My wife and I just came back from a trip to Scotland and Ireland some things we learned from our 31 day trip.

1. Do Scotland first IF you plan to rent a car. Why ??? the roads are better ie wider then in Ireland. You will get used to driving on the wrong side of the road. If you rent a car with a stick shift you will get used to changing gears with your left hand very weird experience had not driven a stick shift in 30 years. They do have automatic transmission but you will pay a premium for it may want to consider it.

2. Make sure you bring your GPS with you, using google maps was not as helpful as our gps particularly at the MANY roundabouts you will encounter. The Garmin gps indicated which turn to make when entering a roundabout with many have 4 options as to where to turn. They have roundabout every mile or so even on major highways you will encounter them. Many times 3 lanes of traffic are entering the roundabout at the same time. No one uses blinkers or gives you any indication where they are going soooooo much fun!! Try to plan your stops to the N and M roads they are so much better and easier to drive.


3.Signage in Ireland was VERY POOR without the gps we would have not found many places we visited. BUT make sure you look at where the gps is taking you, sometimes it took down 1 lane roads that were really 2way roads. Nothing like a big truck heading towards you with no place to go!!

4. I only got beeped at 2 times BUT they will ride your tail very quickly when going too slow. They have many small narrow roads with 60 mph speed limits which I did not feel comfortable doing. I would wait until a place they could pass and put my 4 way emergency lights on and they would pass. Some roads had places you could pull over which was very helpful.

5.Beware of others using the road such as groups on bicycles who would ride 2-3 bikes across taking up the lane. Coming around a blind corner with no shoulder and seeing this was soo much fun. People walking in the road. Sheep are EVERYWHERE including walking in the road or along the road not to mention sheep dogs going after them.

6. We only brought enough clothes for 8 days. We used laundry facilities where we dropped off the clothes and within 24 hours we picked it up. Saved us a lot of time and was was very reasonable priced about $15.

7. On and off bus tours in the cities give you a great overview. We used Park and ride buses in Edinburgh which saved trying to find parking and driving in this ancient city. For 4 pounds per person you can ride all day with many buses and routes to choose from. Be prepared to walk a LOT up and down BIG hills.

8. The OPW Heritage pass in Ireland and the Explorer Pass in Scotland helped you bypass the long lines Stirling and Edinburgh Castles.

9. Distance on google maps are short BUT because of the roads you need to add extra time to your destination.

10. Castles both ruins and finished/furnished, Cathedrals/Churches and distilleries are in EVERY Town so plan accordingly.

11. It rains a lot going from a beautiful day to pouring rain so bring rain gear and layers.

12. Locals do not wear baseball hats...gee I wonder why??

13. Souvenir T Shirts for places you visit do not exist!!!!

14. Woolen shops are EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

15. Locals are wonderful and very helpful.

16. Leave time to get through the customs lines in Dublin airport. We had Global Entry and it took us 2 hours to make it through the process. Our plane was delayed for 1 hour because folks did not make it through on time, yea they actually waited for the passengers.

17. Do not bother with the Ring of Kerry or as we called it the Ring of Terror!! Instead do the Dingle Peninsula and the A2 road to Northern Ireland, and the costal highway between Galway and Westport. The Ring of Kerry road was narrow, changed suddenly to one lane bridges with no warning with MANY tour buses driving like it was a 4 lane highway. The Killarney National Park is definitely worth seeing but not the entire Ring of Kerry. If you do decide to do the Ring consider doing via a bus tour. If a rainy day you will not see much.

18. Scotland has no toll roads but Ireland does make sure you have some local $$.

19. Pots of tea and scones were wonderful, coffee not so much as well as full Irish breakfast....baked beans in the morning???

20. Hotels require you to place your door entry card to turn on the power in the room. They have a slot as soon as you walk in to insert the card....make sure you get TWO cards so if you need to leave the room the other person is not sitting in the dark. They also use the card to get onto and operate the elevator. Hair dryers are in the desk drawer sometimes not near a mirror....lol. Each showers we encountered operated in its own unique way!! They do not believe in washcloths..... Make sure your hotel has parking some did not and we had to walk several blocks and pay for parking. Sometimes they had underground parking which was nice BUT it was like driving through your patio door into your basement....yea that tight. We had a Volkswagen Golf not a big car and it was VERY challenging,!

21. Make sure you have adequate rental car insurance including the tires! My 3 credit cards did not cover Ireland.


Overall we had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. They were both wonderful countries with spotless thriving towns, and amazing green country side.

A few more things...

We had no problem getting gas with a credit card the stations we stopped at you did not pay at the pump, you had to go in and pay the cashier.

On motor ways the left lane is the slow lane, the right is the passing lane. The speed limit signs just have a number on them nothing else given in the USA which states “speed limit” on the sign. On the motorway they do not post the speed limit on the motorway they only are posted as you come onto the motorway and are trying to merge!!

We purchased a SIM card for my iPhone as we had Cricket once we got in the country. Sometimes we had google maps and the Garmin running at the same time, the Garmin was so much better. Google maps would say go east on the road, we had no idea what direction we were going, especially when in a roundabout! Where the Garmin gave you a blue line to follow.

The Dublin airport is a $50-60 euro taxi ride one way so plan accordingly. We stayed at The Schoolhouse Hotel in Dublin to give you an idea.

Tarfan

Regarding laundry the hotels are very expensive so we just googled laundry and found places to drop off and pickup 24 hours latter. The hotels charged per garment as the laundry charged by weight of the laundry.

Regarding restaurants my wife would review TripAdvisor the night before for where to eat. Reviews maybe great but read the online menus to see if it appeals to you. In 31 days we had 2 bad meals which is not bad. Some of the hotels we stayed at actually had some really good restaurants so do night write them off.

In Galway there were two spots I really enjoyed - Cava Bodega and the Quay Street Kitchen. In Dublin I found the Vintage Kitchen to be dynamite. Here’s a post from my April trip. https://delsoblogger.blog/2019/04/27/

Tarfan

If you like gardens make sure you visit Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens. No charge to walk the grounds which are beautiful if you go into the greenhouses they do charge ( well worth the $$). The public transportation bus drops you off at the gate. We spent a few hours at the garden, one of the best gardens we visited on our trip.

https://www.rbge.org.uk/visit/