Top Mistakes to Avoid When Visiting Ireland as a Tourist

The Emerald Isle serves as the backdrop for many legendary adventures. From the trad pubs that deliver live music with a decidedly Irish flair to amazing coastal expanses up and down the country’s weather-beaten seaside borders, it has a lot to offer. Ireland is a haven for hikers and backpackers, and it features more than enough city break energy for those looking to enjoy some history and knock back a few pints of the black stuff.  The country is a welcoming place of just over 5 million people (with nearly 30% living in and around Dublin). This makes much of the remaining expanse extremely scenic with a rural vibe prevailing over even some of the urban areas (the city of Kilkenny, for instance, is home to only about 27,000 residents).

Being married to an Irish person, I’ve made countless trips to the island over the last decade, and moved here permanently a few years ago. An American mixing it up with locals in Ireland frequently comes with plenty of additional conversations and more than a few laughs thanks to their boisterous sense of humor. Though many Irish individuals tend to be warm and conversational, that doesn’t mean there aren’t social norms to abide by. When engaging with locals on your trip, you’ll want to stick to a couple of important guidelines. But perhaps more importantly, it’s essential to avoid making some planning and trip execution mistakes that can really dampen the mood during your travels.

Irish roads can be a daunting experience. Whether you’re a driver or passenger, zipping along a narrow country lane that winds around blind corners seemingly on purpose adds hair-raising tension into even the most tame of vacations. Even so, driving is largely a must when visiting Ireland. There’s far more to the country than just its four largest cities, and getting from place to place beyond these urban hubs will require the use of a car in almost all circumstances. To make matters even stickier, you’ll be driving on the opposite side of the road when getting behind the wheel and working with a different unit of measure in kilometers per hour rather than miles.

Even with all that going on in the background, there’s absolutely no denying that the best way to explore Ireland is in your own car and at your own pace. This gives you the freedom to venture off toward any destination you might come across. Irish people are often more than happy to give guidance on where to see the best traditional music (just ask about “shush pubs”), scenic routes, and much more. Even as a wholly modern nation, there persists a feeling of small town community among the folks who call Ireland home. One unique example comes to mind: Writing in the Irish Examiner in 2024, columnist Denis Lehane recalled a time years prior when Bruce Springsteen was stuck without a hotel room after a gig in Kilkenny and stayed on his farm for the night.

One final mistake involving Dublin can prove to be a crucial decision that either sours a trip or gives it the room it needs to shine. Many people who visit Europe will be familiar with the city break framework. Traveling to a new city then exploring parts of the country around that central location is a useful approach in some circumstances. Indeed, if you are a frequent visitor to Ireland, applying this logic may be helpful in crafting specific trip itineraries that see you stay in one geographic area. Before moving here, I was lucky enough to visit on numerous occasions and this kind of approach might have worked for that sort of travel (had they been standard, ‘touristy’ visits). But if you are only heading to Ireland once, the temptation of booking a hotel room for the duration of your stay and using it as a base to launch day trips from should be avoided. 

Dublin is the obvious choice, with plenty of rail and bus routes (and good highway connections) linking the major air hub with other cities across the country. For context though, the Cliffs of Moher are a little more than three hours from Dublin. By staying on the east coast you’ll need to get up early to make it all the way across the country to see the cliffs and then curtail your day in order to get back. Instead, Ireland’s relatively small footprint makes it a place where you can easily move from hotel room to hotel room while exploring whatever parts of the country interest you the most.

The Irish pub is mainstay in global drinking culture. No matter where you go, you’re almost certainly going to find an Irish pub. From North America to the Middle East and clear across to Japan in East Asia, Irish pubs can be found all over the world serving up (often expensive) pints of Guinness and Bulmers. It’s easy to think of pubs as the same kind of drinking establishments typically found in the United States. But the reality is that an Irish pub is a different kind of experience altogether.

