Driving on the left side of the road......

Now that the dust has settled and my credit card bills have all come in (BTW, I should've saved more money for this trip) I would like share with you the experience of renting a car in Ireland. First of all, they do not accept any kind of American insurance. You have to buy your own insurance, or as in my case, I put down a deposit. It was a $3,000 deposit. This was to protect me against any damage. When I got the car I didn't inspect it like I should have, that was my fault. You should always inspect your vehicle. And take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Anyway, the car rental was 447.00 plus the $3,000 deposit for possible damage. I also did not read through the agreement thoroughly. Also, my fault.

When we arrived in the airport it was 6am and dark. I had slept on the plane, but I work 3rd shift, so my body was completely and totally wrecked. Luckily, my friend Sherry is very calm and helpful. We checked the car out, with this fantastic Irish Hertz rental person, who gave us a "Free" upgrade, (more on this later, you can see the picture of the receipt). We walked down through the airport to get the car on level 0- it was a tan BMW. We loaded up the bags and prepared to drive to our hotel. We didn't even leave the parking structure without getting lost. The navigation system was confusing. So, we had to stop and check in with another, fantastic Hertz employee (who, like the first one, flirted with me and seemed overly helpful).


Me, being American, I am used to driving on the right side of the road. I am also not used to a steering wheel on the right side of the car. Once we got on the road it was a little bit easier. We had to take the highway to get into Dublin. We went though tolls, which was awkward because I'm not used to being on that side of the car, or having to pay the toll on that side either. When we reached the first one we realized we hadn't gotten any Euros so we had no way to pay the toll. This seemed like a total disaster. The toll booth operator, an older, very friendly man, like our first two encounters, flirted with me and was overly friendly, made a bunch of jokes and then took my credit card as payment. It seemed the Irish are just really, really friendly.

We drove around Dublin for close to an hour looking for our hotel. The navigation system kept taking us around the block of our hotel and we could not find it. Going up and down one way streets was terrifying. Especially in the dark and with no traffic to follow. It was good practice.

We finally called the hotel and they had us back up the one way street and told us to go into a parking garage. We did and we parked, with great difficulty. (Probably because I was so tired.) 

When we got into the hotel they checked us in early (super nice people at the Spencer, the man at the desk didn't flirt at all, he was just really, really great).  Then we also got to have breakfast because we were starving from the plane ride, the hotel people were just the kindest people I've ever met. I set up my phone to take a time lapse of the sunrise, it was just coming up, and then we took a nap before setting off the explore Dublin.

The next day we drove the car to Schull, Ireland to look for Sherry's dead relatives, which was neat. We found a Stonehenge thing, which was super cool, but the country roads are super narrow and only one car can get through, which is a bit scary. We drove through Cork, Waterford, and we stopped at a gas station and talked to the most charming gas station attendant. She was adorable, she said she's lived there since she "was a little baby". This was when I decided that Irish people are the friendliest, nicest people on earth.

Anyway, back to the car. We drove all over Ireland, then parked the car in a parking garage at our hotel for two days. We went on a tour of Northern Ireland (by bus) and did some other stuff. When it came time to take the car back to the airport and leave we found out we had been parked in fire lane in the parking garage (I've never heard of such a thing and I feel like it was not very well labeled, but then again I'm American and our warnings on things are very loud and well marked to prevent lawsuits). We did not get any tickets, or a boot, but we did have a bunch of stickers on the car and the windshield, they were difficult to peel off, but I think that's the point of them.

When we returned the car we had a very different experience from picking the car up. The woman who took it back saw scratches on the passenger side, which according the photos I was sent, looked like they were already there and there was a spot on the front of the car with blue paint, that I did not recognize at all. She said it wasn't in the pictures, but they didn't even have their own pictures, just the ones from my email that I showed her. So we filled out a paper and she said I may get part of my deposit back or I might not. It ended up charging my card $2,402.10 in damages. The car had some scratches on it before I got it and lets be honest, they don't always fix those things anyway, they keep the money. I have the email pictures of the scratches, but I may have added to them, I really don't know, but in any case it was a very expensive lesson and in my opinion, totally worth it.

So, my advice to you, if you are renting a car in Ireland:
1) Take lots of pictures of the vehicle before you drive it.
2) Don't let flirty cute Irish people trick you into "Free" upgrades and if they do offer it, look at the bill before signing.
3) Know the exchange rates, because if they charge you in Euros you may not have a fee on it. I was charged in US dollars, which they then had to convert into Euros. It was not very well explained by the handsome Hertz rental employee who in the end, lets be honest, kinda ripped me off, but hey, that's his job and I should have been paying closer attention.

In conclusion, it's all very expensive, even if you return the car in pristine condition your credit card will have that huge charge on it for at least ten days until they take it off, but it's really worth it. I thought it was a fun and interesting experience driving on that side of the road and it was neat to explore the countryside which I would not have seen on a bus tour. However my wallet says, "Hertz, Don't it?".