Car Rental suggestions

Hi, Seamsstressed and welcome! Ireland will be a great trip!

For cars, you might start with Autoeurope.com and see what you find. You can narrow parameters by transmission. I have used a couple of different companies and both were fine. Last time ended up being Sixt through Autoeurope, but I think the time before was Dan Dooley. However I rent from the airport because I do not want to drive out of and into central Dublin. For me, starting my trip with busy city driving is much more difficult than starting from a distance out on a highway. So I can’t help with a company who does the delivery part of your request. But the airport bus is easy and all the rental companies seem to have a shuttle from the same designated shuttle zone to their offices, in case you go that direction.

I agree totally with airport rental and not driving in Dublin itself. I have rented several times from Dan Dooley a while ago and most recently Enterprise with no problems.

Thank you I appreciate this

We would not use the car the first two days in Dublin . I was hoping to wait to have a car until we were ready to leave to Cork

I'll be the outlier. We have rented multiple times from Conn's Ireland, a Hertz franchise. They have multiple locations in Dublin and other parts of Ireland, including Cork. So I have multiple suggestions that may save you some money and angst. First, upon departing Dublin for Cork you could take the train or bus to Cork. See and do what you want in Cork, then rent a car and head to the next location. Option two, rent the car from Conn's South Circular Rd. location in Dublin. It will put you on the southern outskirts of Dublin City Center and literally two left turns (which means you don't cross traffic) on to the N70 and on your way to Cork. I believe Conn's also has a service by which they will guide you out of Dublin. The third option is to rent the car at Dublin airport as suggested above. But the airport is north of Dublin and you are heading southwest. You will also have to be on the M50, which although a divided highway and easy enough to drive, can be a slog. https://connsirelandcarrental.com/

I've tried multiple times to plan a rental from one of the in-town offices, but I always get stymied by the 5pm (4pm on Sat) closing time for a return. They want a one-way drop-off fee if you return it to the airport. So we bus/taxi to the airport to pick up the car.

After many trips, driving into Dublin is not a problem, but look out for the no-car zones.

Otherwise, we just price shop among the offers. Alamo has won the last two times, although we've used Enterprise and Hertz as well. Momondo,com does a good job of finding deals, although I suggest booking with the actual company after comparing. You often get different rates if you go with xxxx.ie instead of xxxx.com.

Be prepared for a hard sales pitch for upgrades, GPS, extra insurance and whatever. You'll probably pay a 30Euro "recovery fee" if you plan to go to Northern Ireland. If you have a premium credit card, it might cover the CDW, but bring proof with you (the CC vender is accustomed to providing an email for verification).

I made a note of Trotter’s info. I would actually use Option 1 unless I were stopping to sightsee enroute to Cork. Then I would choose Option 2. It’s true the airport is the wrong direction.

In addition, if you used Option 1, you could head directly to Cork upon arrival and save your Dublin days to be all together at the end of your trip. It might be more efficient.

I will put one more pitch in for Conn's (really, I'm not a bot and I'm not compensated). First, if you rent from any of their Dublin locations and return to the Dublin airport there is no one-way drop fee. I'm not sure whether there are fees for renting in Cork (for example) and dropping at Dublin. Second, their pricing is very transparent and includes GPS and CDW. Maybe with a phone you don't need a GPS and maybe with your credit card you don't need CDW. Just saying it's there if you want it and there won't be a hard sell. You can call them on their U.S. 1-800 number and leave a message. They'll call back within a couple of hours.

I would say if you are able to pick the car up outside of the city centre to start you journey, you would be saving yourself the headache of driving in Dublins awful traffic. We have driven in the city a few times and, while the driving itself is not unlike other big cities, their traffic is gridlocked. What should take you 10-15 mins could take you 45 min to an hour. With that said, we use Enterprise when we are in Ireland with good success. We've dropped off in the city centre (south side) and it was seamless. This was the one time we picked up and dropped off in a different location and, at the time, they did not charge a drop off fee. Usually, though, we drop off and pick up at same Enterprise location in Ireland. Enjoy your visit!