Air conditioning in Ireland - do you need it?
 

We will be leaving for Ireland on July 22nd and plan on renting a car. I was just making reservations for one on-line and come to find that none of the economy/compact (i.e. small cars) have air conditioning. Will we need it?

You should likely be ok. The average highs in July and August are mid 60's Farenheit or high teens in Celcius. Really pretty cool compared to most places. The 10 day forecast is showing roughly the typical pattern. Both Dublin & Cork are predicting 65F the week of the 22nd.

That's actually the hottest part of the year, which is why locals don't bother with the AC in their own cars.

Or I should say, many locals don't bother. I'm sure some do.

Thanks for the input - I'm afraid, I'm really used to and depend on my AC in NYC. My partner who will be travelling with me, hates to ride with the windows open because her hair (which is rather long) blows all over.

I was just poking around on argusrentals.com, which is where we rent. It looks like it would be tough to get a small car that had noth AC and automatic there too. One or the other, but not both.

Depending on where you go, you may find that the car window isn't the only place she may get a little windblown, if she decides to step out for a little sightseeing. Most of the southern and western coastline gets a steady wind. Some of it gets a LOT of wind. We were at the Cliffs of Moher on Co. Clare once and there were little boys who were using their jackets as sails while still wearign them. They'd hold the tails of the coats and just jump in the air and the wind would cause them to sail backwards 3 to 5 feet. Wind strong enough to turn your cheeks pink even hours after you came inside.

It's not like that inland mind you, but some of the best stuff is along the coasts, if you're getting out of Dublin, which is not a windy place.

I checked out the Argus site and I see they have air conditioning in the small models, but no way to reserve exactly that. I was anticipating renting a manual, one of the best things I ever did was to learn how to drive a manual car!

Actually if you put in your dates and pickup point, you get a list of cars available. You noticed the A/c designation on some of them. When I do that and click the "reserve" button on that line, it comes up with the car I chose "or similar". I'm willing to bet that although the model may be different, the car size, the tranny type and the fact that it has A/C will remain as you chose.

We had a heat wave here last week (got all the way up to 76!!), and I have to admit that I did use my A/C (or air con as they call it here), but that was just so I could hear the radio (couldn't with the windows down).

Clifton - Thanks for your help. I actually called Argus before we left and was told that they did not have air conditioning in the smaller models at Shannon. My cousin, who lives outside of Dublin, has AC in both of her cars and really recommended getting it, so I ended up renting a larger car from Alamo.

Pixy - as the 3 year old in the pub said piss off. In addition to the comfort issue, I also had 3 people in the car over the age of 65, 2 of whom call Ireland home. The air conditioning came in very useful.

pixy wrote:
>have come to the conclusion that you are a spoilt group of brats!<

I can only recommend putting more effort into your conclusions then. Good luck with that.

methinks:
Did you and your group have a good time?

Clifton - yes, we had a good time, Thanks for asking. Ireland has changed alittle since I was younger (or maybe I have), but it is still a beautiful country. Wish I'd had more time to spend there.