Short for public house, a pub is a community arena, and children are welcome in most of these establishments across Ireland until 9 p.m. This cuts right to the heart of what a pub is there to do. Certainly, you’ll find plenty to drink, but getting together with friends and spending time talking, laughing, and sharing in a communal environment is what it’s all about.

More to the point, in order to enjoy an Irish pub experience, you don’t actually have to drink an alcoholic beverage. A common alternative for people here is soda water and lime. In many pubs, bartenders will even give you the lime cordial bottle to flavor the drink’s citrusy intensity to your liking. Drinking is one aspect of stepping into a pub in Ireland, but it’s only one part of the experience.

Though not the only focus of Irish pubs, drinking can form a significant social component in your travels around Ireland. From Waterford to Wexford and Letterkenny to Lahinch, scores of watering holes can be found in just about every city and town. Some of the best aren’t the trendy, upscale modern establishments, but rather the traditional dark and dreary drinking rooms. Most people will have a mental image of what an Irish pub ‘looks like,’ and there’s certainly some truth to this collective understanding. The genuine article is even more fantastical. These pubs exude character, and some have been standing for centuries.

The pub scene doesn’t demand that you drink, but it is a common theme across the Irish population. Conveniently, many Irish people opt to consume what has become something of a de facto national drink: A pint of Guinness. It’s widely available throughout the country and often one of the cheapest things you’ll find on tap. 

Grabbing a pint of Guinness in a pub is absolutely the best way to experience it. There’s no comparison with a Guinness you’ll find in America, and cans also fail to do the drink the justice it deserves. Not every pint will live up to the hype, however. Your best bet is to talk with locals and ask them about which pub pulls the best pint. You might also consider checking out the work of The Guinness Guru on YouTube. Finally, if you are going to have a Guinness alongside the locals, try splitting the G for a bit of craic.

No matter where you go, Irish people seek out the craic. This is an Irish word for playful fun, and in speaking with an Irish person, you might even encounter the phrase “what’s the craic?” Here, you’re being asked if anything new is going on with you. The craic is a kind of life of the party, and Irish people are frequently looking to infuse it into their everyday lives.

Leaning into this atmosphere of lighthearted enjoyment can really boost your time in Ireland. You might find yourself deep in conversation with an Irish person at a tourist stop or playing a practical joke on someone in the pub. Remaining in good spirits and going where the mood takes you is all a part of the good times that Irish individuals seek out for themselves. They often won’t take themselves too seriously and are good sports with their friends when it comes to laughing and joking. Playing along and embedding yourself into this way of thinking allows you to fully embrace Irish culture and community.

One thing that you absolutely shouldn’t do in Ireland is get behind the wheel of a vehicle after you’ve been drinking. Plenty of evenings on vacation here can see you spending time in the pub, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that decision. However, Ireland has a lower drunk driving limit than Americans will be used to: for most drivers, anything over a blood alcohol concentration of 50mg means breaking the law. Because multiple factors can influence your BAC, even half a pint could put you over that line. The surest solution? Don’t drink and then get in your rental car.

As a tourist visiting the country, your best bet is to stay local when having a drink. With plenty of pubs and restaurants to choose from, there really is no need to drive after you’ve been drinking. Making this mistake can cost you significantly. The guards (police) will occasionally set up checkpoints to catch uninsured drivers and those who’ve been consuming alcohol, and they have the authority to chase drivers who spot these installations and attempt to turn around and avoid contact. Beyond the legal ramifications, there’s a practical matter to consider. Ireland is rife with difficult roads and drinking can make it even more challenging to navigate them safely.

In many parts of the United States, cash has become an afterthought. This is true for countries all across the world, and so you might anticipate forgoing the use of cash altogether on your trip. Ireland is one such place that has taken a more hands off direction when it comes to using physical currency, and many people don’t carry wallets with them at all any longer. Instead, plenty of Irish consumers utilize a digital card wallet in their phone to make payments with linked payment accounts. The country’s budget airline Ryanair has also done away with physical currency and only accepts card payments nowadays (see more on navigating the skies on a Ryanair flight).

