Ahead of my 2-night work extravaganza to Chicago, and the very grandiose Aer Lingus Business Class experience on the transatlantic jaunt, I selected Citylink to get me from my home in Limerick, direct to Dublin Airport.

Surprisingly, there are now two separate bus services from Limerick to Dublin Airport (FlightLink, being the other), but as luck would have it, timing just worked out much better for me with Citylink.

Why not park at the airport? Giving it thought, aside from the whole pay-and-claim nature of corporate travel, I also reasoned it would be nice to try and rest in both directions, given the otherwise very busy trip I had lined up.

On the way up, I opted for the 5:30am bus, hoping to be in the airport and checked-in, in time to catch the first few meetings of the morning, ideally before a stiff drink pre-departure. On my return, I got the bus at midday and to my amazement slept nearly all the way, awakening only around Birdhill, Tipperary.

I have to say – notwithstanding traffic that made us about 12 minutes late on the way to Dublin Airport, and about 5 minutes late on the return (due to traffic in Limerick itself), punctuality was very solid and I had initially factored in a much bigger delay trying to navigate the M50 at that time of the morning.

We departed bang on time, with the driver giving us clear guidance which luggage store to use for the respective terminals.

On-board, the bus was kept clean, tidy, and seats were sufficiently spacious, with armrests, and to my great delight, power sockets (as in, an actual plug socket) at every seat – in different locations depending on the seat mind you, most seemed to be under the seat while mine was on the overhead rack facing me.

Possibly the only downside I could see to the route in both directions was the need to burn a little extra time heading up to Castletroy and vice-versa, meaning heading onto, and coming off the motorway, a little earlier than necessary for town – and getting caught up in some of Limerick’s suburban traffic.

There was also (very well used, by fellow passengers) toilet facilities on-board in both directions, should the need arise.

Probably the only uncomfortable part of the journey, and by all accounts nothing to do with Citylink themselves, was on return; the morning was warm, and the bus while parked up at Dublin Airport was uncomfortably warm and stagnant.

Multiple passengers, including myself, ended up decanting back off the bus again until closer to departure time, the driver insisting he wasn’t allowed turn the engine on until a few minutes before departure per Dublin Airport’s own rules.

Overall however, Citylink turned out to be a perfectly punctual, relaxing way to get from downtown Limerick city to Dublin Airport and back, with courteous drivers both directions and more than enough seat space to get stuff done.