Ireland will remain in my memory for a very long time. My tour in Ireland had been very eventful laden with many unfortunate events and I am very thankful to God I am still alive! Ireland is a very beautiful country but during winter, it takes a lot of physical and mental strength to be able to enjoy its beauty. One of the nurse said I am crazy to drive around Ireland. Now I know why.
Initially, I was contemplating to join a 6 days Paddywagon tour which would be much easier in winter, free of worries and cost lesser than to rent a car. BUT the travel itinerary does not include Newgrange and Hill of Tara in Meath county, Gap of Dunloe in Killarney and Glendalough in Wicklow county. After travelling in Scotland , I realized buses are infrequent during winter months. Hence, I decided to rent a car and drive on my own which is a mistake for someone who has never driven a european car nor driven on winter roads before. I have never learnt how to defrost a car! I even struggled on how to open the gas cap and frequently getting confused with light indicator on the left with windscreen wiper on the right (opposite in Malaysia). The european car is just made quite different from Malaysian car.
I planned an ambitious trip driving around Ireland for 8 days which is really a crazy thing to do in winter but I did not realize it until when I was actually doing it and by then, there was no turning back. Starting from Dublin airport, I drove north to Drogheda in Louth county, the Meath county, Belfast, Antrim county, Londonderry, Cong in Mayo county, Connemara in Galway county, Galway city, The Burren, Ring of Kerry, Killarney and Gap of Dunloe, Glendalough in Wicklow and back to Dublin. For my friends who may want to drive around Ireland in summer, here are some tips:
1) Get a good GPS with updated maps. I drove around with an old GPS and the roads in Ireland are constantly changing even at the smaller cities. Ireland loves roundabouts with loads of new roundabout to confuse a new driver. I had to circle around the new roundabout at least twice to get the bearing of the old route shown in my old gps. You can imagine the "fun"/ "stress" I had. My GPS also does not stick well on the windscreen which I suspect related to cold temperature and slightly moist screen in winter. I had to put it down near the gearbox or hold it with my hand while driving which had caused many "near accidents". I had an accident in Tralee very near the roundabout when I looked down at the GPS :(
2) Get an accurate GPS coordinates of places of interest. Most tourism website in Ireland gives the coordinates but I did not realize the importance until it is too late. This was my first time using a GPS and I was ignorant about its function. It took me a day to get used to it and because it is an old GPS, it does not have list of POI (places of interest) which I assumed it would have. I was using a Tom Tom and am not sure whether Garmin would have performed better. I manage to get few GPS coordinates for Hill of Tara, Newgrange and Monasterboice, and it did help to make the journey smoother.
3) Renting a car: There is a grace period of 1 hour to the time of collection and returning the car. There is also extra charge for after hour collection which you need to check as it differs with each company. So, if your flight is delayed like mine, you do need to call up the agency to hold the car and update the collection time and your flight number or else you would be forfeited the deposit for NO show up and the car would be released to other customer. ALWAYS read the small print of the terms and condition. Print it out and bring along with you. Many HIDDEN charges. Some company requires you to pay for full tank of petrol and return empty tank OR return with full tank and get a refund. There is extra surcharge for collection of car in the airport and Dublin city. Some company even charge one way trip surcharge if you collect and return the car to a different place. For that reason, I collected and returned the car to the airport and took a bus from the airport to the city to escape from paying the extra charge. There is also extra insurance coverage that is called super CDW etc (different company, different names) that helps to reduce payment to zero or GBP100 in the event of excessive damage. But what I forgot to foresee or even ask the company is in the event that I wrecked someone's car, who will cover for that damage???. This happened to me in Tralee as I bumped into an Irish man's car. The normal CDW included in the car rental does not cover the damage on victim's car and the car rental company charged my card euro1000 as front payment . It gave me mini heart attack and I had to contact Nova to enquire about whether the extra insurance that I bought at GBP40 helps to cover the damage cost. Surprisingly, my Fiat Punto is undamaged. This Italian car is tough but the Nissan car of the victim was not so lucky...
