My sweetheart and I will be traveling to Ireland in June. We have created our own "tour" but are not too crazy about renting a car and driving everywhere. I see there are excellent guides available for hire - but how difficult or easy would it be for us to pick drivers here and there to get us from one town to the next. I see Uber is in Dublin, but I doubt it is available in the countryside. Thank you for your advice.
Posted by
Land of La
9220 posts
Sorry to say and this is my opinion having driven the entire island twice that renting a car is the BEST way to experience all that Ireland and NI have to offer. Über will be costly and most of Ireland is smaller cities and towns where you may not find Uber. Also bus and train service is time consuming.
Posted by
317 posts
Greetings from Ireland.
You'll have no problem finding guides to take you around like you suggest, it'll be pricey but if you can afford it then it will be an excellent way to learn from locals.
Irish Tour Guide Assoc. has a website representing all professional accredited tour-guides www.tourguides.ie
I am a badged guide but spend my summer guiding for Rick Steves but many of my colleagues prefer to work for smaller groups like your good self, you'll find them on that site.
You don't need a badged guide of course, any passionate Irish citizen can do the job, consider a local taxi for example in each town, negotiate a price and let them take you to the next town. Be wary of paying a regular citizen to do that however as if there is an accident you wont be insured, the driver must have insurance to take passengers for 'hire and reward'.
Im a fan of Uber, but in Ireland it is a disaster. Awful service because they have hardly any drivers signed up. in time they'll improve no doubt.
Let me know how you get on or if you need any tips or advice.
If you don't want to rent a car, then getting around but other methods is no problem.
I have lived here all my life and think our bus and train system is excellent (particularly the former).
Happy St. Patricks day tomorrow...
Slainte/Good health
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland Tour Guide
Dingle & Derry
ps You should title your Irish adventures 'planes, trains and automobiles' ;)