Road Trip Around Ireland: What to Pack and What You'll Wish You Had
Ireland's best bits are off the main roads. Here's what to have in the car before you set off — from the practical to the things you'd never think of until you need them.
The best way to see Ireland is by car. Full stop. The Wild Atlantic Way, the Ring of Kerry, the Antrim Coast, the Wicklow Mountains — none of them work properly on public transport, and all of them reward the kind of spontaneous detour that only makes sense if you've got your own wheels.
We've driven most of it. Here's what you want in the car before you leave.
Navigation
A phone mount for the windscreen
Irish roads are narrow, winding, and often poorly signposted. You do not want to be looking down at your phone in your lap. A decent windscreen or air-vent mount keeps Google Maps at eye level where it belongs.
Car phone mount on Amazon — get a magnetic one if your phone has a case that supports it. Much easier to use one-handed.
Download offline maps before you go
Mobile signal in rural Ireland — Wicklow, Kerry, Donegal, Connemara — is patchy to nonexistent. Download Google Maps offline for the counties you're driving through before you leave the city. Costs nothing, saves considerable stress.
Power
A multi-port car charger
For long driving days, keeping phones charged matters. A dual USB-C car charger means everyone's device stays alive without arguments about whose turn it is to charge.
Multi-port car charger on Amazon
A portable jump starter
This sounds dramatic until you need it. If you're renting a car and park somewhere remote in Connemara or West Cork and the battery dies, you're not getting a breakdown truck quickly. A compact lithium jump starter fits in a glovebox and starts most cars unaided. Buy it once, carry it forever.
Portable jump starter on Amazon
Comfort
A good travel pillow
For the passenger who's not driving — particularly useful on long transfers between counties. The inflatable ones pack flat, the memory foam ones are more comfortable. Worth having if you're doing full days in the car.
A cool bag
Irish supermarkets are excellent — Dunnes, Supervalu, Lidl. Picking up lunch and snacks and keeping them in a soft cool bag in the back saves a fortune compared to eating out every meal, and lets you stop wherever the view is best rather than wherever there's a restaurant.
A waterproof boot organiser
Road trips accumulate stuff fast — muddy boots, wet waterproofs, picnic things, shopping, walking poles. A collapsible boot organiser stops everything sliding around and keeps the mud contained.
For outdoors stops
- Waterproof jackets — one per person, in the car at all times. Non-negotiable.
- A compact waterproof picnic blanket — the whole point of a road trip is eating outside in beautiful places. The blanket makes it comfortable.
- Walking boots or trail shoes — you'll stop for walks you didn't plan. Having proper footwear in the boot means you actually do them instead of standing at the edge in trainers wishing you could.
Waterproof picnic blanket on Amazon
Practical car essentials
- A small first aid kit — plasters, antiseptic wipes, pain relief, motion sickness tablets if anyone needs them on mountain roads.
- A torch — Ireland after dark in rural areas is genuinely dark. Useful if you need to check something on the car or navigate an unlit car park.
- A dash cam — particularly useful on Irish rural roads where passing places and other drivers' decisions can be creative. Useful if anything goes wrong with a rental.
Where to base yourself
For the Wicklow and Leinster section of any Ireland road trip, Blessington is an ideal base — central, quiet, and within an hour of Dublin, Glendalough, Powerscourt, and the Wicklow coast. Tully's Home has space for the car, storage for muddy gear, and enough room to spread out after a long day on the road.