But if you plan on exploring some of the nation’s faraway landscapes, you’ll need to bring cash along for the ride. Parking on the streets in small town communities might require you to use coins as payment, and parking at certain rural attractions will also require cash payments rather than a card transaction. Additionally, you can often find better prices when paying in cash or engaging in activities like booking tee times or even getting something to eat in chip shops or other small restaurants.

This mistake is largely dependent on your level of comfort with the unknown. It’s absolutely alright to avoid small, local roads if you aren’t confident about driving on them. However, you should think twice about passing by the opportunity to turn onto anything marked “coast road.” Coast roads can be found all over Ireland, and they typically feature even more winding turns and sometimes even tight passageways that require drivers to pull over to the side when two cars meet.

Braving the conditions on these kinds of scenic routes is worth the added travel time whenever you can swing it. They bring you near the coastline, over mountain passes, or through wooded areas and into contact with some of the country’s most spectacular views. Once again, talking to people you encounter can deliver critical area knowledge when seeking out these sorts of scenic byways. You might also consider exploring alternative directions on your favorite mapping app. There’s a bit of legwork to be done here, but if you follow the path of small roads on the map going toward your destination, you may uncover more than a couple local gems that can really amplify the experience.

Most of the island’s northern territory is part of a different country. This fact, coupled with the reality that much of the north is decidedly far away from the population centers you’re likely to be traversing as a short term visitor, makes it feel somewhat off limits. This is a mistake for two reasons. First, Donegal — a part of the Republic and not Northern Ireland — is home to some of the most dramatically striking environments anywhere in Eire. It even has the island’s northernmost point in Malin Head.

A journey across the border into Northern Ireland isn’t nearly as logistically difficult as you might think, as well. It’s essentially the same task as crossing from one county in the Republic to another. On the highway, you’ll see a sign that tells you about the changeover, but on a rural road it’s entirely possible to miss the crossing entirely and only discover you’ve changed countries when you spot your next speed sign (MPH in Northern Ireland and KPH in the South). Up north, there are some amazing places to visit, including Giant’s Causeway, the walled city of Derry, and the Peace Wall in Belfast. If you have time to introduce parts of the north into your itinerary, there’s really no reason to exclude it.

Tipping really isn’t a part of Irish culture. This might come as a surprise to many visitors exploring the island for the first time. However, you shouldn’t feel obligated to leave a tip just because you sat down at the restaurant or bar and had a meal or a few drinks. Irish people don’t expect it, and Irish patrons don’t tend to leave them when getting up from the table. If you were particularly happy about the service you received, you might leave a 5 Euro note behind (a ‘fiver’).

Small tips like this are somewhat commonplace for Ireland, but people here don’t pull out their calculators and start doing math in order to figure out how much they owe as an additional service charge, and even small gratitude like this is infrequent. If you feel compelled to leave a tip that’s perfectly alright, but you shouldn’t anticipate experiencing this as an obligation when in Ireland.

It’s well known that Americans hail from a wide ranging cultural backdrop. Many people in the United States confidently claim themselves as the descendants of Irish immigrants, and plenty are eager to share these details with people they meet — especially when visiting Ireland and exploring the real world places in their heritage story. But getting too far into the weeds about your family history is a great way to actually make yourself off-putting to the Irish people you encounter.

Perhaps the disconnect lies in the language. Many Americans use the phrase “I’m Irish” when talking about their heritage. There’s nothing inherently wrong about this, but when the person on the other end of the conversation isn’t of Irish descent but fully Irish in the here and now it’s easy to see where a certain level of annoyance comes into play. Cherishing your history and even talking a little about it can be a nice way to connect with people, but make sure you don’t go on about it too much or you run the risk of becoming the caricature of an annoying tourist. “Saturday Night Live” even filmed a skit on this disconnect with the help of Irish film star Paul Mescal.