The Ireland trip - with some detours.

[OZDUCK]

We were in Ireland late Oct last year, and I agree the weather can put a damper on things, but we only had one day of drizzle. Dublin is super friendly, and one you have a glass of Guinness in Ireland, it is impossible to drink it anywhere else. We found Dingle was amazing and the drive up along the west coast on the Wild Atlantic Way was breathtaking - and really worth it. One thing I had to watch out for, was on the back roads there are no cautionary signs about how tight a corner would be until you arrived at the corner - a few tense moments with my better half.

(We unfortunately only had one day without drizzle.) But I definitely agree about the back roads being hazardous. On one of them I went over a blind crest, no sign as you say, to find that the road curved immediately over the crest. If i had been going faster than about 40K we would have been straight into a stone wall. You must allow about twice the "normal" travel time for any trip off the main roads.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

On The Road

We hired our car off Hertz but went through an "agent" - connsirelandcarrental.com - who undercut their price by about 40% Also, his price included "Collision Damage Waiver, Theft Protection, Super Cover, Personal Accident Insurance, Location Service Charge, Unlimited Mileage, Tax, 3rd Party Liability" and had a NIL excess - the Hertz price did not include the Super Cover, Nil excess or a GPS hire and was still dearer. This was good for me as, for the first time ever, I did some minor damage to the car. It should be noted that even Super cover doesn't cover "Tyre or Glass Damage" and you have to to pay between 7 - 10 E per day extra to cover this - I did and am glad that I did. I also got a "free" GPS hire included in the rental fee.

It is important to get the "Super Cover" as otherwise the car companies in Ireland will put a E2 - 3,000 hold on your credit card. A good explanation of all the intricacies - even though aimed at the U.S.A - is at A Comprehensive Guide to Renting a Car in Ireland - Infinite Ireland. The TripAdvisor Ireland Forum has lots of threads about hire cars in Ireland and all the rental companies have been well discussed.

We chose to pick our car up from the Hertz Franchise on The South Circular Road in Dublin. This location was only about a 10 minute ride from our hotel and was on the way we intended to head. It also avoided the hassles of getting back to the airport and at least one toll gate. Despite going through the "agent" the process is just the same as if you had booked direct with Hertz. You paid nothing - not even a deposit - until you returned the car. We had a Diesel Golf which was perfectly fine for the two of us with 2 suitcases.

Thanks for that as I am currently getting my head around car hire in Ireland and the UK where I will have at least three car hires. So after reading up avidly on this forum and others my current thoughts are:

If I have understood the various blogs and consumer forums correctly though there does however seem to be a lot of confusion, and in part a lot of that seems to be to me that many hirers from the USA have credit card insurance which covers them in the USA for collision damage, but it does not provide this same cover in places like Ireland. This group get annoyed when they arrive at their hire thinking that their card will provide CDW in Ireland which most cards will not do.

The credit card insurance that many that we in Australia is not car insurance so much as rental car excess insurance. ie it just covers the gap, and their needs to be comprehensive insurance in place (ie the CDW) as it only insures the excess. The various CC Insurance brochures I have read for various Australian issued cards indicate this. Essentially this type of cover is the "Super Cover" however not that if you use your card if there is any damage the hirer will need to pay for the damage and then seek re-imbursement from your Credit Card Insurance (ie so the disadvantage here is if their is damage or the need to claim that you the hirer will have to do some extra legwork). So that is a disadvantage along with the along with the 3000 od Euro hold on your CC. Though for me this second point is not a disadvantage as the CC I will use for car hires will have ample credit on it (one due the cards limit, and secondly I will only use it for car hirers as other cards are better for me for international transactions).

However the Aust. CC Excess insurance does not cover tyres, glass and undercarriage either (ie most super Covers do not either).

But you can cover yourself for BOTH the Super Cover and Tyre and Glass through providers like www.icarhireinsurance.com and at a much cheaper cost per day that through car rental firm or car rental agent.