4) Petrol: price changes every day. A full tank of economy car cost about euro55. Needless to say, smaller city has cheaper petrol but the station may not be open during winter. I was stupid enough to pump petrol near the airport before returning the car full tank. The price of petrol near the airport is ridiculously much higher than the city. Try to get receipt to claim VAT. The VAT here is about 21%, VERY high. The unfortunate thing is when I tried to claim VAT in the airport, all counters are closed and no one knows where to get the VAT reclaim forms. I am not sure but I think you need to use credit card to purchase petrol in order to claim VAT because one of the information required in the form is your credit card number, flight number, address and passport number.
5) Driving on the left. No problem for me...
6) Driving in winter. Do not attempt if possible. Is very slippery and can easily loose control. If it ever happens, grab the steering wheel tightly and pray hard. I was told not to slam the brake, just pump the brake repeatedly and slowly. But when panic sets in, it is difficult to remain calm. Try not to drive in thick snow area. Once the tyres get burried in the snow, you are stucked! A bit of slush is fine. And if going uphill, DO NOT ever stop, once stopped is difficult to get a good grip and get the car running. It happened to me in Eniskerry and my car just went backward instead of forward. A kind passerby called up a towtruck to get me out of the snow. The back tyres of my car were stucked in the snow. The Irish man who came to help is a very experienced driver. Instead of towing, he maneuvered the car and managed to get it out of the ice and even managed to back the car and moved it downhill so that I could reroute through the town to M50 motorway to Dublin. I was told to drive uphill in gear 3 and downhill with gear 2 but I was driving mostly in gear 2 on the mountain roads. When turning a corner, be VERY extra careful. I lost control once and almost ran into bushes but somehow miraculously, managed to stop the car an inch away..
I had to learn how to defrost the car on spot. I did not expect Ireland to snow this early this year hence had not be Google-ing online to prepare myself for driving in winter.
Do not trust your GPS in winter, use your common sense and gut feeling. The GPS always try to give the fastest route but it does not know about the safest route because it does not know about the snow condition. Once, GPS tried a murderous attempt on me by teaching me to go through the mountainous road from Newsbridge, through Blessington to go to Glendalough in the night! I realized I made a mistake half way through the journey but I had no choice except to move forward since the roads are narrow and icy and is impossible to make a reverse or u turn. The snow at the side of the road was more than 10 " thick. The GPS also taught me an uphill road to M50 from Powercourt House in Eniskerry that caused my car tyres to get stuck in the snow...Instinct told me that it was a bad road but I followed the GPS instead of my good sense and that was not wise at all.
7) Extra cost to consider:
Parking: If park on the city street, there is hassle about finding a carpark and at some city like Galway, finding a spot is very stressful and parking can be very expensive.
For that reason, I only stay in hostel that provides free parking and walked around the city .
Places of interest: In Giant causeway in Antrim, you get charged GBP6 for the carpark and in Cliff of Moher euro 6 for the carpark. National Botanic Garden in Dublin charges Euro2 for the carpark.
Toll: Yes, the motorways are not free. Equip yourself with the information about the toll rates at www.nra.ie. Some are fairly easy to pay, the fees ranges euro 1.80-2.00 and some motorways has a toll booth where you can pay cash. But at M50 near Dublin, there is no booth and only electronic booth available whereby your car would be captured by the camera. One has to pay the toll online at www.eflow.ie before 8pm the next day to avoid fine for late payment.
Ferry: I had a shock of my life when the GPS directed me to drive into the sea when I was driving from Burren to Dingle. The fastest way is to drive to Killimer and get a ferry to cross the sea to Tarbert. It is also the fastest way to travel to Kerry county. Or you can choose to drive a longer distance to Limerick then to Killarney. In winter, time is precious. The cost of the ferry is about euro18 and it takes 20minutes to go across. The only problem is the schedule...it departs every hour and once you miss it, you have to wait for the next ferry in an hour time. But driving to Limerick will take extra time and the fuel burnt probably will cost euro 18 anyway. So make sure you plan your journey well to avoid missing the ferry.
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