Toddler friendly way of going from Belfast to Galway?

BatCat

Hi Folks,
Can anyone out there think of a toddler friendly way of going from Belfast to Galway?
My boy is 18 months old and used to be up and about, 5 hours in the car there and back just about killed us and him when we did it last month and neither I nor my husband have any urge to do it again. My husband's family are all in Galway though and he has a 90 year old granny.
They have stopped the Belfast - Galway flights so that is no longer an option. Is there maybe a route we can take with a central stopover that would be childfriendly even just for 2 hours?
Thanks,
BatCat

seatzie

we did a 6 hour trip last month to Co Cork, we stopped in Malahide had lunch, showed our 2 year old the trains, and the boats in the marina went to the park at Malahide Castle then got back in the car and drove and he fell asleep.

I see from the Translink site you head through some towns and villages, so its not all motorway (never driven to Galway) unless you have a look on the net and see if they have any parks etc where you can stop let him burn up some energy, have lunch etc maybe build in say 2 half hour stops

ME_EM_ME

hi

Long time lurker and new poster.

I was just thinking the same thing - we are about to go to Kerry with an 18 month old and was getting worried about it.

The only problem we have is that is is practically all motorway (we go to Dublin and then to Limerick) and the last time we went (when I was preggerse) there seemed to be very little in the way of stopping sites.

Am off to do some research about places along the way thanks to this advice.

belfastgirl23

You could do the train? There are offers on the Enterprise from Belfast to Dublin at the minute - this takes about 2 hours, then the luas across dublin to heuston station then about 3 hours to galway. At least you could both be playing with and entertaining him and there is a catering car etc on both services...

leftieM

You could try going later in the evening so that it's approaching bed time. Have dinner at 5, straight into car, sit in the back with toddler reading books and playing with toys for 2 hours, toddler nods off at 7ish and peace for the second half of the journey.

seatzie

do what we did - stop in malahide just north of dublin, junction 4, get some lunch take child to the park then jump in and go, there's a good restaurant there called Thats Amore, does lovely Lasagne, but for kids they do kids meals for €5, usual fish fingers/chicken and chips or spag bol PLUS a drink PLUS a scoop of ice cream - Bargain!

ME_EM_ME wrote: »

hi

Long time lurker and new poster.

I was just thinking the same thing - we are about to go to Kerry with an 18 month old and was getting worried about it.

The only problem we have is that is is practically all motorway (we go to Dublin and then to Limerick) and the last time we went (when I was preggerse) there seemed to be very little in the way of stopping sites.

Am off to do some research about places along the way thanks to this advice.

NAR

An overnight in Sligo would break the journey in half.