Best commuter town/village serving Dublin?

earring

Me and my boyfriend are in a need of some seaside and greenery (we currently live in Dublin city) and wondering where is the best place to live outside Dublin? It would have to be near the train line and not too expensive. We are looking to rent. Any ideas? It would have to be on the north side because he works near Donabate and I work in D1.

Also, those of you that are used to commuting to the city 5 days a week: is it really as nerve wrecking as people make it sound to be? I am from Scandinavia (he is Irish), I have lived in Dublin for ten years but I have never had to commute before.

AngryLips

From a purely cost point-of-view rents in Dunboyne are very low and don't seem to reflect the fact that it's now connected to the suburban rail network. It seems like lots of people are still completely unaware the line is even operational...

seamus

Heh, very tight on possibilities there tbh.

Malahide or Portmarnock seem ideal given your work locations, but you don't say what your budget is. Further out you've got Balbriggan, Skerries and Rush, but all three are a long commute on the train.

You can also look Southside - Bray or Dun Laoghaire. Dun Laoghaire is closer to D1 than Balbriggan.

Commuting isn't nerve wracking, just soul destroying. You're spending large portions of your day travelling to and from work. Many people develop coping mechanisms, be that reading/working while they travel, playing on their phone, sleeping, etc. I personally can't stand public transport commuting. No matter what greatness you've had in your day will be sucked out of you by the end of your commute. You're also badly dependent on it. If your train stops running, you're high-and-dry.
That's just my opinion on it.

earring

AngryLips wrote: »

From a purely cost point-of-view rents in Dunboyne are very low and don't seem to reflect the fact that it's now connected to the suburban rail network. It seems like lots of people are still completely unaware the line is even operational...

Thanks - just googled Dunboyne. Low prices sound appealing but it's not near the sea

An ideal place would be a recently built apartment / housing estate, near the sea (I love peaceful, long walks along the sea), close to the train line but away from the city.

earring

seamus wrote: »

Malahide or Portmarnock seem ideal

How is Portmarnock? I have got mixed opinions. Some people say it's rough, unsafe and in the middle of nowhere (ugly village too), some people say it's lovely, close to Malahide, nice beach, very safe...

Regarding our budget, we are looking for a 2-3 bed apartment/house, modern and recently built and not more than 1,300 per month.

Jehuty42

earring wrote: »

I love peaceful, long walks along the sea

If you don't live near the sea now, how do you know this?

Maybe the sound of the waves constantly at night or the effects of salty air will in fact affect you badly.

earring

Jehuty42 wrote: »

If you don't live near the sea now, how do you know this?

Are you serious? We live in the city centre right now but we are still able to drive/cycle to the seaside when we feel like it! It's just very time consuming right now because of the distance.

Jehuty42

Just saying. Just because something sounds nice in a book or in your head doesn't mean the reality is any good.

People seem to have this idea that if they change their physical location, their life will magically get better. Based on the animal flight response, we are conditioned to react to stress and distress by moving away from it. It doesn't work that way in the real world though, your problems will follow you around and you'll just have added to them by going through the stress of moving.

killbillvol2

earring wrote: »

How is Portmarnock? I have got mixed opinions. Some people say it's rough, unsafe and in the middle of nowhere (ugly village too), some people say it's lovely, close to Malahide, nice beach, very safe...

Regarding our budget, we are looking for a 2-3 bed apartment/house, modern and recently built and not more than 1,300 per month.

I have friends living in Portmarnock who love it there. True, it's not as attractive as Malahide but you;re right by the sea.

Skerries is another attractive village but further out.

Jehuty42 wrote: »

If you don't live near the sea now, how do you know this?

Maybe the sound of the waves constantly at night or the effects of salty air will in fact affect you badly.

:rolleyes:

earring

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Just saying. Just because something sounds nice in a book or in your head doesn't mean the reality is any good.

People seem to have this idea that if they change their physical location, their life will magically get better. Based on the animal flight response, we are conditioned to react to stress and distress by moving away from it. It doesn't work that way in the real world though, your problems will follow you around and you'll just have added to them by going through the stress of moving.

I see. I get it. No worries, I am a yoga fanatic, I am into all this too. This has nothing to do with running away from the real life / daily problems so no worries

n97 mini

Look at the train timetable for the northern commuter line, or even just google maps. I'd say Balbriggan is probably the cheapest. I couldn't tell you which is the nicest. The DART service starts at Malahide.

Dunboyne is a barmy suggestion -- it's not even connected to the same rail network as Donabate (you'd have to walk from one end of the Docklands to the other to change trains).

Rushwan

I have lived in Rush all my life-it ticks all the boxes for me (and possibly for the OP too) nice long walks on the beaches (we have 2) plenty of other scenic walks too, commute to town of between 45 mins and 1 hour. Cons are that train station over 2 miles away from Rush town, you very rarely get a seat on peak time trains and the high cost of car parking/train tickets. But I love Rush and the pros far outweigh the cons for me

Carawaystick

Skerries has a nice prom/path by the beach and is a self contained town
Balbriggan wouldn't be as nice as Skerries, the coast there is less well accessed than Skerries

Rush is probably not self contained(i.e. you could live your live there without needing to go to another town to buy stuff) but it's got a lot of facilities.

As mentioned Rush is a bit from the train station, but there is the option of the 33x bus which will serve the town of Rush ( and indeed is Skerries but a longer travel time)

It takes 30 -35 mins from Lusk on the 33x to Dublin, another 5-10 mins for Rush.
It's much cheaper than the train and you'll always get a seat from Rush.

Madstaff

is this stating the obvious?? how about donabate?? great place, lovely little village, train station in the village and you can walk to the beach.... loads of apartments for rent, make an offfer in what you want and id say people will bite the hand off you.

LXFlyer

Added plus about the 33X (and indeed the 33) is that you can use the Dublin Bus Travel 90 10 journey ticket on both services and get to/from town for €2.10 per journey which is a sizeable saving on the cash fare on the bus (€4.10) or train (€4.70).

Jawgap

We moved to Bettystown a few years ago (from the south side of Dublin) because we wanted more space and to be near the sea.

We looked at all the towns along the coast of North Dublin and settled here for the simple reason that you'll never (or only rarely) get a seat on a morning commuter train into Dubin from any stop south of Laytown after 7-00am. You might get one at Balbriggan up to about 7:20am, but that's only if you are lucky.

Bettystown itself, is not a great town, but it does have a nice, if featureless beach, and there is ready access to the motorway and Drogheda. There are a couple of nice restaurants, a Tesco and a few other businesses, but the place is not going to win any architecture awards any time soon:)

You also have easy access to Gormanstown beach which is generally deserted - even on the busiest, hottest weekends of the year.

Commute time by train is about an hour; early on the motorway takes about 40 mins to the city centre; and the very excellent private coach service (Matthews) takes about an hour too.

If it was down to aesthetics, we'd have settled in Skerries - lovely town, great facilities, but we decided to be pragmatic.

TheChrisD

n97 mini wrote: »

Dunboyne is a barmy suggestion -- it's not even connected to the same rail network as Donabate (you'd have to walk from one end of the Docklands to the other to change trains).

Only during peak times during the week. All other times (off-peak and weekends) the Dunboyne trains serve Connolly, so switching is easy.

Howjoe1

I'd check out Greystones if i were you.

nompere

Howjoe1 wrote: »

I'd check out Greystones if i were you.

But probably only by telescope from Howth summit, as the OP wants to live in North Dublin, not North Wicklow.