I always find it weird how limited the insurance coverage on US credit cards is based on comments I have read in the past.

I am Canadian so I am ignorant about the US but here all cards - at least annual fee cards cover Ireland. I just had to get a letter from credit card insurance company stating they cover Ireland which was a requirement to rent.

CSLasor--I'm echoing so many here. Getting a private driver and/or taxi or using public transportation means that BOTH of you get to experience your surroundings. If you want to stop for a picture, you tell your driver to stop--and he/she can take the picture with both of you in the shot.
You may think you lose flexibility by not renting a car. No, you extend your enjoyment. Plus in Ireland, it's lovely to be at a pub as long as you want because you will never be the one driving home.
We, 69 and 78, have mixed it up for the past few years. For our upcoming trip to Ireland, we'll plane, train, bus, small tour, taxi and use private drivers.
And we still plan to hike!
Hope this works out for you,
AZ

I just wanted to come back and thank everybody again for the comments and ideas and to let you know we've decided to skip Ireland because of the rental car issue and will go back to Scotland and Northern England instead. Before everybody jumps on me with all kinds of reasons why we should still go to Ireland, let me say I realize what the options are and what we do and do not enjoy when traveling and this is the best decision for us. We have a long bucket list of places to see and most of them will let us travel on our terms. We would both love to see Ireland but we'll enjoy other places just as much.

As for Scotland, we were there for 2 weeks in 2005 and only saw half of the country. We missed the islands (except Mull and Iona) and didn't get south of Glasgow-Edinburrgh so there's a lot left for us to visit. We're also hoping to get into Northern England, like the Lake District and Northumberland but we'll see how much time we have.

I hope those of you going to Ireland have a great time, and I'll keep admiring the beautiful pictures!

Thanks for bringing up this topic. It was something I hadn't even considered.

I've been to Ireland 3 time and always driven - the last as part of my 70th birthday trip. As an Australian, driving on the left side of the road holds no terrors. I'd just begun to plan my next Ireland trip, when I will be 76 (hoe did that happen??)

I'll have to do a bit of a reassess.

Excellent. Ireland's loss. They should change their nonsense policies.

It's the car rental companies' policies, as I understand it, not some kind of national law. I think some credit cards won't cover you in Ireland, either, there is something going on there. My Chase Visa won't cover you in Ireland, for example. I could see some country with real high accidents, but wonder if it's some other issue. These are Visa's terms:

This benefit is available in the United States and most foreign countries.However, no benefit is provided for motor vehicles rented in Israel, Jamaica, the Republic of Ireland, or Northern Ireland.

I read somewhere it was because of narrow winding roads and "driving on the left". I would not rent a car in those conditions myself as so much of driver is reflex. It is frightening to me when people from the UK come to the US and immediately think they can drive around on a different side of the road. Of course if your own country drove that way, no problem.

On a Scotland note, I just read a travel book about Scotland that really went into the road trip and islands, etc., you might want to pick it up for reference and ideas. It was very good. Itws called "Scotland Beyong the Bagpipes" by Helen Ochyra. Libraries don't usually carry it but you can get it in ebook format.

https://adventure.com/scotland-beyon...-helen-ochyra/

It's true. I was in Scotland in November (with a car), and one headline in the local papers was how an Italian fellow was just sentenced to prison in Morayshire because he drove on the wrong side of the road and killed a family. My experience is that, on the first day of driving, I have to force myself hard to drive on the left (while consciously striving to hug the center line - - it's easy to drive too far left in your lane and mess up the tires, because as a native right-driver you tend to drift too close to the curb) - - but then after a night sleep it is easy to drive on the left (though still having to watch out for hitting the curb). The highways in Scotland are also fast and narrow and winding (60mph on these suckers makes mincemeat of the occasional rear view mirror). The lane guidance system you can often get in rental cars now is really useful.

""it's easy to drive too far left in your lane and mess up the tires""

That's exactly what happened to us this past May. After 4 nights at Cromlix House near Dunbane, we were driving southbound along the west side of Loch Lomand on our way to Inverary castle for a visit. My wife was driving and got a little too close to a "hazard" and completely wiped out our left rear tire. We pulled off the road as soon as we could. It was a very narrow road. The area we pulled into was quite muddy, and there was "none-chance" I would be able to change the tire. We fortunately purchased insurance, and also special towing insurance. After many calls to the car rental office (getting nowhere) we finally found someone at the rental office who could help. They called the Scotland equivalent of US AAA and sent a tow truck out. The tow truck driver called us to determine out exact location "in the middle of nowhere". Also, two people from the Scotland Park Service stopped by and made sure that we had water, food, and a place to stay. The Park Service people also contacted the AAA person & gave him our exact location. The Park Service people also promised to stop back in 1 hour to check us out. It was now 3 hours by the side of the road in the mud. Both the AAA and the Park Service people arrived 1 hr later (at the same time), and the AAA person put the mini-tire on the car, and we then followed him into Dumbarton to a tire replacement shop (the AAA guy had to call around to various shops to find one that had a tire that fit our car). We spent an hour or so at the tire repair shop. This was late on a Saturday. If Scotland is anything like France where almost nothing is open on Sundays - we were quite worried. Finally, we had a new tire and were on our way to Fort William and our castle hotel. The entire event consumed about 5 hours.

Are you aware that there are many one-lane wide roads in northern Scotland that have small "pull outs" every quarter mile (or so) so cars can get past each other.

Stu Dudley