Hi. I have a few questions, hubby and I are flying into Shannon on Sept 16th, and out on the 27th. We will need to rent a car- since we are spending the majority of our trip in a cottage in County Kerry. What is the best ( price and service ) car rental place at or near Shannon Airport? We opened a World Card bi CITI so we can waive the CDW.


My next question is about where we should stay the night before we fly out. We will be leaving early in the morning on the 27th, and I would like to turn the rental car in the day before to save time before our flight out. SO- we need to stay somewhere not too far from the airport since we will need a cab there and back to the airport in the morning.




Thanks so much!!

Try linking off of the Aer Lingus web site to Hertz. You can get a small manual economy car for about $205.00 with CDW. Hertz icludes all fees in their quote. If you need an automatic Transmission, good luck.

Most people stay either in Ennis or Bunratty the last night for an early flight I have done both and I think cab fare would be about the same. It is very easy to turn in your rental at Shannon so you might want to rethink turning the car in the day before. Every year I catch the 0900 Continental flight to Newark and never have a problem. Have fun

Check your quote carefully -- my Hertz quote included fees but NOT any insurance: theft, CDW and excess waiver/super CDW were all separate and almost equalled the base rental. We rented succesfully from Dan Dooley (at Shannon) and rates are all-inclusive. They break them down online, so you can see what you'll save if you use the WORLD Master Card. Car renturn was very simple -- just note that the closest gas station to the terminal/rental car return is at the exit for "Shannon town center" off the N19. Exit, go left at the roundabout and there are several gas stations.

I used Irish Car Rentals a couple of years ago. At the time, they were the least expensive I found by far, and I had a great experience with them. No idea how they compare now, but something to check out. They also gave us a refund for the amount of gas left in the car (I had to remind them about that, but they at least didn't charge us for not having a full tank!).

for what it's worth, I agree that car return is very easy at Shannon (and I'm really type A and prone to being nervous about those things). Unless your flight leaves so early that a car rental place wouldn't be open or something, I think it'd be much easier to just drive your rental to the airport before you leave than have to find somewhere within your cab budget range, worry about the driver picking you up, etc.

Sorry, repley should have said around $205 without CDW. Have fun

Check out budget car rental - they generally do good deals, but I would check out a number of places : Hertz, Avis, Budget, etc and see which is best. They all operate out of Shannon.
I would recommend The Courtyard in Bunratty. Good quality bed and breakfast/guesthouse accommodation. They have a website (not sure what it is - probably www.courtyard.ie) but try Courtyard Bunratty in a search engine.

Found it : http://www.bunrattycourtyard.com
I have stayed there and found it very good. It is beside Bunratty Castle you can walk to Castle or to shopping area beside castle, to Dirty Nellie's pub or to the folk park in Bunratty. I would recommend the pub in the folk park rather than Dirty Nellies.

We've also used Dan Dooley (twice) without any problems. This last time (this past June), we got a 10% discount with the promo code dochara. I'm not sure whether that still works. But, if not, check out:

http://www.irelandexpert.com/pats_bargain_page.html

I learned about that one from Bob (Itallian_Chauffer) who's a wealth of info on car rental in Ireland.

I agree with those who've said it's very easy to turn in your rental the morning you're leaving. We stayed in Ennis three years ago and liked it very much. Lots of restaurants and pubs.

I have used both National Car Rental and Dan Dooley, both without issues. When I was there 3 years ago, I stayed at a hotel right near the airport; however, Ennis is not far and a great town. Shannon is an easy airport for car rental return. Not sure how early you are leaving but if you choose to take the car back the day before, there are buses that can take you from Ennis to the Airport.

The Courtyard in Bunratty is wonderful. I believe the male proprietor's name is Michael. He and his wife are extremely helpful. It's more like a hotel than a B&B which is not always a bad thing! The rooms are well appointed and comfortable. There's a cute little hotel bar right across the street and down the road is The Creamery and Durty Nelly's and the pub in the Folk Park. It still kills me that the locals go to the "fake" pub!