When I made the pivotal and momentous decision to leave my job to travel around the world, I knew for a fact that my first stop had to be Ireland. Fifteen years ago, a young, cherub-cheeked version of myself saw PS I Love You for the first time. The moment I witnessed Gerard Butler wandering the rolling green hills of the countryside, and the moment he uttered his first words in his sexy Irish accent, I KNEW that Ireland was a place I absolutely had to visit (and, preferably, find a man).
I was meeting one of my best friends from high school who recently moved to the UK in Dublin for a weekend, but knew that after that I’d have several days on my own before meeting some other friends in Munich. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES. And there is no better way to do what you want to do, without adhering to someone else’s schedule, than renting a car.
There’s also, apparently, no better or faster way to raise your blood pressure, increase your anxiety, and empty your bank account.
I won’t sit here and tell you not to rent a car. Had I not rented a car, I would have missed out on views like this.
However, as a now-seasoned car hirer in the Republic of Ireland, I feel obligated to share my experiences and my mistakes to ensure that no one else is left crying in the airport at 6 am while passersby look on, noticeably irked and disturbed.
Renting the Car
Budget for extra insurance
Woo nelly, this is where they really got me. What you already know but maybe kind of ignore after leaving your job is that you won’t be getting the comfort of that paycheck in your bank account every two weeks. I had budgeted about $200 for my Irish rental car and was feeling good about it, but it turns out that Ireland is one country that requires you to get CDW insurance. So it ended up being closer to $450. DUN DUN DUNNNN.
I booked through Europcar, but have heard similar stories for other car rental companies. Here’s the breakdown. For each day, I could have gone with the basic insurance, which is 36€ per day. With this option, a multi-thousand Euro hold would be placed on my card. If the car comes back with any damage, I would have had a 1,500€ deductible, meaning any damage that cost under 1,500€ to fix would come right out of my pocket. Yikes.
The smiling man behind the counter told me that most people opt for the full coverage instead, which is 44€ per day. This way, if the car comes back with any damage, I would have to pay nothing. As much as it pained me, I decided to go with this option. The fact is, Ireland’s roads are narrow, I’d never driven on the left-hand side of the road, and I just didn’t really feel like risking a huge chunk of my savings. With great hesitation and some slight nausea, I handed over my credit card and paid over $400 for a week’s worth of car.
Here’s something I desperately wish I had known: apparently, if you have a World MasterCard or a Chase card, you may be eligible to have your CDW insurance covered through the credit card for a much more reasonable sum of money. If you have either of these cards and you want to save yourself some headache, you can call them before you leave to see if they offer coverage in Ireland.
Make sure you have proof of licensing from at least 2 years back
I was incredibly lucky in this regard. That same smiling man behind the Europcar counter, upon seeing my driver’s license, quickly discarded his friendly demeanor and said he could not rent the car to me, as I had only been driving for one month. In typical Robin fashion, I panicked.
I moved to Maryland semi-recently from Washington DC, and I only got my Maryland driver’s license a month before my trip. The issue date on the license was from April 2018, so he assumed that I had one month’s driving experience, and in order to rent a car from them, you needed at least two years (which, I mean, is understandable).
Thankfully, I had remembered to stuff my old DC license into my wallet prior to leaving, so I whipped it out and returned the smile to that beautiful Irish man’s face. The moral of the story: make sure that you have two years’ worth of proof of being licensed to drive.
Don’t rent your car just to spend a few days in Dublin
This turned out to be one of the biggest pains in my ass. Driving in Dublin is like a nightmare from which you can’t wake up. And don’t get me started on parking. Thankfully, the first time I needed to find a spot, my friend was with me and was able to direct me to a spot halfway up on the curb, after which I needed to take a few moments and have a Sour Patch Kid because I literally felt like I was going to pass out from panic. The second time, I spent 20 minutes driving around and weaving through buses and cars to find a spot that was 2 kilometers away from my hostel.
A NIGHTMARE, I’m telling you!
