Dublin

Dublin is the capital of Ireland. All Irish motorways begin here.

Hitching Out

Hitching out of Dublin is okay. The easiest way is to take a bus to the outskirts in any direction and try to get a ride there. Buses are quite cheap.

If you arrived in Dublin (or Dún Laoghaire) by ferry, you should try to hitch a ride at the exit of the ferry port, as there are a lot of cars going to any part of the country.

Be sure to have a large card with the town name you want to go to spelt correctly and shown to oncoming drivers. If you need to stay in Dublin there's a free accommodation finder called Almara Accommodations Dublin.

Heading South/West (Limerick,Cork, etc.)

Go to the Rathcoole petrol station on the West side of the city. This can be reached by the number 69 bus from Dublin City Centre (Aston Quay, etc) for around 2 Euro. It takes about one hour to reach this excellent spot. From the ‘An Poitin Stil bar’ bus stop, you walk up the motorway (the path can be found via the bar car park) for 5 minutes until you reach a petrol station on the left hand side. We got a lift ,after 2 minutes with a sign, from friendly customers towards Cork city.

Another way is to take the red line of Dublin's tram system LUAS in direction of "Tallaght" and get off at "Red Cow" (ticket price from the centre: 2,00€ (Aug 2008)). Here is a P&R-place and next to it ramps to either the N7 (national road) or the M50 (motorway ring surrounding Dublin). It's really easy to get a ride because you can ask people arriving by tram from the city centre.

Heading North/South (Belfast,Wexford, etc.)

Get out of the Dublin airport terminal and go to a petrol station near the exit of airport grounds. The M1 is where you need to go, but it is illegal to walk past the roundabout as this is the motorway. You need to stand before there and the roundabout, where the road goes from 2 lanes to 5, but the problem is that the cars will be going south and north, so A sign is very much necessary. If heading for Belfast/Newry use Drogheda/Dundalk/Newry sign, and for south just use Dublin.

Heading West (M4, N4, N5, N6)

A good place to get a lift westwards (Galway, Sligo, Westport, Athlone) is on the N4 just after the M50, on the western side of Junction 7, where cars leave the junction and are still travelling quite slowly. To get here, take any 25, 66 or 67 from Pearse Street, at the College Green end (fare €1.70), and get off at the Liffey Valley shopping centre. Either ask the driver or fellow passengers to tell you when you cross the M50, or be vigilant for signs saying 'The West' and 'M50', and get off as soon as the bus crosses over the M50. Stand a few metres in front of the bus stop, and don't be tempted to move - further out the cars will be going much faster.