Show notes
At a Glance
Motorhome and campervan travel in Ireland has grown a lot in recent years, and this guide covers what first-timers actually need to know: vehicle size, where you can legally park overnight, and the apps that make it easier. Whether you're weighing a motorhome trip against a rental car or already sold on the idea, this should help you figure out how to do it well.
Travel Planning Snapshot
Recommended for: Retirees with time and flexibility, younger travelers on a gap year, and families during summer holidays
Vehicle size: Smaller than what most Americans are used to — Irish roads and campsites weren't built for a 36-foot Class A
Ideal approach: Pick one region and stay two weeks, rather than trying to circle the whole country
Overnight options: Full-facility campsites, basic campsites, aires, and pub car parks
Useful app: Park4Night (iOs & Android)
This article is based on podcast episode 349 featuring Sandra Willis, owner of Motorhome Routes Ireland.Use the player below to listen or scroll to continue reading the article and get resource links.
Renting an RV in Ireland is not the same experience as renting one in North America, and a lot of that difference comes down to road width, vehicle size, and where you're actually allowed to spend the night.
Choosing the Right Vehicle for Motorhome Travel in Ireland
The first thing to get straight is size. Irish roads are narrower than American ones, and the vehicles that work well here are narrower too. Sandra Willis, who runs Motorhome Routes Ireland, drives a camper van small enough to fit in a standard supermarket parking space. It still has a kitchen, a sink, a cooker, a fridge, and a bathroom with a toilet and shower — everything she needs if she's not on a campsite that night.
Bigger motorhomes exist and can be rented, but the bigger the vehicle, the more you'll find yourself sticking to main routes and larger campsites. A smaller camper van gives you more freedom to get off the main roads. Sandra's advice on rental size largely mirrors the standard car-rental rule: get the smallest one you can actually be comfortable in. If having more space matters enough to you that it makes the trip more enjoyable, that's a fair trade — just know you'll likely be doing more research on which roads and park-ups will actually fit the vehicle.
She also flagged one Ireland-specific hazard for bigger rigs: L roads. These are the smallest, narrowest roads in the country — the ones with grass growing up the middle. Fine in a small camper van. Best avoided in anything larger.
Where You Can Park Overnight in Ireland
This is the part that trips up a lot of first-time renters, since the rules are different everywhere.
Ireland has full-service campsites with facilities and organized activities — good for families, and the kind of place you could spend several days without leaving. There are also plainer campsites that just offer the basics: toilets, showers, water, electricity.
Below that are ‘aires' (short for Aire de Service), which are common across Europe and increasingly available in Ireland. These are generally large car parks set up for camper vans, with water and waste disposal and sometimes electricity, for a small overnight fee.
Then there's pub parking, which Sandra called one of the main draws of camper van travel in Ireland specifically. Many pubs will let you park overnight if you ask first, with the general expectation that you'll eat and drink there while you're stopped. It's technically called “parking” rather than “camping” — you're not meant to set up chairs or anything else outside the vehicle — but it's widely tolerated. Sandra's rules of thumb: check for posted signs banning overnight stays, don't park outside private houses, leave no trace, and support the business you're parked at.
Genuine wild camping — parking somewhere remote and scenic with no arrangement at all — is also possible if you keep a low profile, and some of those spots are, in Sandra's words, spectacular.
Apps That Help You Find a Spot to Camp in Ireland
For finding campsites, aires, and park-ups, Sandra pointed to Park4Night as the app she relies on most in Ireland. She also mentioned Search for Sites, though she finds it works better elsewhere in Europe than it does in Ireland.
The Biggest Mistake People Make when Using a Campervan in Ireland
Asked what trips people up most, Sandra didn't point to driving mishaps or parking dents. The real issue, she said, is people trying to pack in too much mileage. Ireland is small compared to North America and Australia, but the roads are slow — narrow, winding, and often stuck behind a tractor or a tour coach. Her advice is to pick one area and actually get to know it, rather than trying to circle the entire country in two weeks.
One small navigation tip from her: on narrower roads, follow the same direction that coaches and larger vehicles travel (the Ring of Kerry, for example, has a customary direction), so you're not meeting them head-on where there isn't room to pass.
About Sandra Willis and Motorhome Routes Ireland
Sandra Willis originally ran an events company in England for twenty years before selling it and moving onto a narrowboat to travel the English canal system. Six years ago she moved to Ireland — bringing the boat with her by ship — and eventually bought a camper van to explore the country further. Friends and followers kept asking how she found the places she visited, and that curiosity turned into Motorhome Routes Ireland.
The site sells downloadable, themed motorhome route guides — geographic ones like the Wild Atlantic Way or the Causeway Coast, and themed ones built around live music and craic, wildlife, or hiking. Sandra also offers bespoke route planning for travelers who want an itinerary built around their own pace, interests, and vehicle.
In addition to her website, you can also find Sandra on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Three Motorhome Spots Sandra Keeps Going Back To
Enniskillen and Devenish IslandEnniskillen, in Fermanagh where Sandra lives, is built around islands, and a boat trip from there takes you to Devenish Island, home to a monastic site and one of Ireland's oldest round towers. There are three campsites near Enniskillen to choose from, giving you a home base with an easy day of exploring — and a break from driving — built in.
Donegal, especially around Sleepy HollowsFor travelers with limited time, Sandra's top recommendation is Donegal — it's on the Wild Atlantic Way and has beaches, coastline, and a campsite called Sleepy Hollows that she describes as bohemian, with a nightly fire and a communal area where travelers swap stories. Nearby in Dunlewy are two churches: a current one, and an older abandoned one where you can stand at the empty window frame and look out over the Poison Glen — a view Sandra ranks among the best in Ireland. Donegal Airport, one of the more scenic small airports to fly into, is close by too, along with a wild camping spot with water so blue it looks Caribbean.
Anderson's Thatched Pub, Carrick-on-ShannonNear the River Shannon, this old-fashioned pub is only open on weekends and offers camper van parking. Locals go behind the bar to pour their own pints and leave the money in the till, and there's informal music most nights, with the crowd joining in rather than a booked band. The owner, Jean, is known for leaving small gifts on parked windscreens overnight — fresh bread, or an Easter egg if the timing lines up. Sandra calls it about as authentic as Ireland gets.
Start planning your own route
The Ireland Travel Compass brings together hundreds of places across the country and helps you turn ideas like these into a trip that fits your time and travel style.
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Motorhome travel isn't for everyone, but for the right traveler — someone with the time to slow down and take one region properly rather than rushing the whole country — it opens up a different way of seeing Ireland. Between the pub car parks, the aires, and spots like Sleepy Hollows, it's as much about who you meet along the way as where you end up parked for the night.
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