Dublin Airport is the 10th busiest in Europe

Almost all Dublin road signs are in both English and Irish

Ferries to Dublin go to Dublin Port or to Dun Laoghaire

Irish road distances are in kilometers, not miles

Drive on the left in when in Ireland

Dublin is very easy to get to from Britain - so, hardly surprisingly, over half of Dublin city breaks are made by UK visitors. It's particularly easy and fast to reach Dublin from northern England and Wales.

For those not OK about Dublin flights, there's a wide choice of sea routes and the sea ferry connections are faster than ever.

Dublin flights

Aer Lingus - Ireland's national airline - has flights to Dublin Airport from five major UK airports and Aer Arann has flights to Dublin Airport from Blackpool, Cardiff, Inverness and the Isle of Man.

Other airlines with Dublin flights include BMI; CityJet; Air Southwest and Flybe.

Ryanair is famously low on fares but high on extras. Worth considering if you have a Ryanair credit card, no baggage and don't mind their website where you can grab some genuine bargains. On a good day, you might get to Dublin Airport for under £1.

Dublin Airport

Dublin Airport is located in Collinstown, about 12km north of Dublin city centre and was by far the busiest airport in Ireland with 25 million passengers a year, mainly international, before a large fall-off in numbers recently.

Dublin Airport is the main base for Ireland's flagship carrier Aer Lingus and for the cheap, no-frills airline Ryanair as well as the domestic airline Aer Arann.

There are 50 flights daily to London, making the Dublin-London route the second busiest in the world after the Hong Kong - Taipei. There are about 30 flights daily to other UK airports, notably Manchester Airport.

A controversial new £609m terminal T2 is set to open in November 2010 and Dublin Airport has short- and long-term car parks, offering over 18,000 spaces

There is currently no direct rail link from Dublin Airport to Dublin city centre, unusual for a city as popular as Dublin. Taxi and bus services run to most train stations in the area. Dublin Bus provides Dublin Airport services to Heuston and Connolly railway stations.

Buses - take the #347 service - run from directly outside Dublin Airport Arrivals and the journey takes 30-35 minutes. It's cheap and efficient and often enlivened by a talkative driver. A private bus company, Aircoach, also runs regular services (every 10 minutes at peak hours) from Dublin Airport to many Dublin city centre locations. All major car hire companies operate from Dublin Airport.

Dublin by sea ferry

There's a decent choice of fast ferries to Dublin Port and Dun Laoghaire from Holyhead and Liverpool. Alternatively, ferries travel from from Fishguard and Pembroke in Wales to Rosslare in SE Ireland or Larne in Northern Ireland with connections to Dublin.

Ferry routes to Dublin

Dublin Port from Holyhead (North Wales) with Irish Ferries on the Jonathan Swift (about 2 hours) or the Ulysses, the world's largest car ferry (about 3 hours). Irish Ferries have temptingly cheap deals.

Dublin Port from Holyhead with Stena on the Superferry (about 3 hours). Stena Line claims the most fast ferry crossings with prices from around £70 one way for car plus passenger.

Dun Laoghaire from Holyhead with Stena on the HSS in 99 minutes.
Dublin Port from Liverpool with SeaCat ferries takes 3 hours 45 minutes. P&O runs from Liverpool to Dublin with free meals included and Norfolk Line also sails from Liverpool.

Rosslare (Wexford) from Fishguard or Pembroke with both Stena and Irish Ferries. From Rosslare, it's an 80-mile trip north to Dublin.

Dublin Port is near to the city centre and Dun Laoghaire 4km south of Dublin, with good DART rail connections.

Dublin by coach

Coach services between Britain and Dublin are operated by Bus Eirann/National Express working with the ferry companies. Coaches arrive at the central bus station in Dublin, Busarus. Irish Bus/Bus Eirann has bus services all over Ireland with services from Dublin leaving from Busarus.

Dublin by rail

There are fast rail services in Britain to the ferry ports to Ireland - Holyhead, Fishguard and Stranraer with onward services to Dublin from Rosslare and Larne by Irish Rail. Rail services to Dublin are available from Belfast in Northern Ireland and all major Irish cities.