I've traveled to Ireland twice on my own. I've never found safety to be a concern. I recommend using the same common sense you would in your own town or country.

More an issue is how comfortable and happy you feel being alone. While you may find companions at a B&B for meals or sighteseeing, you may not. Would it bother you to eat in a restaurant alone? Would you feel lonely or odd being on your own at tourist sights?

Some positives of traveling alone are that you can do exactly as you like, and that I think you are more likely to meet local people, not being occupied or distracted by a group.

I've found that on my own, I'm happiest if I make plans to keep me well-occupied during the day. Sometimes that means just having a great place to people-watch and read a book.

If you're comfortable with yourself and somewhat outgoing, it can be refreshing to meet with and converse with lots of different people you meet.

I'm not very familiar with tours, but I know that in Ireland, since B&B's charge per person, it isn't necessarily more expensive on your own, although you may have to seek out B&B's with a single-occupancy room available.

I don't know much about tours, but it's always seemed to me that they're more expensive than independent travel; however, they usually often quite a bit of luxury. If you want 4-star accommodation and fancy restaurants, it's possible a tour would offer that more cheaply than independent travel.

Also, travel from place to place with a tour might compare favorably in price with car rental for a single person (I always traveled by bike in Ireland).

I say go for it! Single travel is entirely different than anything else. It has its challenges but also its rewards.

eanair,

Welcome to my forum! What great advice you have had so far from Andi and Bit. Once you decide on the type of traveler you are and what you feel comfortable with you can make a decision. Did you know that tours also have a single supplement? This year with the low dollar and high euro one plus of a tour is you lock in a price and know exactly what you will pay.

Let us know if we can help in any other way.

Michele

I have travelled alone in Ireland, and had no trouble, quite enjoyed it actually. To keep costs down I stayed mostly in hostels, which I probably wouldn't do again as they are noisy, and not always clean, but are a terrific place to meet people to travel with. Ireland has a lot of hostels, and some even have single rooms. There are a lot of B&Bs in Ireland, though, and you can find some that don't charge a single supplement. As far as seeing the sights I found the best thing to do was to stay a few days in each place, then do day trips. Towns like Dublin, Galway, Killarney all have several companies that run whole or half day trips to most of the major sights. Since it was about five years ago I was there I imagine prices have gone up some, but I recall the average price was about 25 euros for a day trip, and I think in the end I did about seven of them. I used a bus/rail pass to get around the country, and didn't have any trouble getting to where I wanted to go. The key to travelling alone is to be confident, and friendly, but also use your common sense, and trust your instincts. The one problem I had was in a hostel where a guy stole money from my backpack when I went out of the room for a few minutes(a rare occurrence in hostels). On first meeting him I just felt he was going to be trouble, even though he was friendly, and I was right! When travelling alone you have to be very organized so you always know where you are going (don't want to be lost and alone after dark), but other than that you shouldn't have any problems in Ireland.