putznme1

Hello!

My family of 6 are planning our first ever trip to anywhere outside of the States in May of 2017 to Ireland. (2 adults, 3 children and 1 infant at that time)

We are not sure yet on our plans as to where we will be flying into yet (Shannon or Dublin) as we haven't decided which area (Northern Ireland or west) we want to see first.

That being said, can we rent a vehicle in either place and then drop off at an alternate airport? Is there more cost involved? Does anyone know if there are issues with going into Northern Ireland and spending a week there with a vehicle from the Republic? Has anyone with a large group similar in size and ages to ours ever just taken a bus from Dublin to N.I. and spent the week there without a rental vehicle? Is a week to long? (We want to see several sites. Dunluce castle, the robe bridge, giants causeway, carrickfergus castle, Belfast, titanic memorial, tolleymoore forest, etc. ) We are planning on just getting a rental house for each week, one for NI and one for the Republic. However we haven't decided on where to pick a rental for NI yet so any suggestions would be welcome.

In the Republic we are planning on staying in Doolin for a week as our base there. We like that it's a small town, that it is so close to everything we plan on doing in that area, and that the pubs at night have such good music/trad sessions. We want to visit a few castles around that area, the cliffs, the Aran Islands, the Burren, a local beach or two, Ennis, and Galway and Conmerrea make great day trips away!

Has anyone ever just done cash in Ireland or is a major credit card advisable? We have been saving for this trip for a few years now and don't know when, if ever, we will be able to go back. I don't want to miss those two main areas. With a rental car, I have heard that some companies will put a hold of upwards of $3,000 us dollars on the card you use. If that's the case I don't even know if we could go because we don't even own a card that has a limit that high. Anyone know of good rental companies for vehicles?

Sorry for the long post but I thank you for your responses.

Christina

I use credit cards for my main travel purchases wherever I travel, including Ireland, although I've only been there once. It is a lot safer than carrying around cash with you, although if you mean you could just withdraw funds continually from your bank account from an ATM to go all-cash, yeah, I guess you could do that. That's up to you, you have to know if you are incurring different fees for your ATM card versus credit card. I also prefer it for financial reasons as it is a lot easier for me to keep track of my purchases when I have them on one bill per month than having to keep track of small things all over I paid cash for. Unless you don't budget or plan like I do so don't care about that.

I'll let others speak as to how easy it would be for you to find ATMs in the areas you plan to go. I was only in Dublin and did some day trips from there so it wasn't an issue.

As for the car, I believe you can rent a car and they won't put a 3000 hold or whatever on your card as long as you accept and pay for all the insurance coverage from the rental company -- so that would be including the super excess insurance which covers the full amount of the car without deductibles.

putznme1

Thank you for your reply and trying to answer as many questions as you could. I know there were a lot.

ParisAmsterdam

Increase the credit limit on the card you'll use for the rental.

greg

I would recommend you do a rental car dummy booking first, if you have not already done so, to get an idea of what several rental companies quote you for the rental part. Several companies I have dealt with did charge drop off fee for returning a car elsewhere. It was not a sticker shocker but not zero.

The key issue I see is accommodating all of you including one infant restraint would probably require a ginormous size car, at least by Irish standard. If you cannot drive a stick shift, it would majorly spike up the rental cost. I mean A LOT. Super CDW I have seen in Ireland were more like 100€ deductible. Regular CDW deductible is over 1000€. I suspect that the regular rental car alone would eat up most of your credit card limit. You might have to go with prepaid options, which come with their own drawbacks, to stay under your credit card limit.

putznme1

Greg, yes we are expecting the car rental to take up most of our budget. My husband can drive a stick shift but I imagine that we would still need a van not a car just to fit us all.

Do any of you recommend the bus or trains to get places? I haven't done a ton of research yet to see if that would be an available option. Maybe yes for NI but no for the republic? I've heard and read (on this forem as well) that the Republic doesn't have a lot available yet? From Dublin to Doolin yes but other places like castles and the cliffs and Galway? I just don't know how we'd get around otherwise. And cost wise if it would add up much different in the end?