyway. I hope 100% remote forever. Fingers crossed.

On Galway itself, love it, don't miss Dublin at all. Love being minutes from the sea, closer to the wild west coast etc. Knocknacarra is nice. I wfh so rarely drive through bad traffic but if I had to daily, it might take the shine off the place. Also, house prices are not cheap. It might be cheaper than various parts of Dublin but if you are expecting some sort of rural bargain, you're going to be disappointed.

cannco253

Forgot to add the motor tax and insurance cost of the car as well, if we want to start getting into the detail.
Not everyone has two cars that they can spare the use of for the drive.

In the 18 months I've been doing the trip it's only gone wrong once, and delayed me an extra 30 mins on Monday morning.
Friday is definitely different and can be a complete lottery getting out of Dublin on the bus or in a car.

I find that if I sleep on the bus up, I'm ready to go once I get into work. If you drive you're either very early to bed the night before or the afternoon slump starts to kick in around 4pm...I know I'm wrecked on the Monday evening, but it's never as bad on the Friday night =;-)

Bobeagleburger

Oranmore surrounding area might be a good option OP

Kingp35

Hi Op.

I'm a Dub. I moved from Dun Laoghaire to Oranmore 2 years ago, like you my wife works out here so we chose to move down. Oranmore was the most similar to Dun Laoghaire. It has plenty of pubs/restaurants and is on the sea. It's also very close to the city with a bus that costs less than €2 to get to the city and leaves every 30 mins. You also have 4 supermarkets and a cinema.

It takes us less than 2hrs 30mins to get to Dun Laoghaire so you would get to Sandyford in probably 2hrs 15mins. Oranmore is right beside the motorway so it's great.

I would highly recommend Oranmore. It's no Dun Laoghaire but the cost of living is much cheaper!

Bobeagleburger

There's not much difference in distance between Oranmore to Eyre Square, and Barna to Eyre Square. Maybe 2km or so, so you're still close to Galway City.

The difference in time for commuting to Dublin could be significant though.

PhoenixParker

Everyone's talking about the commute and I'll leave them to it. Many high level professionals & managers in regional cities end up in Dublin 1-2 days a week for meetings. It's a very common lifestyle. Tough but doable.



I've lived in both Dublin and Galway and while I love Galway, what would nix the move for me is the rain. Good jaysus it's relentless and depressing. It's on a whole other level of wet to Dublin. It literally rains for months on end. People will argue and say Dublin is wet, or there's not much difference. There is, it's huge. Even on wet days in Dublin the rain usually starts and stops, there are gaps and pauses. In Galway there are no pauses.

I'd say rent somewhere for 6 months, live there through the Winter and then see if it's a runner.

Mrs OBumble

Kingp35 wrote: »

Oranmore. It's no Dun Laoghaire but ....

That's some marketing slogan!

mcbert

PhoenixParker wrote: »

Everyone's talking about the commute and I'll leave them to it. Many high level professionals & managers in regional cities end up in Dublin 1-2 days a week for meetings. It's a very common lifestyle. Tough but doable.



I've lived in both Dublin and Galway and while I love Galway, what would nix the move for me is the rain. Good jaysus it's relentless and depressing. It's on a whole other level of wet to Dublin. It literally rains for months on end. People will argue and say Dublin is wet, or there's not much difference. There is, it's huge. Even on wet days in Dublin the rain usually starts and stops, there are gaps and pauses. In Galway there are no pauses.

I'd say rent somewhere for 6 months, live there through the Winter and then see if it's a runner.

Don't want to argue, but regarding rain, after two winters in galway, I've been thinking the rain is exaggerated. Yeah its wet but it doesn't feel vastly different to Dublin, to me. Bit worse I'd say. I notice the difference in wind more, and I'm fond of a bit of that.

GalwayGrrrrrl

PhoenixParker wrote: »

I've lived in both Dublin and Galway and while I love Galway, what would nix the move for me is the rain. Good jaysus it's relentless and depressing. It's on a whole other level of wet to Dublin. It literally rains for months on end. People will argue and say Dublin is wet, or there's not much difference. There is, it's huge. Even on wet days in Dublin the rain usually starts and stops, there are gaps and pauses. In Galway there are no pauses.

I'd say rent somewhere for 6 months, live there through the Winter and then see if it's a runner.

I agree that Galway is wetter than Dublin but there are not many days in the year that you’d be saturated. I started walking part of the way to work three years ago and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been very wet from the walk. After living in Galway for a while you get a good Raincoat and check the forecast and can get outside most days. Note - umbrellas are useless due to the wind!
Having lived in a much drier city for half my life I’d still choose Galway for bringing up kids, even with the rain.

Bobeagleburger

There's not much difference in rain. Galway definitely gets more but it's over egged.

Bredabe

+1 for Oranmore, a bit like living in Rathmines in terms of shops and parking.
Public transport can be dodge, but within a few mins of the motorway, good schools, safe parks and seascapes.

The train station is a bit of a walk outside of the village, but you can park there all day or cycle safely.

Wompa1

+1 for Oranmore too. Not sure how it is now but put an offer on a house in Oranmore back in November. They got an offer that 100K more than the asking price! :pac:

El Tarangu

6 wrote: »

There's not much difference in rain. Galway definitely gets more but it's over egged.

Galway experiences 230 days of rainfall a year compared to Dublin's 130; the difference is pretty significant.

what_traffic

El Tarangu wrote: »

Galway experiences 230 days of rainfall a year compared to Dublin's 130; the difference is pretty significant.

How many hours per a 24 hour day does it qualify that it has rained that day? Or is it 15/30 minutes per day?

PhoenixParker

Met.ie have a good breakdown, though you've to use Claremorris as a proxy for Galway. Right most column has the yearly data.

Data here for Dublin:
https://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/1971-2000/dublin.html

Here for Claremorris:
https://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/1971-2000/claremorris.html

Dublin had an average of 188 days with 0.2mm of rain or more (which is the bare minimum to count as a rainy day), 126 days with 1mm or more and 43 days with over 5mm of rain. Total average rainfall 734mm.

Claremorris an average of 226 days with 0.2mm of rain or more, 174 days with 1mm or more and 75 days with over 5mm of rain. Total average rainfall 1173mm.

It's a big chunk wetter. Basically 50% more rain in total with an extra months worth of days with heavy rainfall.

It's a bit like living on a busy road. Some people it bothers, some people are fine with it. OP might be fine with it, but before moving lock stock and barrel I'd suggest getting through a winter first.

Mrs OBumble

what_traffic wrote: »

How many hours per a 24 hour day does it qualify that it has rained that day? Or is it 15/30 minutes per day?

Generally about 30 minutes of each hour :}

¿

Bredabe

The rain I can stand. The unrelenting grayness is what gets to me.

what_traffic

PhoenixParker wrote: »

Dublin had an average of 188 days with 0.2mm of rain or more (which is the bare minimum to count as a rainy day), 126 days with 1mm or more and 43 days with over 5mm of rain. Total average rainfall 734mm.

Claremorris an average of 226 days with 0.2mm of rain or more, 174 days with 1mm or more and 75 days with over 5mm of rain. Total average rainfall 1173mm.

That makes sense, volume of rain.
North County Dublin i.e Dublin Airport looks like it gets the lowest rainfall of any weather station in the whole Country.

beardybrewer

My wife used to comment on Galway girls and would point out all the stylish scarves and hats when we visited. Then we moved here and she realised they weren't being fashionable!