Renting a car in Ireland

Hi Mary, I'm searching out info on the same topic. I put .. car ireland .. in the search box (upper right) and this thread from just last year is very helpful: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/79102/renting-a-car-in-ireland.html At this point, I am leaning toward Nancy from Bloomington's suggestion of Irish Car Rental, http://www.irishcarrentals.com/, along with Daniel's suggestion of insurance4carhire.com to cover the tires, unless my query to Irish Car Rental gives me info that their Super CDW is sufficient. Good luck with your research. Edit: I've discovered that some non-UK countries are covered by insurance4carhire.com, but not the USA, so I'm still working on tires/windshield thing. I can post again if/when I've a reply from Irish Car Rentals.

Driving to/from the Dublin airport is pretty easy - this is not Los Angeles or NYC. That said be prepared for both of you to have to pay for car insurance if both of you are driving. This goes for married couples as well. I'd advise the CDW - you'll be driving on the other side of the road and that's tiring in and of itself. The CDW insurance should also cover you if your rental is out of commission due to an accident (otherwise they can slap a big charge on your VISA or whatever). Yes CDW is expensive but not having to deal with the hassle factor with your own insurance company and credit card company upon return can save you days of time and paperwork. I have better things to do than spend a nano-second worrying about insurance when I soaking in the beauty of Ireland. FYI driving there is pretty uncongested and the distances, for an American, are short.

Mary, just a suggestion for you-after considering what driving in Ireland would be like, i.e. left hand side of the road, right hand drive vehicle, lots of roundabouts, and poorly marked country roads-I decided to rent a car with an automatic transmission. It cost another $80 or so total for the four days we are renting, but it made sense as a step to simplifying. Take the CDW.
We are picking up our car downtown up on our last day in Dublin and making a very strategic escape from the city, then driving across that day to Cliffs of Moher. We are really looking forward to that drive, and the opportunity to pull over and have a look around. We had considered the train across, but decided the flexibility would be fun.

Having a GPS, either with the car or bringing your own will make things MUCH easier.

I used Dan Dooley car rental - picked up my car at the Dublin airport and after a week of use, returned it there. I did pay for the full insurance coverage - my credit cards do not cover
full coverage (no-deductible) car insurance in Ireland.

Has anyone been successful in the car rental in Irelandfor advance rentals? I want to try AAA and see if paying for the car before I go might be helpful and also having AAA advice me? Anyone else have any luck?

Just to corroborate what so many have said, I would take the Damage Excess insurance. It really is just another name for deductible. You will find that the deductible amount if you have an accident is around 1200 Euros. We rented a Ford Focus and did not take the insurance as we were using our Visa and Visa advised me I had coverage. Driving into a parking lot in Derry there was a very impatient guy behind me and as I turned into the underground garage stall, I managed to put a small (6 inches long, 1/2 and inch wide) scratch in the front bumper. When we returned it I pointed it out to them. It was like the old Arlo Guthrie song Alice's Restaurant. We were shown to the group W bench where we waited for someone to access the damage. 1/2 an hour later and they decided they would put the full 1200 euro on my cc(about $1700 Canadian at the time). After about 6 weeks I got about $700 Canadian credited back, but there was no way it was $1000 damage, no way. So then I had to go after Visa for the other 1000. 3 months, copies of pictures of the damage, letters from the car rental company, just a huge hassle. When we go to Ireland again, or for that matter anywhere in Europe, I will absolutely take the Damage Excess insurance.