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Car Rental Price

Posted by (Washington State) on

Hello all, my husband and I are trying to reschedule our honeymoon to Ireland that was originally planned for April 2020, now hoping for June of this year.

I’ve been trying to rent a car out of Dublin for 9 days and the cost is outrageous, over $150 per day. My husband would prefer an automatic which bumps it to over $200 per day, and this doesn’t even take in fuel costs. I knew it would be pricey but this seems extreme. Am I looking in the wrong places? I’ve checked Hertz, budget, Avis and all the others listed on the government website. If we don’t do a car how do-able is public transport? We wanted to go Dublin-Kilkenny-Cork-Castletownbere-Dingle-Ennis-Dublin spending two nights most places.

At this point I don’t think we can afford the price tag of the car rental and we’re reconsidering buying a cheap plane ticket from Dublin to London and taking advantage of the UKs cheap and easy train system.

Posted by
6455 posts

Rental car prices are definitely outrageous just about everywhere this year. This is a result of many rental companies selling off part of their fleets during COVID. In my searches over the years, AutoEurope typically has the best prices. I encountered really high car rental prices for my upcoming trip to Sicily. Some things you can do in light of such high rental prices, is to experiment with different cities for pick up or drop off; contact a place you want to stay to get any recommendations; think about a trip partly with a rental and partly with public transportation; and with current rental rates, a private driver for some days can be the best solution. For me, I ended up with a trip that has me renting a car for a portion of the trip, using public transportation some days and we are using a private driver for a few days. One of my BnBs actually found someone that drives a taxi that was willing to put in some extra time to drive us places for 2.5 days. It was cheaper than renting a car for those days and the driver is not likely to get lost! This BnB actually went the "extra mile" for me, but by helping me, she kept our business when we may have needed to eliminate that part of the trip.

Posted by
589 posts

Unfortunately as others have noted car rental prices this season are outrageous unless you booked way in advance. Try AutoEurope.ie, I found their prices to be better than AutoEurope.com. Don't know why. Prices will be given in euros.

Posted by
8 posts

think about a trip partly with a rental and partly with public transportation; and with current rental rates, a private driver for some days can be the best solution>

I wouldn’t have even thought about private drivers, that would actually be nice since I’m feeling very nervous about driving on the other side of the road. Thank you for the tips!

Posted by
8 posts

Unfortunately as others have noted car rental prices this season are outrageous unless you booked way in advance. Try AutoEurope.ie, I found their prices to be better than AutoEurope.com. Don't know why. Prices will be given in euros.>

Yes sorry i realized there was a post not far down already about this topic. Thank you for the advice, I will check out that website

Posted by
67 posts

I've done a lot of looking too. $90/day for a small car automatic seems to be about the best. Usually AC is additional too. Manual transmission seems to be about $70/day.

Posted by
8 posts

I've done a lot of looking too. $90/day for a small car automatic seems to be about the best. Usually AC is additional too. Manual transmission seems to be about $70/day.

That’s not horrible. I guess my only concern when it comes to car size is being able to fit, I’m 6’2 and my husband is 6’6. Part of me wants to go up one size class just so we’re not miserable haha

Posted by
2980 posts

Rental car prices are indeed outrageous at the moment, especially if you're unable to lock in reduced prices well in advance, but I think you can still create a very nice itinerary if you're willing to be a little creative and trim a few things from your wish list.
By basing yourselves for a few days each in Dublin, Killarney, Galway and maybe Belfast you could take advantage of local day trip and tour providers to visit some of the countryside you'd normally be trying to see by car. Dublin, for example, offers enough day trip opportunities to keep you busy for a week - with tours to Glendalough and the Wicklow mountains, north to the Boyne Valley and Newgrange, and also by train to Belfast (2 hrs), Kilkenny (1.5 hrs) and Galway (2.5 hrs). . Likewise, from Galway you could visit the Aran Islands and tour Connemara at a fraction of the cost of renting a car.
There a couple of cheap flights per day on RyanAir between Dublin and the Kerry airport near Killarney (USD$23 each way the last I checked). If either of the daily flights could be folded into your modified itinerary it might be a cost saver for you. Probably a time saver as well. Then there's express bus service between Killarney and Galway (about 3 hours).
Filling in some of the gaps by booking a car and driver as has been suggested would still allow you to cover quite a lot of ground with a minimum of aggravation.
The Irish train system isn't the most robust in Europe but it'll get you where you want to go if you plan ahead.
Though it's a shame that your particular requirements are driving up the cost of a rental car, there are relatively easy workarounds that can result in a memorable visit for you.

Posted by
8 posts

Rental car prices are indeed outrageous at the moment, especially if you're unable to lock in reduced prices well in advance

Thank you for the very kind and thought out reply. We definitely should have planned ahead much further but I’m pregnant and we were eager to travel before I can’t. I think we may end up going for England/Scotland on this trip and plan an Ireland trip in the future with more time and care. I will be saving all of these suggestions, thank you again

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