We are planning a trip in either late September or October and will be doing a self-driving tour through Ireland. We are considering making it a two-week trip and spending four or maybe five days in Scotland. Would you recommend taking a ferry over from Ireland? If so, can you typically take a rental car on the ferry? All recommendations are welcome, including must stays in Ireland.
Posted by
Camano Island, WA, usa
1745 posts
It is probably easier and cheaper to rent separately for Ireland and Scotland as they often require more insurance to take the car on the ferry between the 2 countries. The time spent to cross might surprise you. It might be cheaper to fly. Others may have an update on this situation, If you go too late in October some places start to close for the season. I would do Scotland 2 weeks in September. Look at www.visitscotland.com. I have done 2 self drive trips thru Scotland and have not even touched what I wanted to see and do. But if Ireland calls to you, go there and then fly to then out of Glasgow/Edinburg. Bon Voyage!
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Yes, Ireland has been on the list for a long time. Thank you for the insight.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
8868 posts
Separate cars in separate countries makes the most sense. If you found a rental company that did let you pick up the car in Ireland and return it in Scotland (assuming that you otherwise weren’t considering taking a ferry back over to Ireland to turn in the car!), you’d want to determine what they world be charging you for that. I imagine the “one way” return fee could be considerable, and much more than if you were renting in England and returning in Scotland, all on land.
Another aspect that may or may not complicate the situation is the Republic of Ireland using the Euro, and Scotland using the Pound Sterling. At some point, somebody’s going to have to do some extra math to arrive at the price. And is a rental company going to be happy with an Irish license plate showing up in Scotland, where they’re probably going to need to work to get that car back to Ireland, rather than keeping it in Scotland for other customers to continue to drive it around there?
One last thing that could make things slightly more complicated, rather than totally simple: Ireland uses kilometers per hour (with speedometers reflecting that), while Scotland has miles per hour. True, round speedometer gauges have long had numbers for both KPH and MPH, but the predominant numbering has been for whatever measurement the home country uses. A driver could make adjustments in the short term to a different system, but renting out a KPH car, long-term, to future customers in Scotland might set the company up for problems, and they’d want to get the car back to Ireland ASAP. A fancy digital dashboard might be able to convert from KPH to MPH by simply touching a button, so perhaps that wouldn’t be an issue these days, but all the other things still would.