Indeed policies such as this cover extras that the Super cover does not:

What's Covered

• Excess fees charged by the rental company - up to £6,000
• Damage to body work including tyres, windscreen, roof and undercarriage
• Damage caused by fire and vandalism
• Reimburses you if charged an excess for your vehicle being stolen
• Towing, breakdown, lock out and misfuelling excess charges
• Hotel and travel expenses relating to loss of use of your rental vehicle
• Main driver and additional drivers, so long as they’re named on the rental contract
• Covers rentals up to 65 days in length
• Admin fees relating to excess charges are also covered

The other plus for this type of excess cover is if you do multiple hires that effectively they are free. Daily cover is 2.99 Pound, but 12 month cover is only 37.99 Pound.


Now I note that some people have stated that car rental firms tell some hirers that they need to see the card insurance etc, or can refuse it. But however as I understand it while this is true for refusing CDW, that once you have taken the basic CDW coverage that you can happily refuse the Supercover etc and not have to justify to them why etc. YOU just need to satisfy yourself that you are happy with whatever CC or Third Party Insurance you have for excess cover etc, or indeed that you are happy to self-insure. That is your decision and not the rental firms, despite what they may say to try and pressure a sale. You may of course decide to go with the hirer cost Super Cover and Glass/Tyyre Cover due to its simplicity.


So in summary what I am currently looking to do for hires in England, Ireland and Scotland is:

- Book Car Rental with LLI Insurance and CDW Insurance included. - Based on quotes to date these included insurances are very cheap.
- Pay via my ANZ Black so have rental excess insurance
- But will also take out a 12 month policy with www.icarhireinsurance.com which belts an braces with the ANZ cover, but which also provides coverage for items that the ANZ does not

I am more likely to book direct at present- but will seek quotes from some agents to see if they can better the deal. But so far I do have access to a very cheap corporate rate through Hertz, though for Ireland Dan Dooleys is cheaper and especially if you do not start the hire in Dublin.

For example a 5 night /6 day day rental with Dan Dooleys can be as cheap as: 106 E plus 24 E for CDW +LLI, topped up with the Excess Europe Policy (37.99 Pound and so say 13 Pound for this rental). So about 140 Euro all up. One -way one drop offs are more, and hires starting in Dublin are more as well whenever I have searched. Flying into Shannon and returning in Dublin is a lot cheaper than starting and finishing in Dublin from the searches I have done to date.

I would be interested in others experiences and thoughts.

 

[OZDUCK]

I basically did my homework by reading a lot of the Ireland TripAdvisor forum posts about renting in Ireland plus the Top Questions section and a few other blogs. I think that you have summarised the insurance options pretty well. As I have said previously, in my case I decided to just bite the bullet and hire through a company that included a SuperCover with a nil excess - which worked fine for the small bit of damage that happened to my car.

I don't know that it particularly matters but Dan Dooleys is now owned by Enterprise Rent-a - Car.

You may be better off putting this query into the Travel Tips section for Travel Insurance to get more views and responses.

 

[JohnK]

Very nice trip report. Thanks for sharing. Some nice ideas.

As a golfer Ireland has been on the agenda a long time. I think it'd be great to drive around and stay at bed and breakfasts. Same with Scotland. One day.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I basically did my homework by reading a lot of the Ireland TripAdvisor forum posts about renting in Ireland plus the Top Questions section and a few other blogs. I think that you have summarised the insurance options pretty well. As I have said previously, in my case I decided to just bite the bullet and hire through a company that included a SuperCover with a nil excess - which worked fine for the small bit of damage that happened to my car.

I don't know that it particularly matters but Dan Dooleys is now owned by Enterprise Rent-a - Car.

You may be better off putting this query into the Travel Tips section for Travel Insurance to get more views and responses.

Thank you for your suggestion.

I have now done so http://www.australianfrequentflyer....s-and-limos/car-hire-in-uk-ireland-84414.html

 

[OZDUCK]

Very nice trip report. Thanks for sharing. Some nice ideas.

