rental car insurance in Ireland

Pay close attention. The person at the credit card outfit is only a partial idiot. The statement would have been true had you wished to rent a car in Germany and driven into Italy (which your card probably won't cover if you actually pick up the car in Italy) and then returned it to Germany. You'd be covered by the credit card insurance the whole way. What the partial idiot doesn't know is that no rental outfit in the UK will let you take a car into NI or the RoI - - or vice-versa. It's in the fine print of all the rental contracts that I've ever seen. You have to use two cars. And when you get to NI or the RoI you need to pay for the insurance yourself as an extra. Trust me. I've left a car sitting at Holyhead for a week while I was renting another one in the Irelands. Life sucks. You can get the car onto the ferry without a problem, and Irleand will let you in. You will have no insurance of any kind, however, since you blew the rental agreement all to hell.

Unless their policy has changed, Hertz will let you rent in Ireland and return in Northern Ireland (with a one-way dropoff fee) - and vice versa. I've done it myself, the last time in 2010. According to their website, they'll also let you rent a car in England and take it to Ireland, either round trip or one way - but with a surcharge. I lifted the following from the Hertz website: "There are no restrictions for driving from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland. For one way rentals and round trip rentals from UK mainland to Channel Island, Isle of Man, Republic of Ireland, and to Continental Europe an additional surcharge will apply. No surcharge will apply for taking the vehicles into Northern Ireland and the Isle of Wight." I don't know about other rental outfits. I wouldn't fool with credit card insurance anywhere in Ireland. Buy the super CDW from Hertz and tell them your entire planned driving itinerary.

Ed said: <<What the partial idiot doesn't know is that no rental outfit in the UK will let you take a car into NI....>> Really? Even though NI is part of the UK?

Whether you bring a car from the UK or not, credit card insurance will NOT cover you in Ireland (even if someone on the phone tells you that it will). Get the super CDW and be done with it. I haven't tried taking a car on a ferry, but I suspect Ed is right about taking it into RoI. I will never drive in Ireland without super CDW insurance.

I mistyped. Of course NI is part of the UK. Maybe I should have said from the rest of the UK or from the big island to the little island, or from England, Scotland, Wales into NI. My point was that you can't take a car across the Irish or Celtic seas in either direction. There's no problem going between the RoI and NI. And, 'really'. I've explored it in every direction off on on for years. Compounding the problem is that the ferry from Liverpool to Belfast is a heck of a lot longer ride and the ferry from Stranraer only seems to run on the eighth sunday of the fifteen month. If it can be done, there's only three sensible ways to pull it off. Holyhead to Dublin is best. Fishguard to Rossaire is next, followed by Pembroke Dock to Rossaire. I think there's also a route from Swansea to Cobh or somewhere in Cork, but I've never explored it. Tom's got me going on the 'possible with a surcharge' business. I'm going to get to the bottom of that one real quick since I hate showing my butt.

My tail is on display to the world. I was wrong. Here's the gist of a conversation twenty minutes ago with a gal at the London City airport Hertz joint. 1 - - You can rent a small car from them for a week for about a hundred and fifty sterling if you keep it on the mainland UK. 2 - - If you drop it in either Dublin or Befast, it costs an additional thousand sterling. 3 - - She's never done one, but if you fess up to the fact that you're going into the RoI (but bringing the car back to her), the surcharge is about thirty sterling per day for the ENTIRE rental period. If you dork up the car without having paid the surcharge, all costs incurred are yours including repairs, getting the car back, etc. The biggest etc was that, since you violated the rental agreement, you had no liability coverage. (That's one for lawyers to work out after the fact, I have my suspicions, but not the qualification to even think about it real hard.) 4 - - You can't let your credit card cover the non-Ireland part of the rental and buy cdw for the Ireland period. You have to buy the cdw for the entire period. (I didn't ask her how much that was, or else forgot what she said. I've paid it in Dublin and it's steep, but you have to do it.) 5 - - Although it was before her time, she thinks that the change - - being allowed to take it across the seas - - occurred as the Troubles more-or-less ended in the mid-nineties. The last time I was in both/either Irelands was early last year (when I left the one car at Holyhead). I was obviously working off of old dope. With the new scoop, I would have done the same thing due to the expense.

The only reasonable option I can now see is going from the mainland UK (Liverpool or Stranraer) to Belfast and staying out of the RoI. Either would be a bit of a time-munching logistical problem and neither would seem to fit the needs of the average tourist. I've completely exhuasted my thinking on the subject, my head hurts, I have nothing more to contribute, and I need to go about my day's business.

I don't want your head to hurt, Ed. Only thing I want to contribute is that the Stranraer route is off. Can't go from there anymore. The boat has been cut back on sailings and moved a fair chunk down the loch. I don't remember the hamlet it now goes from, for which it is now named, but I do remember that there is no longer train service to it.

Darn it, Nige. I woke up in the middle of the night afraid that I'd passed on bum dope. I should have called you instead of What'sHerFace that didn't sound too cute anyway (not that you're especially cute). Cairnryan is the only place I think it could have gone . . . ? No great loss, I guess, since Stranraer isn't exactly the garden spot of the world.

Cairnryan appears to be the place.... from £79 on Stena Line to Belfast .... Happy dreams. (you're not exactly Frank Sinatra either you know)

Aww, confess, Nigel and Ed.... you two have a little bro-mance going on, don't you? So cute!

Nigel politely slipped in an element that I missed - - the ferry cost. That's pretty stinking steep, especially since Norfolk/DFDS/WhatEverItIsThisWeek only stiffs me about £30 for the Dover-Dunkerque run.