Hello, We would prefer not to pick up our car, inside busy Dublin, given the right hand side of road driving. We want to hike for a day in Wicklow, and would like to take a bus from Dublin to Dundalough and pick up a rental car near there. Any advice for this?
Thank you in advance.
Deb
Posted by
Colorado Springs
2980 posts
I'm assuming you mean Glendalough.
There are no rental car offices in the vicinity that I'm aware of. You're options are to pick up the car at Dublin airport or from one of the offices along South Circular Road ... which might work for you since from there it's a straight shot out of town to get to the R115 that winds its way thru the mountains - a very scenic drive. It would entail some city driving but would avoid the rabbit warren in central Dublin which you'd do best to avoid. The only issue there is that their operating hours are pretty restrictive - they don't open until 8:30 AM and then close at 5:30 PM - and there's likely less chance of guaranteeing a vehicle with automatic transmission.
The better option (IMO) is to collect your car from the airport as early in the morning as you can manage - the offices there open as early as 5:30 AM and stay open till late so you'd comfortably have a full day to explore.
Getting to Glendalough early is highly recommended. Though the visitor center (and bathrooms) don't open until 9:30 the site itself is open 24/7. so you'd have the place all to yourselves until the tour buses start arriving at 9:30.
The hikes in the vicinity of the monastic site are the best in the Wicklow mountains based on our experiences.
Posted by
10 posts
I believe you can rent a car in Dun Laoghaire. We had planned to do that but cars rented from there cannot be returned in Northern Ireland so we had to pick up our car at the airport. The car rental in Dun Laoghaire is not on the bus line but you can get close and walk or Uber/ taxi.