Dublin is a very walkable city, so renting the car for a few days in Dublin is bonkers. If I could redo, I would save myself the stress (and the hefty parking fees) and pick up my car when I was ready to leave Dublin to go into more rural areas of Ireland.
Choose the smallest model possible
I was actually incredibly excited at the prospect of driving a manual transmission on the left side of the road for the first time. It was half the reason I decided to rent a car at all. I am ALL about a challenge. On this very trip, I went into an Indian restaurant in Galway, sat down, ordered the spiciest thing on the menu after allaying the server’s fears that I wouldn’t be able to handle it, and sat there eating every last bite while my nose and eyes ran violently down my face and my brain was LITERALLY on fire.
But anyways. Upon reaching the counter, I was informed that I was being upgraded for free to a larger car with an automatic transmission. The smiling man’s smile broadened when he delivered the news. My heart sunk. I was READY for that left-handed manual transmission. I had been practicing in my sleep.
I begrudgedly took the keys and walked outside the building to my new car, a gigantic BMW with no stick-shift in sight, and climbed in. It smelled good at least, and I guess BMWs are good (as if I know anything). However, maneuvering the mini SUV hatchback along the narrowest roads in the entire world was a challenge, and I found myself dipping off the side of the shoulder on more than one occasion. Size does matter, and in this case, the smaller the better.
Turns out that, with having to constantly be thinking about keeping the car in the correct lane and narrowly avoiding crashing into oncoming traffic, having an automatic transmission was the biggest blessing.
Driving in Ireland
Watch out for sheep, and tractors, and power walkers
Aside from the freeways, there are few roads in Ireland, and most of them are rural roads. This means one lane total, and 180 degree hairpin turns, which really increases your chances of head-on collisions. Be extra aware of oncoming traffic, as well as the possibility that sheep will be wandering along the shoulder, or that farm equipment will be taking up the entire road, or that middle aged power walking women will be on their morning walk with their small, unleashed dogs. Do not kill anyone.
Use a GPS
Getting a car with a built-in GPS is your best option, especially since they are very strict on distracted driving laws (i.e., don’t even think about touching your phone while behind the wheel). Especially if you’re not used to driving on the left, a GPS alleviates at least some of the stress that comes with navigating your way around the island.
Budget plenty for gas
At the moment, Ireland’s regular fuel is priced at about 1.35€ to 1.45€ per liter. That’s well over $6 a gallon. My big rig took about $100 to fill the tank (and that was with diesel fuel, which is cheaper). A little piece of my soul died every time I had to swipe my card at a gas station, and my bank account whimpered in confusion and dread. Yes, gas prices are astronomical. This is something for which you have to prepare both your budget and your spirit.
Don’t turn left on red
This is some advice I got from a man at breakfast, which turned out to be good advice because it is illegal and no one does it.
Make traffic circles your friend
It takes a little getting used to, because there’s no way that going through a traffic circle clockwise is in any way natural, but traffic circles are everywhere in Ireland and are actually incredibly efficient! I love efficiency (as a former math major, trust me).
Just because it says 100 doesn’t mean you should go 100
I cannot even tell you how many times I was driving along, nervous about accidentally flying off the winding mountain roads, when I noticed the round red speed limit sign with a giant, blaring “80” staring me in the face. 80 kilometers per hour. 80. That’s 50 miles per hour. On those types of roads at home, if you’re caught going over 35 you get slammed with a speeding ticket. If you attempt to go 80 kph on those winding, narrow Irish roads, your car is literally going to flip and roll.
My impression was that the speed limit was literally that: a limit. In America we treat speed limits more as suggestions, but don’t feel obligated to go the speed limit in Ireland, especially since doing so may lead to your untimely death.
