Dublin to Westport travel and pints

RebelButtMunch

Hi
Two questions:
Best route from Dublin to Westport ? It looks like my two options are
Dublin-Athlone-Tullsk-Westport
Dublin-Longford-Westport

Second question
Pints
Looking for lovely Pints of Guinness, I'm in my early 40's. Not interested in dancing or stags/hens etc.
Thanks in advance!
I notice there is a Octoberfest type thing on next weekend so I'll be having a few Steins also

yop

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

Hi
Two questions:
Best route from Dublin to Castlebar? It looks like my two options are
Dublin-Athlone-Tullsk-Castlebar
Dublin-Longford-Castlebar

Second question
Pints
Looking for lovely Pints of Guinness, I'm in my early 40's. Not interested in dancing or stags/hens etc.
Thanks in advance!
I notice there is a Octoberfest type thing on next weekend so I'll be having a few Steins also

Youll get many opinions on the "Best Route"
Either to be very honest, I take the Athlone route myself as I make more headway on the motorway.

Good guinness has to be John Mchales or Paddy Morans for great Guinness. Also got great pints in Tolsters.

Stoogie

Dublin Longford Castlebar is much more direct and the roads are very good these days. Athlone to tulsk is much harder going than Longford to tulsk

Flange/Flanders

Used to prefer going through Athlone (tho I'd go Roscommon-ballymoe-williamstown-Cloonfad-Claremorris) until the Ballyhadreen bypass was opened. Find I much prefer that way not. Not sure why.

_DMac_

Dublin Longford Castlebar.

I drive that road the whole time. Road is good and takes about 2.5 hours on average

Stoogie

Flange/Flanders wrote: »

Used to prefer going through Athlone (tho I'd go Roscommon-ballymoe-williamstown-Cloonfad-Claremorris) until the Ballyhadreen bypass was opened. Find I much prefer that way not. Not sure why.

With both Longford and balla bypassed it's a much easier drive
I've been driving that road sinc before there were any dual carriageways on the route
3.5-4 hours on a good day

Stoogie

But I agree on Jonnny Mchales, Jonny is a sound bloke and has great pints.

RebelButtMunch

Great info folks. Much appreciated.

RebelButtMunch

Holy moley.. I'm a dope. I'm staying in Westport!
Driving directions the same,but now looking for Westport bars!
I've got Mat Molloys on my list.. Any others?

Edit: Im going to open a westport thread so its make sense for other users.

yop

I updated the title, no need for other thread.

yop

Horses for courses on the route, I worked in Dublin and commuted 3 days per week to there, traffic was zero until Longford then it started to get busy from around 6.30 AM.
On the way home I was coming down Mon, Tues and Thurs so it was a quite time anyway.
On a Friday though I used to find Athlone quicker and onto Frenchpark, the bypass of Ballagh has made a massive difference.

nuac

Dublin-Westport

In olden times it was customary to follow the railway route - Athlone, Roscommon etc. That was on the basis that if there was a breakdown one could use the train. That was my late father's route, who started motoring in the 1920s.

Used to go via Athlone, despite the bottlenecks.

Gradually moved to Longford - B'hdereen. The various by-passes over the years have helped greatly. I am not a fast driver nowadays but can easily do Westport to central Dublin in three hours outside peak hours. My children can shave a bit off that time, ach sin sgéal eile.

Re Westport pubs cannot go wrong working or weaving your way along Bridge St and lower High St, and the Octagon.

RebelButtMunch

To wrap up the thread. I took the route via Longford, the roads were really great. Smooth driving all the way, and plenty of garages for a break.
The town itself... no complaints. Went for a walk around Westport house, which is gorgeous. A bit of a pub crawl and ended up in The Clock listening /dancing to a guy on a guitar. All in all, a great place to visit and I'd go back at the drop of a hat.