Planning Your Visit to Wexford Town

Wexford Town sits in Ireland's south-east corner, on the M11/N11 corridor south of Dublin and close enough to Rosslare Europort that it works equally well as a destination in its own right or a stopover on the way to or from a ferry. Planning around it is straightforward, but a few specifics are worth getting right before you travel.

Getting there

By road, Wexford is roughly 140km and about one hour fifty minutes from Dublin via the M11, traffic depending. By rail, Wexford has its own station, Wexford O'Hanrahan, on the Dublin Connolly to Rosslare Europort line; it is a through-station rather than a terminus, so trains run in both directions, and it sits a short walk from Main Street along the quay. By bus, Wexford Bus runs direct coach services, routes 740 and 740X, from Redmond Square to Dublin city centre and Dublin Airport, a journey of around two hours. If you are arriving by ferry from Fishguard in Wales or from a French port, Rosslare Europort is about 19km south of the town, roughly a 20 to 25 minute drive, and worth building into your timing if you are collecting a hire car or connecting onward by bus.

When to visit

October is Wexford's busiest month by a clear margin, driven by Wexford Festival Opera and the concurrent Spiegeltent Festival, both running in the second half of the month. If a lively, crowded, opera-and-live-music town is what you want, this is the time to come, booked well ahead. If you would rather see the same streets quietly, spring and the shoulder end of autumn are genuinely good alternatives, with the historic core just as walkable and accommodation considerably easier to book. Winter is the quietest season in the town itself but the best window for the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve's wintering geese and swans on the North Slob, a short drive north of the centre. Summer brings the standard peak tourist season and the months the Wexford River Cruise typically operates.

What is genuinely in the town, and what is not

It is worth being clear-eyed about this before you plan a day. Selskar Abbey, Westgate Heritage Tower, the Bullring, Crescent Quay and the John Barry Monument, and the National Opera House are all within Wexford's compact town centre, easily covered on foot. The Irish National Heritage Park, a large open-air museum of reconstructed dwellings and settlements spanning several thousand years of Irish history, is a genuinely worthwhile attraction but sits off the N11 a short drive north of the town, not inside it; treat it as a separate half-day trip rather than something to squeeze into a town-centre walk. The same goes for the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve on the North Slob: a short drive from the centre rather than a walk from Main Street, and worth budgeting transport time for accordingly.

Practical basics

Wexford General Hospital, on Newtown Road, has its own Emergency Department and sits within the town itself, roughly two kilometres from Main Street, so unlike many small Irish towns, visitors are not relying on a hospital in a different county for urgent care. Wexford Garda Station is at Mulgannon. Pharmacies, banks and supermarkets are concentrated along Main Street and Redmond Square, and pay-and-display parking is available at both Redmond Square and Trinity Street car parks close to the town centre. The region is known locally as the Sunny South East, a reputation for slightly drier weather than the west of Ireland rather than a guarantee, so pack for a mild, changeable coastal climate regardless of the season.

How long to stay

A single overnight covers the essentials comfortably: an evening arrival, a full day walking the historic core and the quayfront with a meal or two worked in, and a morning departure. Two nights allows time to add the Wexford River Cruise or a trip out to the Wildfowl Reserve without rushing the town-centre walk, and gives some slack for weather, since an exposed harbour walk is a poor experience in driving rain. If your visit includes Wexford Festival Opera, plan on at least two nights to justify the ticket price with more than a single rushed evening, and to allow a full day either side of a performance for the rest of the town.

Money and currency

Ireland uses the euro, and Wexford's shops, restaurants and attractions all take card payment as standard; carrying some cash is still useful for smaller stalls at the Bullring Market or the Bullring's Friday trading generally. Banks with ATMs are concentrated along Main Street, so withdrawing cash on arrival before heading out to any of the town's edges, such as the Wildfowl Reserve or Whitford House Hotel on New Line Road, is worth doing while still in the centre.