Talk:Wild Atlantic Way

WAW by bus

I’ve moved this grand compendium of bus routes here in case anything can be salvaged from it – it's clearly been a personal lockdown project. But IMHO it’s misguided and misleading.

First, it’s in the wrong place. WAW is a multi-regional overview page and shouldn’t list transport details any more than it lists B&Bs or pubs. It would have been better to put the effort into updating the county and city Get In / Around sections. I have done so (drawing on this work, so thanks for that much) for all the coast except Donegal, due for update in August. And even for the cities, it’s futile to post detailed timetables. That’s the travel operators’ job, and we supply the links.

Second, it’s unbalanced, in touting bus as a good transport mode over the entire Atlantic coast. But as explained, WAW is a brand rather than an itinerary. Very few travellers will seek to do much of it in a single trip, and the number who’d seek to do so by bus can be numbered on the fingers of your left foot. It’s not practical travel but a pilgrimage, expedition or stunt, like “Round Ireland with a Fridge” or in a hovercraft full of eels.

Third, it’s misleading, because you can’t tour WAW by public bus, what you can do is take the bus between its towns. On some stretches such as Galway-Doolin-Lahinch that's a reasonable option. For the rest, you’re peering through mud-streaked windows at a ratty highway some distance from the coast, and you’re unlikely to get off to see the old church which will take 30 min, when there are only four buses a day and the rain clouds are massing. Major chunks of coast with POIs but no bus are north Mayo Killala to Belmullet, west Mayo Louisburgh to Leenaun, north Galway Clifden to Carraroe, north Clare Shannon to Ballybunion, Ring of Kerry Portmagee to Kenmare, and from Kenmare to Cork Beara peninsula. It’s glib to crow about free travel with a bus pass then describe 50 km taxi rides and enforced overnight stops as the work-around.

For brevity, the moved material is hidden HERE > < HERE - Grahamsands (talk) 18:39, 18 June 2021 (UTC)