FROM THE MOMENT one of you gets their license, the car can become a safe haven for you and your best friend – away from parents, breakups, exams and later on, as some head space before a new chapter inevitably begins in one of your lives.
We’ve heard about the drives that mean the most to parents and couples’ favourite road trips but what about the people who’ve been there before our new loved ones ever arrived into the picture – our best friends?
From jam-packed journeys to music festivals to blasting hip hop on The Conor Pass, here are five best-friend favourites they’ve taken with their nearest and dearest.
My best friend had been having a really tough time – her mum was sick at the time. I had a week off work as I was just about to start a new job so I suggested that get out of Dublin for a few days and head out west. We booked ourselves into a spa in Roscommon and hit the road, turned on our favourite music (Sufjan Stevens) and had such lovely chats along the way, through towns like Longford and Carrick-on-Shannon.
When we got to Boyle, we decided spur of the moment to go on little self-guided Chris O’Dowd tour, seeing if we could find anything in the town that related to him (there wasn’t a whole lot, unless you’re into Moone Boy). In the afternoon we stopped off at Lough Key for a wander, a 99 and a nap in the sun, before we went back to our hotel and ordered room service and watched TV – it’s a road trip I’ll always cherish, it’s lovely having those memories.
- Hannah and Kate
What’s the full route? Dublin to Boyle, Co Roscommon via Lough Key Forest Park.
How long does the drive take? 2 hrs, 15 minutes.
Can I’ve a look at the map? Check it out here.
We’ve only done this trip once, but it’s cemented itself as my favourite road trip with my two best friends. We drove from Dublin to Dungarvan, Co Waterford last summer for a weekend trip away and the drive down was so much fun. We started at St James’s Gate after picking one of the girls up from work and the whole way down we had such a laugh. The car was piled high with all of our stuff – I don’t know how it all fit in!
We brought snacks and had a playlist of all of our favourite songs from our teenage years in the background. In true road trip style, we stopped for more snacks in a service station on the way down. Even when it started lashing rain and I could hardly see five feet in front of me, it didn’t bother any of us. Then we finally got off the motorway and into Dungarvan town, it was so lovely, especially driving past the harbour.
- Amy, Jen and Emma
What’s the full route? Dublin to Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
How long does the drive take? 2 hrs, 45 minutes.
Can I’ve a look at the map? Check it out here.
My favourite road trip to do with my best friend is from Dunshaughlin heading out towards Killeen, around to Dunsany, then taking the backroads up around Killeen Castle to the Hill of Tara, they’re very quiet roads – it’s a lovely farming community. Maguires does a lovely bowl of soup or you can even bring a little picnic up to the Hill of Tara. They say you can see something crazy like 16 counties from up there on a clear day.
It’s so close to Dunshaughlin where we both grew up. From there the Hill of Tara you can see the Hill of Skryne and Skryne Castle. There’s such flat land around Meath you can just see for miles and miles. If you fancy a soft drink, there’s also the pub from the Guinness ad, Mrs O’Connells. There’s a farm right beside it and cattle often look in. Take the Bog Road back – it’s idyllic for driving. There are lovely big overhanging trees.
- Kevin and Aoife
What’s the full route? Dunshaughlin to Bog Road via the Hill of Tara and Skryne Castle.
How long does the drive take? 35 minutes from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath (1 hr if you’re coming from Dublin)
Can I’ve a look at the map? Check it out here.
I remember once when we had just turned 18 we drove to the Joe Mooney Summer School, a trad music festival in Leitrim. It was a crazy hot day and being 18, my friend’s car was tiny, and it had five of us, along with five suitcases and instruments piled into it. And the car couldn’t actually do over 100km/h even without us. It took us a while to get from Carlow to Leitrim…
We took the motorway to Naas, went through Kinnegad, Mullingar and Longford town. Then we got a flat tyre in Carrick-on-Shannon and had no idea how to fix it. Once we did, we landed in Drumshanbo around four. We had to drop a few of them and their bags off in the village before going to the house we had rented too, because we’d said there were only three of us staying for the week. It ended up that we had at least eight there at any one time and I think a couple of nights had 14 or 15.
- Eoin Lúc, Anna, Clíodhna, Megan and Michael
What’s the full route? Carlow to Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim.
How long does the drive take? 2 hrs, 45 minutes.
Can I’ve a look at the map? Check it out here.
A few of my primary school friends and I headed down to Dingle together shortly before one of the guys got married. We took the motorway to Limerick, stopped in Adare for food to break up the trip, then drove to Dingle through Tralee, taking the Conor Pass into Dingle. We listened to Spotify the whole way down on random, but we got a fair few hip hop belters, which we sang along to (badly) and did some probably worse dancing to.
It was pretty special because we got so much time together on our own, and got to talk about personal stuff we might not have been able to shout about in the open in a busy Dublin pub. When we got to Dingle we went for an ice cream in Murphy’s. It was so nice having that time together just the three of us before we met up again for the wedding.
- Kevin, Dan and Brian
What’s the full route? Dublin to Dingle via Adare.
How long does the drive take? 4 hrs 16 minutes.
Can I’ve a look at the map? Check it out here.
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