has anyone driven in Ireland?

[Laurielee]

I am going to Ireland in Sept and need help with travel arrangements. I am flying into Dublin, but need to get to Cork. I thought it would be easy to take the train, but it looks like I have to get a cab to one of the stations. Which I have no clue as to which one and it looks like there are like 30 stations in Dublin alone and yet one of my travel books says it faster to take the train to cork than drive, and I have yet to find a good travel book with info on getting to and from these cities

So question, Ive read everywhere driving is hazardous in Ireland, but are these on just the feeder country roads? It looks like there is a main highway going from dublin to cork that wouldnt be difficult to drive?

thanks

Laurie

[CLCH]

I drove from Dublin to Galway. It was a hassle to find the main highway going out of Dublin because we had some confusion regarding the signs, but once we got on the highway, it was really easy. The highway wasn't really a "highway" as we think of it in America though. Even though it was a major road in Ireland, in the countryside, it was often just a two-lane road. It was fun to drive through the countryside though.

[Canice]

I hope this isn't a stupid comment, but I met an Irish girl who worked at a car rental place (in Ireland) and she said they got a lot of Americans who were startled to see all the cars had manual transmissions. Just thought I'd mention it in case you don't "shift".

[RebeccaT]

Laurie, will you be going straight from the airport in Dublin to Cork? I would definitely recommend taking a train, as it is actually quite a good rail system.

The "30 stations" you are referring to are actually all DART (Dublin Area Rail Transit, I think) stations - like the subway. You want an inter-city rail station, and there are three. Heuston should get you to Cork quite easily.

Here is a link to the inter-city map on the Irish Rail website. I hope it helps!

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/intercity_map.asp

[Gilgamesh37]

AND since the steering wheel is on the other side, you're shifting with your LEFT hand. I found that part extremely hard to adjust to, especially since the "H" layout is the same as in a left-hand drive car---so first is still in the upper left corner. (I'm not sure that made sense. It was really hard to adjust to, though.)

[CompassRose]

Well, I haven't driven, myself, in Ireland, but I have been driven there; granted, it was some years ago. But from what I hear, it hasn't changed much.

Narrow roads -- very, very narrow roads, quite often, and frequently hemmed in by high stone walls. Sometimes so narrow that if two cars meet, one car has to back up to the nearest lay-by so that the other car can pass. Odd, confusing signs, particularly once you get anywhere off a beaten path (non-standard, and sometimes relating only to local landmarks). Driving on the wrong side of the road, usually with stick. Farm animals blithely wandering the throughfare. And this right outside Dublin.

It was my father doing the driving, who grew up there, but yow! And by more recent experience, it's not much better in most of the rest of the UK, either. That's what happens when a road system cobbled together over several millennia meets technology for which it was never designed.

(The best part, though, was after we came back, and my father, still "driving left", somehow went the wrong way off a Canadian cloverleaf and ended up facing ONCOMING TRAFFIC on a FOUR LANE HIGHWAY!)

I have always found trains in the UK to be incredibly efficient ways to travel (Not to mention cost-effective). You do need to find The Scoop on which train and station, but I bet it wouldn't be too difficult to scope out on the Net. (I've been fortunate enough to be staying with the natives every time I've gone over there -- and they, of course, know exactly which train to get and what platform to stand on.)

[bowie]

I've spent a total of three weeks driving all over Ireland. It is very true that you can't go in thinking that a road called a "highway" is anything like what you are familiar with; not only will it be just a two lane road but in most areas it's a very narrow two lane road. In an around the bigger cities, including Dublin and Cork, the driving can be a bit stressful. I agree that it can be quite fun driving in the countryside. Many of the roads make me think of a luge-run; with hedgerows on either side so high that you can see nothing but the road in from of you. Mind you, these are also two way roads but they certainly don't look like it; you need to be on the look out for oncoming cars and be aware of where the pull over spots are so you can allow oncoming traffic to pass.

All of this, after you try and get used to driving on the left.

The signs, especially once you hit the country side can be somewhat confusing; it can look like you are supposed to make a turn down the road when in truth the sign is trying to tell you to make the turn *right there*. You don't have to go too far from the big towns to find yourself in areas where the signs are Gaelic only, with no English to go by. Get a really good map, even if you don't plan on venturing too far from the main roads. If you do want to drive out in the country a bit, plan on giving yourself a bit of extra turn around time to account for possibly getting lost. A close friend of ours, an Irishman, told us within the first couple nights of our arrival to "Never ask an Irishman for directions." We laughed but continued to do so because, well, who else are you going to ask? If you need to, though, be prepared for often long, drawn-out convoluted (and frustrating) directions when many other people would just say, "Go straight and take the first right." This is not meant in any way to be a stereotype; just three weeks of every day of the same experience over and over again.

One more thing: Be aware that because the driving in Ireland is considered to be somewhat dicey, the major credit cards like Visa who normally extend insurance coverage when you rent the vehicle with their card, will NOT in Ireland. The only one that we found at the time we went who would was a Mastercard. We ended up getting one to take on our trip solely for the purpose of renting a car in Ireland; it was better than paying for the insurance through the car rental people. Also, if we had had a claim, we could have dealt with Mastercard "locally" (U.S.) rather than dealing with the company through Ireland.

Can't give any recommends/advice on the train because I've never taken one there. But here's my 2¢ for driving.

Cheers

[Laurielee]

thanks for all of the inputs, rebecca, that was a good link for the train. Canice you are right about manualis almost all they have, will spend the extra $$ on an auto since I havnt driven a stick in years and then on the opposite side. thats scary

laurie