We will be in Ireland pretty soon and I'm trying to book a rental car. We fly into Dublin and spend a night there before heading on to the smaller towns, where we will spend the next six days driving. I keep hearing that driving in Dublin is a horrifying experience. The largest cities I've driven in are Dallas and Houston, and I don't think they're bad at all.
I can rent a car from Dublin's airport and start our driving adventure from there, meaning that we'll drive from the airport to our hotel in Dublin. Alternatively, I can take a taxi from the airport to our hotel and rent a car in downtown Dublin. Alternatively still, I can taxi to our hotel, then the next morning taxi to outside of Dublin to a rental car agency, rent from there, and then continue on.
Any advice? TIA!
Re: Driving in Dublin?
this is exactly what we did. there is no way i would have driven in the city. once you get there you'll see--- those drivers are insane. seriously, it's worse than london or paris and that's saying a LOT!
Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. Driving, for me, was one of the highlights of my trip! However, we were on the West coast, so we didn't have to worry about whether to drive in Dublin. Everything I read said not to do it! We drove around in Galway and that was busy enough for me
I would probably cab it to the hotel and then pick the car up in downtown Dublin on the day that you're leaving Dublin and be on my way.
Traffic might be nuts, but it will be an adventure and then you'll be all proud that you did it.
You have to drive on the left side of the road, and your driver's seat will be on the right side of the car, so it might be wise to try and book an automatic shift. It is a bit tricky to get used to shifting with your left hand in a standard shift. If you don't drive stick at all, then you definitely want to get an automatic.
Yeah that's right my name's Yauch!
My experience with driving in Dublin was limited but not bad, although that might largely be attributed to not driving in downtown. I drove from Killarney to Dublin, and then when we got to Dublin it was mostly just the freeways and the roads near the airport, which wasn't anywhere near as crazy as some of the Seattle traffic I've encountered. I was rather surprised to find a round-about with traffic lights just outside the airport -- hadn't encountered that before or since -- but even that was totally manageable.
I went to Dublin with MH and my whole family. We walked, took taxis or rode the light rail train wherever we wanted to go in Dublin, then on our last day we rented a big van and drove into the country.
MH and I traveled separately from my family, so we took a txi from the airport to the hotel in Dublin to meet them all. I think it was about 20-30 Euros, and the driver was very friendly and got us there quick.