Is it as intimidating as it sounds? I drive all over the place here but the whole opposite sides of the car AND the road thing kind of freaks me out! Haha - and it's not really like I can practice here at home to get a feel for it
Post by steamboat185 on Feb 11, 2016 22:48:34 GMT -5
Just for the first few minutes. Whenever we start back or go into rotaries the passenger reminds the driver to stay on the left. It's the only time we've had any trouble.
It was not anywhere as bad as I thought it would be. The hardest part to me was not driving on the other side of the road, but that many roads are SO narrow. A lot of them have bushes right up to the edge of the road, and then there's a part of the bush that's missing because that's where everyone's side mirror hits. When we rented our car we REALLY got the hard sell for additional insurance. If it was something like $5/day, we probably would have done it, but it was more like $30/day or something. The agent kept going on about how we were "Very brave, very brave indeed." Driving in the country was easy. Driving in Dublin was a little trickier.
DH drove and it wasn't that bad. We picked up the car on our way out of Dublin, so didn't have to drive there at all.
We paid extra for an automatic to make it easier, and we did pay for the extra insurance. We usually don't, because most credit cards cover you in the event of damage, but Ireland is one of those places where most cards don't cover you. At the time we went, even Amex did not offer coverage. We weren't worried about the driving itself, but as pp said, the roads are very narrow in places and for that reason we were concerned about damage. In the end nothing happened, but we were glad to have been covered just in case.
I'm so glad you posted this. We are looking at a trip to Ireland and I was worried about the driving. DH has driven on the other side of the road before (but not on the other side of the car), but I'm a terrible navigator so I'll probably end up driving while he navigates.
I paid extra for an automatic because I'm not proficient with a manual at all, and I didn't want to have to deal with trying to shift with my left hand when I barely know how to do it with my right.
We also paid for the extra insurance, which was good, because the narrow roads = lots of scraping the car on the brush. Another car also hit my mirror when I was stopped at a light and they drove past. (Also, not my damage, but someone had keyed that particular rental car before we even picked it up.)
But overall it really wasn't that hard to stay on the correct side of the road. The only time I had a problem with it was when I was in parking lots with no lines, because I automatically wanted to go to the right. My friend and passenger just reminded me to move over.
H drove and he was stressed just for the first few hours of driving and getting through town. We paid extra to rent an automatic. He knows how to drive a manual, but he hadn't done it in years and we didn't want to add another layer on top of it. Most of your driving will probably be on rural roads. We were there in August/September and barely ever passed another car except when we got to our next destination town. We scraped the side mirror one of the few times we had to squeeze past someone, but it was covered by the insurance.
We LOVED our driving trip through Ireland, you'll have a great time. One other tip is to overestimate the amount of time you need to drive distances. It's not highway travel, it is slow going at parts, and factor in stops, photos, etc.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
Post by wildfloweragain on Feb 14, 2016 18:22:43 GMT -5
Ditto the roads being the problem. Not which side of the road. It's especially helpful if you are experienced with roundabouts as well. We now have some in our town.
I ireland, I've had several car issues. I wasn't driving for any of these btw! The first trip we didn't get the extra car insurance and really should have. It was a mess. The insurance on our credit card was supposed to cover it but it happened in a backwards way, took forever and she got charges for being over her credit card max.
The 2nd time we had both a rock hit the windshield and a flat tire, plus the extra insurance. Everything was fine.
My advice would be to try to get a very small automatic. If you do that, you'll be fine.
I'd driven on the left side in Australia, so I thought it would be no big deal. Yeah. Western Australia has much less traffic, much bigger roads, and more constant speeds.
It turns out that I am shite at changing gears with my left hand! I've been driving a manual since I was 16, but I am extremely right-hand dominant. I can shift with my left hand, but it requires some mental effort, and going into a roundabout, when I'm already tasked with adjusting speed, evaluating traffic, and trying to navigate? Yeah, I kept shifting into the wrong gear.
As for the road size, I found it terrifying. We had booked a very compact car, but they "upgraded" us to a Nissan Qashqai. Not good. It was a nice car, and brand new, but it was much wider than I'm used to. Comparing with local cars in parking lots, it was among the widest cars in the lot. I did not need that extra stress. We would have been fine with something like a little VW Polo, and I would have been much more confident.