As a golfer Ireland has been on the agenda a long time. I think it'd be great to drive around and stay at bed and breakfasts. Same with Scotland. One day.

Thanks JohnK. The Irish B & Bs' we stayed at were all very good, usually well located and with uniformly excellent food. Some of the golf courses we passed had amazing attached hotels - Luxury Hotels Ireland | 5* Hotel Galway | Glenlo Abbey Hotel and if the name doesn't put you off

https://www.trumphotels.com/ireland?utm_source=google-local&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb

Just be sure to take some very good wet weather gear for using on the links. Especially on the west coast.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

As I said in my posts I do really regret not allocating a few more days for Northern Island. I had expected to see some flat farming land with a few grey towns - absolutely wrong. I think the violent recent past influenced my views. Also, Eire has benefited by the USA/Irish link which has mythologised the south of the island. N.I. needs to get a better Advertising Company for their Tourist Bureau - perhaps Don Draper is free.

Thanks again for your TR. Great reading and viewing and it has inspired lots of thinking for me including your thoughts on the north.

My plans are firming up and Ireland will now be 11/12 nights as opposed to your 21.

We will finish in Dublin with 3 nights as our ship leaves from there, with the balance to be car-touring. We can fly into any of the airports as cost is pretty much the same from Edinburgh. Though flying into Belfast does bump up car-rental a bit if you drop off elswhere.

So that leaves us with 8/9 nights for car touring Ireland and so not enough time to do a full circuit like yours.

So our current thought is to fly into Shannon (or maybe Cork if we car tour mainly South) and then either:
- Do a half circuit up the west coast, north coast, Belfast and finish in Dublin
- Do a half circuit going up to Cliffs of Moher (and maybe a little further north), and then southwards and around the coast and finishing in Dublin.(If Cork we would just go west and then up to Cliffs of Moher, and then east to Dublin)

So if you could only do one half circuit of Ireland which would you have done in hindsight? Thank you.

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks again for your TR. Great reading and viewing and it has inspired lots of thinking for me including your thoughts on the north.

My plans are firming up and Ireland will now be 11/12 nights as opposed to your 21.

We will finish in Dublin with 3 nights as our ship leaves from there, with the balance to be car-touring. We can fly into any of the airports as cost is pretty much the same from Edinburgh. Though flying into Belfast does bump up car-rental a bit if you drop off elswhere.

So that leaves us with 8/9 nights for car touring Ireland and so not enough time to do a full circuit like yours.

So our current thought is to fly into Shannon (or maybe Cork if we car tour mainly South) and then either:
- Do a half circuit up the west coast, north coast, Belfast and finish in Dublin
- Do a half circuit going up to Cliffs of Moher (and maybe a little further north), and then southwards and around the coast and finishing in Dublin.(If Cork we would just go west and then up to Cliffs of Moher, and then east to Dublin)

So if you could only do one half circuit of Ireland which would you have done in hindsight? Thank you.

I preferred the area from the Cliffs of Moher northward and found the countryside more appealing than the south. Posssibly because we got the occasional 1/2 day of nice weather. Outside of the obvious highlights like Derry & Belfast there appeared to be more historical sights - abbeys, castles etc in the south.

However, if you are in Ireland when the weather is more likely to be good I would think that, in the amount of time you have, the half circle route south from Shannon Airport would be a good plan. You could start off with the Cliffs of Moher and work south through Kerry & Cork and possibly through Kilkenny & Glendalough on the way to Dublin.

From Shannon Airport it would be relatively easy couple of hours drive to the cliffs and then you could "cut the corner" heading south by catching the Shannon Ferry at Killimer and heading towards Dingle & Killarney. However, always remember how slow the roads are and allow twice as much time as you would normally think necessary.

What we saw of the south coast around Kinsale - through the fog - looked very nice. It is a quick trip from Cork to Cashel and than you could cut across to Kilkenny or Waterford. I really have no idea about the south east corner of Ireland as the nearest we went was Kilkenny.

