Ireland Trip

Finance Dave said:
.....

I will use my credit card for most transactions, but where is the best place to purchase a small amount of Euros...I know the airports are crazy expensive but I live in a small city and no major banks here.
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Hopefully your credit card does NOT charge foreign transaction fees.

As for debit, open a schwab account, they do NOT charge fees on ATM withdrawals and will credit you if the ATM charges you.

I keep a few thousand in the account just for traveling, so I can take out money in any country from an ATM. My bank wanted 1 week notice, a horrible exchange rate and a fee of about $15 to mail the foreign money to me. Turns out they don't have any in the bank.

That's when I took advice from folks here.
I got my schwab card and tested at my bank, it's a bit funny as I took out $5.00 and my ATM charged a few dollars fee. Schwab credited me, and i guess they have a minimum as I made a $1 profit on the transaction :)

I've since used it in a few countries and it worked great !
 
Lots o’good info up top. A few pragmatic suggestions:
1. Unless you really like driving, I’d consider limiting your trip to the Dublin, Kilkenny, Dunmore East (Waterford), Kinsale, Dingle, Galway, Shannon “U”. Otherwise you’ll be in the car a lot more than you might think. Ireland has improved its motorways but still not high speed friendly in many places and you wouldn’t want it any other way.
2. The above above “U” lets you see plenty of great sights/towns.
3. I’d suggest you consider the following:
Galway (1 night)
Cliffs of Mohr
The Ring of Dingle (I prefer to Kerry and seems shorter and less crowded). Be prepared to back up on the cliff’s edge. There is an “over the mountains” route that takes you from the Cork/Kinsale area to Dingle area. Longer drive but really out of the way and awesome. Be prepared to stop for sheep.
Slea Head - if you hike it don’t get blown off (same with Mohr).
Kinsale (not Cork) — a side trip to do a little bit of walking out to Old Head it is truly beautiful (can’t get to the golf course unless you play but there is plenty of space for regular tourists). The Spaniard pub. Some really nice restaurants.
Dunmore East — truly charming little town. Easily reached by leaving Dublin and stopping for lunch in Kilkenny the arriving Dunmore East. The Strand hotel/pub is moderately priced and you’ll have an ocean view and there is a protected swimming cove with sand beach there. I’d stay here and forget Waterford unless you really want to see the crystal factory. The drive from Dunmore East to Passage East and Cheekpoint or reverse is very pretty. Also a scenic route from Dunmore East toward Kinsale.
Jack Mead’s flyover pub (near Waterford city, which in my view deserves a flyover too).
Kilkenny (pretty well preserved city)
If you can see some GAA (Gaelic games) in Dublin at Croke Park or elsewhere consider it. Very very safe and foreigners can order tickets unavailable to the locals. (Used to be that way, anyway).
Dublin in my view is a two-nighter, having stayed there more than 30 nights (about half on business)

Gooser’s pub near Limerick (and hence Shannon) is nice and picturesque. On the Shannon River.

Have a great time and don’t forget that if you don’t have your insurance ironed out in advance when you arrive everyone in the US will still be sleeping so a phone call to your agent won’t work.

Actually on your itinerary I would take the nice train from Dublin to Waterford, and rent a car in Waterford. Dublin traffic can be challenging. Google the Red Cow Roundabout.

Good luck
 
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oh..I forgot to mention: the street signs to find a particular bed and breakfast are better than the actual street signs.
 
I'm from Dublin, and got back fairly regularly. They charge Americans an arm and a leg for renting an Automatic car, as they are not that popular in Ireland so not much demand for resale. My tip is to rent a Prius (make sure you know how to turn it on though!). It may seem pricier, but we drove all around Ireland for a week on one tank of petrol.
 
I stayed in Dublin with friends and we walked or took easy public transportation everywhere. for 5 days. Then DH met me and we drove in Ireland from Dublin to Galway then Shannon. July 2017. We loved it !! We had our $$ and car insurance before arrival.
 
We made a similar trip 10-day trip in April-May 2015. Was the best trip (out of lots) in our lives! We flew to Dublin, stayed 3 days doing touristy things, then rented a car to go south and west. Do you have places to stay? I highly recommend bed & breakfasts, booked on your own instead of through an agency. There are so many B&Bs, and the owners of the ones we stayed at were so wonderful to us. In Dublin we stayed at a historic hotel across the street from Oscar Wilde Park and near Trinity College. Also we booked a 2-night stay at Ballyseede Castle in Tralee. That was so beautiful!

From Dublin's south Hertz office, we lucked onto a very scenic road to Kilkenny (past Wicklow Mts.). Stayed at a B&B in Kilkenny - go to the pub where the witch statue is and watch the trad musicians and dancers. During our stay we explored the area (Rock of Cashel, Cahir Castle, Leap Castle (!!!), Waterford), then traveled to Tralee. We skipped Blarney and Ring of Kerry, but wow - Dingle Peninsula was the bomb. We followed Rick Steves' recommendations for that tour. We had booked a trip to Skellig Michael, but was unable to cross because of weather.

Do me a favor - go to Skellig Michael and let me know how it is? I want to go back and climb those 600 steps to the top!

From Tralee we traveled to Doolin because we wanted to visit Aran Islands. I don't think I would go back there again. Crossing the Atlantic was long and kind of like a roller coaster. From Doolin, Cliffs of Moher were awesome.

From Doolin we drove back to Dublin to stay at an airport hotel (very nice one). On the way we stopped at Birr Castle, which was super interesting. Castle itself isn't open to the public (the family still lives there), but the gardens are absolutely beautiful and the giant early telescope is really something to see.

