Ireland and Scotland

It is probably easier and cheaper to rent separately for Ireland and Scotland as they often require more insurance and drop off fees 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!

Yes, Ireland has been on the list for a long time. Thank you for the insight.

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.

You might be able to hire a car in Northern Ireland and take it on the ferry across to Cairnryan but personally I would just fly, it’s so much faster, and you can hire a car on the other end. It’s also a lot less expensive to fly- taking a car on the ferry is surprisingly expensive.

Unless you really want to take a ferry, and don't mind the extra time, I'd fly. I've done it a few times and it's simple. You could take a morning flight from Ireland and have lunch in Scotland.

You need more than two weeks to see both countries well.
In Ireland, don't miss The Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry, Connemara, Galway, Cork, Blarney Castle, Dublin (need 2-3 days there, enjoy Guiness). A couple of days in Belfast and the Giant's Causeway and Rope Bridge.
For Scotland, Edinburg for sure, as well as Loch Ness, Inverness, St. Andrews and more.

We flew into Edinburgh for a three night stay and had plenty of time to explore the sights there—no car needed. Then we flew from Edinburgh to Cork—a pretty easy flight on a regional airline, so not too expensive. Our flight left in the afternoon so we had the whole morning to stroll around the Royal Botanic Garden. The Cork Airport was really easy to navigate, much smaller and calmer than the airport in Dublin. Once you’ve picked up your car in Cork you have lots of time to explore the wonders of the western part of Ireland—my personal favorite region. You can slowly make your way either north or south, depending on your interests and finish up your trip in Dublin for a few days, no car needed—just drop it at the airport (do NOT drive into the city!) and bus or cab into town.

We have done several trips like that. Recommend fly into Edinburgh and stay there with perhaps one or two day trips. Once we.did St..Andrews and another time Loch Ness. Day five fly to Shannon or Kerry, rent car there and explore the west coast and then head back towards Dublin for a few days. You could return the car to the airport or.even Galway or.Naas and train to Dublin as you do not need or want a car in the city. Fly home from Dublin as that gives you pre clearance to the US. Be sure to book multi city airline tickets.and ro.get the UK travdl.permit. Also.use Euro in Ireland and pounds in Scotland. I would go mid to late September. Good luck.and enjoy.

We've made four trips to Scotland and five to Ireland, and have never had a problem filling a three week trip with things to do/see. With only two weeks, I'd spend the whole time in Ireland and you still won't have time to do more than a survey of the top things. Certainly go to Scotland, but on another trip.

Without knowing your interests, it's hard to make reccomendations.

I'm with jjgurley on this one. 14 days isn't a lot of time and there is the danger you wiil, end up short changing both places. The first day could well be spent recovering from jet lag. Also you will lose much of a day moving between Ireland and Scotland That is beginning to only give 12 days.

You can easily fill all that time in either Ireland or Scotland.

Also remember that the Republic of Ireland is a different country to the UK. It uses euros rather than piounds sterling. You will also need an ETA.

The logistics of renting a car in Ireland and returning it to Scotland make it very very unlikely that you would find a company prepared to let you do this.