On the Road
Not how to get there fastest. How to get there best. Coast roads, mountain passes, the long way around because the long way is the point.
Distances in Ireland are short and times are long. That gap is where most American itineraries break. Ninety miles across Kerry is not ninety miles anywhere else, and a route that looks efficient on a map can cost you an afternoon you had planned to spend somewhere better.
On the Road is our record of the slower routes and what they actually take. Coast roads, mountain passes, the long way around a peninsula. We note where to stop, where the passing places thin out, and where a rented saloon car stops being the right vehicle.
We drive these routes ourselves, in the seasons we recommend them. Where a road is genuinely not worth it in poor visibility, we say so rather than leaving you to discover it in cloud.
What earns a place in On the Road
- Driven end to end by us, with real timings recorded.
- A defensible reason to take the slow route over the fast one.
- Practical notes: stops, surfaces, seasons, and where to turn back.
When it matters
Read it while you are still deciding how many bases your trip needs. Usually it is fewer than you think.
On the Road is one of six standing columns in The Notebook. We keep the number small on purpose. A column is edited, not tagged, and an entry is only filed here when it genuinely belongs to the thread.
The column is forthcoming. Entries are being filed.