My plan would be -

Pick up the car at Shannon and drive towards the Cliffs of Moher and, depending on the time you arrive, spend 1 or 2 nights there

Head towards Killarney and spend 3 nights in the area, thus allowing a day each for the Ring of Kerry & Dingle Peninsula.

Move south and spend 2 nights around Kinsale, Cork & Cobh.

Drive via the Rock of Cashel to Killkenny and spend a night around there before travelling via Glendalough to Dublin.

This would take about 8/9 days.

I think 3 days in Dublin is plenty. There are highlights like Kilmainham Gaol & the Book of Kells but we found it to be pretty rundown & overcrowded. Of course, it might look better in sunshine

Also, get a good map to back up the GPS - our map was pretty poor and a couple of times the GPS sent us down terrible roads to cut off a few K's, which resulted in longer trips than if we used the main roads. Whichever way you go - have fun.

 

[kookaburra75]

I preferred the area from the Cliffs of Moher northward and found the countryside more appealing than the south. Posssibly because we got the occasional 1/2 day of nice weather. Outside of the obvious highlights like Derry & Belfast there appeared to be more historical sights - abbeys, castles etc in the south.

However, if you are in Ireland when the weather is more likely to be good I would think that, in the amount of time you have, the half circle route south from Shannon Airport would be a good plan. You could start off with the Cliffs of Moher and work south through Kerry & Cork and possibly through Kilkenny & Glendalough on the way to Dublin.

From Shannon Airport it would be relatively easy couple of hours drive to the cliffs and then you could "cut the corner" heading south by catching the Shannon Ferry at Killimer and heading towards Dingle & Killarney. However, always remember how slow the roads are and allow twice as much time as you would normally think necessary.

What we saw of the south coast around Kinsale - through the fog - looked very nice. It is a quick trip from Cork to Cashel and than you could cut across to Kilkenny or Waterford. I really have no idea about the south east corner of Ireland as the nearest we went was Kilkenny.

My plan would be -

Pick up the car at Shannon and drive towards the Cliffs of Moher and, depending on the time you arrive, spend 1 or 2 nights there

Head towards Killarney and spend 3 nights in the area, thus allowing a day each for the Ring of Kerry & Dingle Peninsula.

Move south and spend 2 nights around Kinsale, Cork & Cobh.

Drive via the Rock of Cashel to Killkenny and spend a night around there before travelling via Glendalough to Dublin.

This would take about 8/9 days.

I think 3 days in Dublin is plenty. There are highlights like Kilmainham Gaol & the Book of Kells but we found it to be pretty rundown & overcrowded. Of course, it might look better in sunshine

Also, get a good map to back up the GPS - our map was pretty poor and a couple of times the GPS sent us down terrible roads to cut off a few K's, which resulted in longer trips than if we used the main roads. Whichever way you go - have fun.

I would try and stay at least one night, if not two in Dingle. It's a terrific town with quite spectacular countryside for walking or driving. We stayed at Emlagh House which was very good, and a short walk to the sights in town. Killarney is a bit touristy, but Kilkenny is a great place for pubs and live music - mind you most places in Ireland are great for pubs and live music.

In Dublin we stayed at Ariel House in Ballsbridge, which is just near a railway station and easy to get into the city. There are also a lot of great pubs and restaurants nearby - a bit of a theme on our holidays.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

My plan would be -

Pick up the car at Shannon and drive towards the Cliffs of Moher and, depending on the time you arrive, spend 1 or 2 nights there

Head towards Killarney and spend 3 nights in the area, thus allowing a day each for the Ring of Kerry & Dingle Peninsula.

Move south and spend 2 nights around Kinsale, Cork & Cobh.

Drive via the Rock of Cashel to Killkenny and spend a night around there before travelling via Glendalough to Dublin.

This would take about 8/9 days.

I think 3 days in Dublin is plenty. There are highlights like Kilmainham Gaol & the Book of Kells but we found it to be pretty rundown & overcrowded. Of course, it might look better in sunshine

Also, get a good map to back up the GPS - our map was pretty poor and a couple of times the GPS sent us down terrible roads to cut off a few K's, which resulted in longer trips than if we used the main roads. Whichever way you go - have fun.

