Hello. Everyone here is so helpful I know someone will have done this and be able to advise. I am taking a family group of 9 to Ireland then two of them leave and I have 7 of us to drive around Scotland and down through the Lake District in England. I thought we would have to have 2 cars to accomodate all of us but perhaps not. Has anyone driven either of these vehicles and what was it like? I hold a Class 1 license and a School bus licence here in Canada but I know things are much, much different over there. I was there 2 years ago and drove a car so I have some idea of whats ahead but what do you all think?
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
I think you'd almost have to have two vehicles. Nine people (or seven) with luggage just won't fit in a single vehicle. And if you've driven in Ireland, you know how narrow some of the roads can be. Hopefully, you are planning to rent a vehicle in Ireland, then turn it in before leaving and rent again in the UK. Drop off fees for renting in one country and dropping off in another can be quite costly.
Posted by
Atlanta
1358 posts
My sister rented a "people mover" in Ireland this summer for her family of 7. It's basically a small SUV with a 3rd row of seats, which takes up all of the room for luggage. We ended up with one of her kids squished in between our 2 in the back of our car. She had luggage squished in everywhere she possibly could, including our trunk.
Roads over there are VERY narrow. There's some of them where you have to pull over if someone's coming the other way. If you're not used to driving a mini bus on those roads, I wouldn't do it. Plus it'd be cheaper to rent 2 cars than a mini bus.
Posted by
Manchester
497 posts
It's probably worth knowing that a people mover (or MPV) is not always a "small SUV..." The term is almost exactly equal to the American "mini-van" and just as in the states sizes can range from the small end (as Maureen described) up to quite spacious models.
I can't speak for Ireland but if you want to drive a minibus in the UK, defined as a vehicle with between 9 and 16 passengers, you need a "D1" category endorsement on your licence. This is standard on "normal" licences over here but I've no idea how your Canadian licence will translate. The agency in charge of licences over here is the DVLA and the info should be on their site. Ireland naturally have their own laws but these things are broadly comparable across the EU these days.
It's not clear if you indeed to keep the same vehicle for Ireland and the UK but I would recommend not doing so. Ferries can be quite expensive and a lot of rental firms won;t allow you to take a car across the Irish Sea (the ones that do will charge a hefty foreign country drop off fee.) Much easier to rent a car at either side.
As for the "narrow roads" and what not I think only you can answer, especially if you've driven here before. I tend to think the difficulties are massively overrated but I do live here... The roads are certainly capable of taking an MPV or minibus, in fact you'll probably be sharing them with full sized buses and lorries, it really comes down to if you are confident enough to drive a larger vehicle.
Renting two normal sized cars has some attraction, it may well be cheaper but it is definitely more flexible and there's less chance of having to special order a vehicle. Does mean you need two drivers though.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Two cars can be problematic. Tried it three times. All three, second driver kept falling behind, getting lost, getting confused, etc. Situation was better on third trip since I took a couple of U. S. FRS/handy-talkie radios. I know, they're illegal because of frequency allocations, but never heard anybody else on the channel we were using and was never triangulated and nabbed by the airwave fuzz. If it comes up again, the policy will be to meet at a point and time and every man for himself.
Posted by
OP
SK, Canada
59 posts
Thank you so much everyone! That is all very helpful. Yes I was planning on renting a different vehicle in Ireland and in Scotland and flying using Ryan air (i think) in between. I will check out the D1 endorsment and the other suggestions. I drove in Scotland and England the last time without the extra CDW coverage but I probably should get it in Ireland, correct? I know much has been written about this subject so I will check out the archived answers too. Thank you all again!
Posted by
Atlanta
1358 posts
Definitely get the extra CDW coverage in Ireland. The deductible without it can be around 1100-1500 euro. That can be a big "ouch".
There's two options for the extra CDW -- go with the one with the rental company or get it from an outside party. With the rental company, it'll cost a lot more, but if anything happens, you just drop off the keys and go. We got ours from dailyexcess.com, cost about $9/day, about 1/3 of the one from the rental company. With that, the rental company will charge the deductible to your card and you have to file a claim to get reimbursed. We had to file a claim, took about 6 weeks to get the money.
As far as taking 2 cars, we did that this summer with no problem. We took walkie-talkies and tuned them to a frequency which (I think) was legal. We only used them to ask questions about the route or plan stops.
Posted by
Monument, Colorado, USA
26 posts
In Ireland we rent mini busses from Dooley Car Rental. They are 9 passenger vehicles and are great.
In Scotland we rent from Self Drive Solutions [email protected]. They have been wonderful. We pick up at Glasgow Airport and either drop off there or at Edinburg Airpot. We have rented 15 & 17 passenger vans from them. The only drawback is that you pay in full when you reserve the vans.