Keep in mind you’ll have to pay and display almost everywhere
Free parking is not a thing in Ireland. You have to pay to park basically everywhere. The only places I was able to park for free were in Cobh near the cathedral and far up the main street in Dingle. Here my car is in the town of Kilkenny, which was not at all crowded but which required 2€ per hour for parking. This was probably about average. In Galway I payed $20 to park my car overnight. Probably one of the biggest and most unfortunate downfalls of renting a car. With a little bit of planning though (something which clearly eluded me), you should be able to find free or cheap parking for day trips, as well as decent hotels with parking included.
Carry cash for tolls, and remember to pay your barrier-free tolls
Ireland has its fair share of toll roads, so be sure to carry Euros with you while driving. The M50 near Dublin is barrier-free, meaning they snap a photo of your license plate and you have until 8pm the next day to go online to pay the toll. And don’t forget, because they will stick you with a hefty fine if you do.
Budget time for car return before your flight
Here comes the most dramatic part of the entire story. Brace yourself.
My flight out of Dublin was scheduled for 6:15am on Ryanair. I was staying in a hostel on the edge of the city, only about 15 minutes away from the airport. Because I had been way too nonchalant about making plans, I realized only the night before that the rental car return office did not open until 5am, leaving me with very little time. I arrived at the office at 4:50am, waited for about 15 minutes for someone to help me, then waited another 10 minutes to get whisked away on the shuttle to the terminals. By the time I got in, it was 5:20am.
Per Ryanair’s policy, because I am a non-EU citizen, I had to go to the ticketing counter for a visa stamp on my boarding pass before proceeding through security. It was 5:25am by the time I finally reached the security line. I removed my jacket, I removed my liquids, and I stepped through the metal detector.
I immediately noticed that my backpack had been pulled aside for inspection. At this point it was 5:40am, and Ryanair closes all its gates, for some reason unbeknownst to anyone on this entire planet, 30 minutes prior to departure. I was antsy and starting to lost my nerve a little bit. Apparently I had forgotten about the small gum container in which I had poured what was left of my laundry detergent, and it raised some serious red flags.
The detergent bottle, purchased at an Irish grocery store, was far too large to bring in my bag, so I improvised by salvaging some and transferring it to my empty gum container. The man pointed to it on the scan, and I explained that I forgot about it and that it was just laundry detergent. He insisted it was not, looking incredibly indignant and threatening. I swore to him it was. He shook his head and dug into my bag, pulled the detergent out, looked at it like it might explode at any second, showed it to at least three other employees with his face wound up into a tight, angry ball, and then proceeded to chuck my detergent into the trash.
Thanks.
At this point I was really actually starting to panic. I started to quickly put my things back into my backpack, was told by my incredibly pleasant new security friend to please chill the fuck out, and that had I arrived on time this would not be happening and I would not be late. Oh, thank you so much. I had no idea that’s how it worked.
The gate was at least half a mile from security, and I cursed my decision to forego a bra as I sprinted as fast as I could to catch my flight. At 5:50am, the flight had closed, no one was around, and I was drenched in sweat. I sat on the floor, cried it out, went back to the Ryanair counter, paid $120 to rebook myself on the next flight out in 11 hours, and ate the hugest McDonald’s meal the world has ever seen.
The point is this: renting a car complicates your departure from Ireland. There are multiple additional elements involved that are out of your control, including waiting for an employee to take your keys and inspect your car, and waiting for the shuttle to bring you to the airport. In hindsight I should have returned the car the night before and stayed in a hotel right by the airport, leaving me more time in the morning to get to the gate. But hindsight is always 20:20, and now maybe no one else will make this mistake, throw $120 down the toilet, and cry about it on the phone with their boyfriend.
My experience renting a car and driving across Ireland and back was anything but smooth. It caused a lot of stress, and it cost a lot of money, and it really taught me the importance of thorough research prior to traveling. There is good news though. I learned to drive on the left side of the road, I saw some of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen and drank the most perfectly poured Guinness pints I’ve ever drank, and I finally, FINALLY, fulfilled my dream of visiting the land of Gerard Butler.
Any other questions about renting a car and driving in Ireland? Comment below!