Thank you.

The west and south is what most people recommend fora weekish type car and so it was great to get your thoughts as I know you liked the North.

With Dublin while we are there for 3 nights/ days. We board the ship Day 4. Will arrive late afternoon Day 1, and so that basically only gives us two full days, though as noted in your TR there are sights to be seen day trippable from Dublin too.


We might just have to leave Belfast and Northern Island for another day. Though there is a very long day trip from Dublin that takes in the key sites.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

In Dublin we stayed at Ariel House in Ballsbridge, which is just near a railway station and easy to get into the city. There are also a lot of great pubs and restaurants nearby - a bit of a theme on our holidays.

Thank you.

For Dublin we have found an excellent oval shaped Georgian Apartment through AirBnb which will allow us to walk to most of Dublins main sights and ample pubs and restaurants.

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/424...d=2&euid=36dff0ff-35ed-361c-743f-b4f5715ae5da

 

[OZDUCK]

Thank you.

The west and south is what most people recommend fora weekish type car and so it was great to get your thoughts as I know you liked the North.

With Dublin while we are there for 3 nights/ days. We board the ship Day 4. Will arrive late afternoon Day 1, and so that basically only gives us two full days, though as noted in your TR there are sights to be seen day trippable from Dublin too.


We might just have to leave Belfast and Northern Island for another day. Though there is a very long day trip from Dublin that takes in the key sites.

I must admit that I think the "long day trip from Dublin" would be a waste of your time. I think that you would be better looking around Dublin and its environs. With only 2 full days there is plenty to keep you occupied. It may be better now as I think all the disruption caused by the building of some new tram lines in the centre of town might now be over - no a quick look at Wikipaedia says December 2017.

Like Kookaburra75 above, I don't particularly recommend staying in Killarney itself but there are lots of nice smaller towns around the area - like Dingle.

 

[OZDUCK]

Thank you.

For Dublin we have found an excellent oval shaped Georgian Apartment through AirBnb which will allow us to walk to most of Dublins main sights and ample pubs and restaurants.


Looks to be about only 5 minutes walk from where we stayed and in a very good location - also much nicer looking than what we had.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I must admit that I think the "long day trip from Dublin" would be a waste of your time. I think that you would be better looking around Dublin and its environs. With only 2 full days there is plenty to keep you occupied.

I tend to agree. If we did it, we would add on an extra night as we want two full days in Dublin. We have already signed up for a food walking half-day tour, and an evening ghost walking tour (more for the history that the ghosts!). And the other sites we will just do by ourselves.

Having said that with most of my trips these days I tend follow the Less is More maxim, and so we do not try and and cram everything in. So given the time we have I think it is basically north or south (with a little overlap) and I will leave Belfast and Northern Ireland for another trip. Flying into Shannon provides a good trip by Dublin with car that will take in a good cross section of sites and allow hikes etc. With the Scottish and English portions of our 11 week trip we will see ample castles, and so we will not have to see every Irish Castle.

 

[OZDUCK]

I tend to agree. If we did it, we would add on an extra night as we want two full days in Dublin. We have already signed up for a food walking half-day tour, and an evening ghost walking tour (more for the history that the ghosts!). And the other sites we will just do by ourselves.

Having said that with most of my trips these days I tend follow the Less is More maxim, and so we do not try and and cram everything in. So given the time we have I think it is basically north or south (with a little overlap) and I will leave Belfast and Northern Ireland for another trip. Flying into Shannon provides a good trip by Dublin with car that will take in a good cross section of sites and allow hikes etc. With the Scottish and English portions of our 11 week trip we will see ample castles, and so we will not have to see every Irish Castle.

I agree that you plan seems the best way to go.

 

[kpc]

I recommend 2 nights at Dingle....beautiful town by the sea. Also if the weather is right, take the ferry to the Great Blasket Islands for 2-3 hours to soak in the views and to see the seal colony.