Hi All,
I am heading over to Ireland in July, and I am just wanting to hear about some of your experiences with hiring a car in Ireland.
I will be picking it up from Cork and dropping it off in Dublin.
Who have you used? Any dodgy experiences i should steer clear from?
Do you also have any must see beauty spots? The idea is to head around West Cork. up the west coast and across to Dublin.
If you know of any fantastic pubs, Guinness breweries etc great sigh seeing spots, I’d love to hear from you!
Also, going in and out of Ireland. Is flying the best way to go? Last time i went there (a long time ago) I caught to ferry from Wales into Ireland and then the Ferry again to Scotland. But it was all through the night and there was no where comfortable to bed down.
I’m finding it a bit hard to source flights etc. So i cant do a cost comparison. My guess is that Ryanair isn’t too much different in price?
Thanks very much,
look forward to your responses. :)
I've used Hertz before on business. In that part of the world, a trek down to Mitzin point might be worth doing. I don't know about the W coast - never had a chance before I got transferred on biz back outta Ireland, but you need to be a bit wary of the Irish driving style. In many areas the roads are still quite windy and narrow and over taking is nigh impossible. Eventually they open up a bit and go straight with 1 1/2 lanes each way. It gives you the opportunity to overtake whatever you're stuck behind. Unfortunately, often you're playing high speed chicken with someone coming the other way. It's an interesting experience, but fine once you get used to it.
As for how to get there, where are you trying to get into Ireland from? UK? If so, which bit of the UK? You may find it's cheaper to fly into Dublin, get the train immediately down to Cork and start your journey that way. Cork is a bit more limited on flights compared to Dublin.
Hi Fwoggie. I think you meant Mizen Head, didn't you? I ike your description of driving in Ireland - it can be hair-raising for a first-time visitor, that's for sure.
OP, I'm a great fan of West Cork and I think you'll have a great time there. Take a look at post #3 on this thread for a beauty spot/fantastic pub recommendation and more.
I've used Argus car rental a few times and had no problems.
Might be worth checking Aer Lingus for flights as they sometimes have cheap fares.
I've been happy booking cars through the consolidator Auto Europe for both Ireland and France.
Don't miss the Dingle Peninsula. I suggest you buy the Lonely Planet Ireland guidebook. It's excellent.
As a very regular visitor back to Ireland I find cars from National car rental booked through Expedia always work out the cheapest, but that is collecting at Dublin airport.
skyscanner.net is very good for pricing flights within Europe. It checks all the discount airlines as well as the other major carriers for you.
OP
Take the full insurance on the car hire as saves you worrying about any damage. There is a policy that covers the super collision damage waiver which gives you 12 months cover.
www.insurance4carhire.com</a><BR><BR>Check the tyres before you drive off to ensure they are legal as have had experience with cars from reputable car hire companies which shouldn't have been on the road.
Ryanair is generally the cheapest if booked early enough in advance and they fly from more destinations in the Uk BUT it does depend on where you live as if you live close to Heathrow then makes sense to use it providing price is not extortianate. Can also book Hertz car hire through them and have found it to be the cheapest.
Yes get full insurance, depending on where you're from you might find the driving more difficult that you're used to - combined with the general stress of new cities and finding your way, this can translate into little prangs (my partner is a highly qualified driving instructor in Oz and even he managed to smash one of the side mirrors). Looking back now I do wish we'd taken a bus tour or something instead of driving ourselves, it caused more stress than it was worth at the time but perhaps we were just underprepared. If you're keen to drive and want to avoid regrets, my tips would be get a GOOD map with ALL the streets on it (even better a GPS system) and avoid driving into new cities at peak hours (we did this several times - didn't mean to but it just happened that way). We drove from Dublin to Shannon via Cork and Galway (and smaller places in between). Cork was the most difficult city to drive in for us. The Ring of Kerry is in my opinion a must see for a driving tour and made the whole thing feel worthwhile. I don't know if that's on your route or not.
trusted partner
