Ireland is a charming and wonderful place to visit and of course if you live here already you know that. Hiring a car in Ireland is relatively cheap compared to the rest of Europe due to strong competition and car hire brokers driving the costs down. A recent study said it was close to the cheapest place to rent a car for a week while also one of the most expensive in Europe to get a three course meal.
Before the much fabled Celtic Tiger and subsequent massive investment in transportation links, Ireland was a difficult destination to traverse with a car. The removal of many of the rail lines installed by the British and high cost of internal flights still made it the most attractive mode of getting around the Emerald Isle.
Now though with motorways opening to get you from Dublin to most of the cities and of course the M50 motorway bypassing the clogged arteries of Dublin City, things are much improved. They have even removed the toll plaza from the middle of the M50 which used to cause massive tailbacks and are currently widening the motorway too. Beware though, the toll still exists using number plate recognition technology so ask at the counter about this or pay at any newsagent or shop which displays the M50 payment logo. Tolls exist on quite a few other motorways to offset the cost of construction so either carry a coins or avoid the motorways and traverse the back roads.
We drive on the left and speeds are displayed in kilometers unless you cross into Northern Ireland which although also driving on the left still has the imperial display of miles. The rules of the road are displayed on the Road Safety Website – Rules of the Road for your review.
The warm waters of the North Atlantic Drift create moderate temperatures all year around but the mild winds from the Atlantic also bring rain two out of three days! There is a marked difference though in rainfall from the west to the east, the south west averages 2,540 mm and Dublin only 762 mm. Maybe this explains why over 70% of the population live within 90 kilometers of the capital city.
The largest cities of Ireland are as follows:
Dublin 1.1 million
Cork 120,000
Galway 66,000
Limerick 54,000
Waterford 45,000
[...] Ireland [...]