If you are looking for a car rental in Ireland, there are a number of options available to you with regard to pick-up locations and type of vehicles. In general car rentals in Ireland is a competitive market and you would be best to look around all the main companies, and even the smaller ones that are specific to Ireland as it is not uncommon for them to be offering the best value.

In terms of locations of your car rental in Ireland, the two main cities, Cork and Dublin, are covered by all the car rental companies, and in general Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Shannon Airport are also covered by all companies. If you are picking a car rental up at one of the major airports you may fill in much of the paper work in the airport itself before getting a bus to the car park which in most cases is located just outside of the airport grounds.

When it comes to renting a car in Galway, Sligo, Tralee and Rosslare you options are going to be greatly reduced with Hertz and Budget being the only operators.

In general the vehicles are top notch, and cars are generally well less than a year old. The range offered starts at Group A with a Toyota Yaris up to a Lexus IS200 or Mercedes E200. Most people travelling from America are used to air conditioning, but in Ireland it is not necessary and most vehicles do not have advanced climate control.

As regards driving in Ireland, the main roads are good but not up to continental standards and while motor ways are becoming more and more common, Ireland still lags behind in this department. Crucially cars drive on the left of the road in Ireland and for those who are used to driving on the other side, it takes some time to get used to. One tip that works quiet well is to always make sure to keep your right hand to the centre of the road. The only time this is ever an issue is at cross roads. The other thing that our foreign visitors should bear in mind is that roundabouts are used extensively and in many cases with traffic lights.

Speed limits in Ireland are in kilometres per hour and are strictly enforced even if the Police coverage on the roads is not as much as perhaps in other countries. In built up areas the speed limit is 50km while on motorways the speed limit is 120km. Speed signs are along every road so there should be no concerns about not knowing what speed limit the road you are travelling on is.

Ronan Menton is the webmaster for a number of travel related websites and has been for some time in Ireland, associated with search engine optimisation in the Irish travel industry. He spends two months a year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and now sees it as his second home. Among the many sites he is currently working on are the following: Celtic Car Rental and e Car Rental Ireland.