Irish Road Trips – Best Value

The summer holidays are here and with the continuing airport chaos many of us are choosing to staycation this year – and with these heatwaves, who needs to be abroad? From fuel costs to keeping the kids entertained, choosing the best route isn’t always easy. So, car insurance experts Chill have found the eight top road trips in Ireland that are the best value for money.

 Irish Road Trips – Best Value

The study of road trips analysed the following factors –

⛽️ Price of petrol and diesel

????‍♂️ Number of free activities

???? Number of cheap restaurants

???? Number of cycle routes

???? Instagram hotspots 

1.    Priest’s Leap and Caha Mountain Pass Scenic Loop Drive, Cork and Kerry

The Irish road trip that came out as the best value for your money s the Priest’s Leap and Caha Mountain Pass Scenic Loop Drive, which passes through counties Cork and Kerry. From having the highest mountain pass in Ireland and the third most cycle routes in the study, to a huge 105 cheap restaurants to choose from, Priest’s Leap earns the number one spot. 

(Image: Ireland Highlights)

2.  The Burren Scenic Loop, Clare

The Burren Scenic Loop in Clare is the second-best road trip in Ireland for your money. With 98 free activities to enjoy, after a day of fun, you can choose from 41 cheap restaurants. Also, with the highest number of Instagram posts at 62k, it’s clear this road trip has plenty of natural beauty for you to admire (and post to the Gram).

(image: Discover Ireland)

3.  Ring of Kerry, Kerry

Ring of Kerry is the third-best Irish road trip for your money. Hosting 206 free activities, children can enjoy the Irish Fairy Trails and explore O Carrolls Cove making this a great road trip for families. Foodies can enjoy 73 cheap restaurants, you can’t go wrong!

(Image: Discover Ireland)

The list also included the Copper Coast in Waterford, the Inishowen 100 in Donegal. As well as Slea Head in Kerry, Ring of Hook Peninsula in Wexford and the Cooley Peninsula in Louth.

See the Breakdown of Each Road Trip

Read the full study and breakdown of the top Irish road trips here.

Methodology

Chill identified eight of the top road trips all being able to complete within 1-2 days. Of these road trips, we looked into various factors to rank them on which road trip is the best value for money.

Price of fuel and number of petrol stations: We used pumps.ie for the cost of petrol and diesel in cents, only using data updated as of 2022. Fuel costs were calculated at an average to prevent the currently inflated prices from having a huge impact. The number of petrol stations were calculated by inputting the road trip route on Google Maps. Price of Guinness: For each road trip, the pubs within the local region were averaged to give the average price for a pint of Guinness using guindex.ie. 

Number of cycle routes: This was calculated using the cycling resources ‘Komoot’ and ‘Bikemap; to highlight the number of cycling routes in the region of the relevant road trip. Number of free activities and cheap restaurants: Activities in the local region were categorised on Trip Advisor as free entry. Restaurants in the local region were categorised on Trip Advisor as “cheap eats”.  

Instagram engagement: To determine the Instagram rating we used the three most popular hashtags relating to each road trip and local region, analysing the number of posts utilising these hashtags to determine popularity.

Do you have a favourite road trip in Ireland, let us know on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.