Have a last minute opportunity to go to Ireland in 3 days! Would be a 10 day trip flying in and out of Shannon and concentrating on southwest Ireland (have been to Dublin on a previous trip). Possible destinations are: Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Rock of Cashel, County Cork and Ring of Kerry and Dingle Pennisula. I usually travel by train in Europe as I don’t know how to drive a stick shift. However it seems like Dingle Pennisula and Ring of Kerry are best by car and I have a few questions: 1) better to get my own car or go on an organized tour of these areas? 2) I heard the traffic is bad in summer on Ring of Kerry – would that be the case at end of May/beginning of June 3) Is it easy to rent an automatic transmission in Ireland? Normally this is not easy in Europe but I thought it might be easier due to the left side drive (in Australia automatics were plentiful since they didn’t want people to have to shift with left hand if not used to it) and 4) in general is it easy to get around this area by train/bus? Thanks!
Driving in SW Ireland
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We had no issues getting an automatic from Dan Dooley at Shannon though we did reserve ahead of time (and you do pay a premium). We enjoyed the flexibility of driving.
We had 8 days in Killarney, Dingle and Galway. We actually skipped the RoK and Cliffs of Moher (doing Loop Head instead).
Photos and more:
http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/ireland.html
Good luck!
Thanks for the replay and the link. Yikes - I was only thinking of renting a car for the Dingle Pennisula. I live in New York City, haven't driven in months, can't drive a stick and am nervous about driving on the left. From looking at your photos, this area seems to be more about natural sights where a car would definitely be better (similar to when I went to Iceland where we did rent a car). Now I'm not sure I should go there at all.
I suddenly have next week off and want to spend it in northern Europe (but not Poland/France/Berlin where I will be going in July nor London where I will be in September. Hmmm....maybe Belfast?