Car for hire (rental) in Dublin for 2 weeks this May

Posted by liz on 03/17/16 11:41 AM

Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Happy St. Patrick's Day to All!

My family (myself, my husband and 2 college age daughters) are flying round trip to Dublin from JFK (booked on Aer Lingus) in May. We are staying for 2 weeks and plan to drive 1 week around Ireland and 1 week around Scotland. We are just beginning the planning (although flights are booked !!)

I realize this has already posted and there is a lot of information on the internet about this, but we are confused about the car hire (rental) process.

My husband assures me he will have "no problem" driving on the "other" side of the road from what we are used to. He knows how to drive a manual transmission, but not sure about whether we will need an automatic transmission.

I think we will need a "mid-size" care for 4 adults and all of our luggage for 2 weeks.

I have also seen info about the insurance that is required.

We will need to be able to take the car into Northern Ireland and Scotland because we are planning to take the car ferry from Belfast into Scotland.

We will be staying for a night or two in Dublin at the beginning and end of our trip and, from what I have read, we do not need a car in Dublin so will probably plan to pick up the car after our stay in Dublin. So we need to decide if it is better to pick up the car at Dublin Airport or somewhere else in Dublin (not at the airport).

Any advice, tips or companies to recommend (or stay away from) would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks, Liz G

Posted by Craig

Chicago

03/17/16 06:42 PM

498 posts

Liz,

I have rented a car twice in Ireland. Whoever drives has to remember three things: 1.) right turns are hard, left turns are easy; 2.) the driver is always in the center of the road; and 3.) drive slowly.

Roundabouts deserve special attention and represent a fourth thing to keep in mind. As you approach a roundabout, there will be a sign announcing it. The roundabout sign will depict the exits--usually there are three exits per roundabout, but sometimes there are two, four or five exits--and the destinations each exit leads to. Make sure you take the exit that matches your destination. Once you get to your exit in the roundabout circle, you will see another sign that lists the destination(s) again. If there is a lot of traffic in the roundabout, it's OK to take another circuit (or more) through the roundabout to allow traffic to clear.

I rented from Dan Dooley Car Rental once. They were fine. I cannot remember the other company I used.

It's a wise decision not to drive in Dublin. I did drive in the city once, but only for a couple hours. I have relied on transit (the DART trains and buses) in Dublin. Now the city has another train system, the Luas, but I've never been on it because it's relatively new. Anyway, transit is easy to use in Dublin.

I had a manual on one of the cars I rented, but at the time I had a manual on my car back in the states, so I was used to a manual.

I drove from the Republic into Northern Ireland once. It's not an issue. Cars registered in the Republic have different license plates from those registered in Northern Ireland and vice-versa. However, I didn't take a ferry to Scotland (though I've been there, too.)