Tips on driving: the back roads are tiny compared to what we have here in the states, but it's worthwhile to drive them sometimes for the scenery. You get used to them, and sometimes have to pull off to the side to let oncoming vehicles pass. In all the towns are round-abouts every block or so. They're great! We had fun driving everywhere.

If you can, stop and sight-see unplanned. If you see a crumbling abbey, or castle, or caves - go for it! Those things we did made the whole holiday extra special for us. Let us know any other questions!
 
Thanks everyone! I had planned much of the trip before some of you posted those last comments...so sadly some are not included. However, here are a few notes:

1) I will call my CC company and try to get an insurance coverage letter.
2) Yes we are getting a small car...but not a Prius. I have driven on the left side of the road about 5 times in England and Germany. I would not say I find it "easy", but I can do it. And yes it's been a manual transmission (I have musclecars and drive mostly manual transmission vehicles in the US as you can see in the photos below).
3) We are going to stay in 4 "hubs". 1) Swords (north of Dublin slightly) 2) Kilkenny 3) Cobh 4) Shannon (we will be there 4 days, seems lots to see around there)
4) I booked a Falconry activity
5) We have some physical limitations, so cannot do the 10km walk on Moher...we'll need to find something where we walk about 1 mile or less
6) I have not used my debit card in years, and we have ours through a tiny credit union...so I may have to buy a small amount of Euros at the airport. I know that's not the most cost effective way. We will use our CC for nearly everything we can, and no they don't charge foreign transaction fees.
7) We fly into Dublin, and out of Shannon
8) We leave May 28th, return June 8th
9) Can't do Skellig Michael...see limitation comment above

Thanks again everyone, I'll post up when we return!
 
And as far as insurance, I'm confused. Are you all talking about the "collision damage plan" or some other type. The agreement we have says "your rental may have mandatory local insurance requirements". It also says "liability insurance may be required in some areas".

Some of you said the insurance is "expensive". What do you call expensive? Is $99 expensive to you? Because that is what they quote for the collision coverage. I don't consider that expensive.

We are picking up the car "off airport" south of Dublin on the day we leave Dublin. The cost for 7 days is only $143 (not including the insurance noted above).
 
Do people know, is car insurance at the rental place really insurance ?

Or is it like New Zealand rental car insurance, and more of a fee to reduce the deductible portion, all of which is useless if you get charged for a driving offense in an accident. (I read about this 'trick' and it really soured me on the idea of car rental in New Zealand as the cost is high if it happens)
 
I need to read through this more later. Looks like lots of good info and we want to visit Ireland too.
 
Just spoke with my credit card company, they do not cover Ireland, Israel, or Jamaica.
 
Sunset said:
Do people know, is car insurance at the rental place really insurance ?

Or is it like New Zealand rental car insurance, and more of a fee to reduce the deductible portion, all of which is useless if you get charged for a driving offense in an accident. (I read about this 'trick' and it really soured me on the idea of car rental in New Zealand as the cost is high if it happens)
Click to expand...

Here is a quote from the State Farm website....

"Loss Damage Waiver (LDW)
At the rental car office, you're likely to encounter certain insurance-related terms. "LDW" stands for Loss Damage Waiver, and it limits the amount you'd be responsible for if your rental vehicle is damaged or stolen. "CDW" is similar, but it only covers losses caused by collisions.

While these options are usually referred to as "insurance," they're really "waivers" since the rental car company is waiving its right to hold you accountable for certain types of loss.

You may also be offered "PEC" (Personal Effects Coverage) which covers personal effects, or "PAI" (Personal Accident Insurance) which covers personal injuries while renting a vehicle."
 
A new consumer survey just came out about rental car companies, I'm thinking if these same companies are in Ireland, they probably behave the same way as they do in Europe.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/which-car-hire-survey-scli-intl/index.html

"Among the larger firms, Enterprise and sister company Alamo were top performers in the survey that covered 2,178 car hire experiences among Which? members from January 2018 to January 2019."
 
We always purchased the full coverage from the car rental place, it covers everything if there is an accident. If you get the basic coverage there could be out of pocket expenses such as deductibles and anything that is not covered in the basic plan.

It costs more, but I felt better that whatever happened I would not be out of pocket for anything.

Also look out for the locals that crash into tourists to make insurance claims, my sister in law got hit by one and they tried to get $1,000 cash from her to not report the crash.
 
DFA said:
We always purchased the full coverage from the car rental place, it covers everything if there is an accident. If you get the basic coverage there could be out of pocket expenses such as deductibles and anything that is not covered in the basic plan.

It costs more, but I felt better that whatever happened I would not be out of pocket for anything.

Also look out for the locals that crash into tourists to make insurance claims, my sister in law got hit by one and they tried to get $1,000 cash from her to not report the crash.
Click to expand...

I've read reports by people who rented in New Zealand, and even if you pay for the deluxe coverage they have, it becomes worthless if the police charge you with a driving offence.

So lets say you bump a car beside you on the dual lane turnarounds, if the police charge you with careless driving (no conviction required), you pay for all the car repairs.

Problem is, the police know you are a tourist, can't complain, appear in court, and don't vote like the local, so who are they going to charge ?
 
Not going to Ireland, (this year anyway), but just now, after a lot of looking around, ordered a hazel cane from this guy in Derryhick, County Mayo:

https://www.derryhicksticks.com/sample-page/

If anyone happens to be in the area and by chance drops by....please say Hi from me. ;)
 
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