Driving a manual in Ireland

[nothumb]

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I am not so much worried about shifting with my left hand, but aren't the clutch and gas pedals reversed?

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In that case, no [censored] way, forget it. Automatic.

NT

[InchoateHand]

After fifteen minutes you'll feel natural. Trust me, I've never done it.

[slickpoppa]

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I am not so much worried about shifting with my left hand, but aren't the clutch and gas pedals reversed?

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I don't remember, which probably means that they are not.

[BOTW]

No, pedals are the same. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a "regular" LH drive though. Makes passing on the highway a bitch without a navigator.

[Dead]

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Take up smoking. It all becomes clear.

Nothumb: you are confusing and full of [censored]. be careful what you say, because it makes no sense.

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Hahahahahah. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[slickpoppa]

More then you wanted to know about international driving: link

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One comfort in all this is that the arrangement of the pedals and the gear shift is the same worldwide. An international standard was arrived at some time ago which determined the order of the pedals, no matter on which side the steering wheel is located. Going from right to left, the order is always “A-B-C”, or accelerator, brake and clutch (if the vehicle has manual transmission). Thanks to this international standard, the driver who lives in a right-hand-drive country and, say, rents a car in a left-hand-drive country, does not have to re-educate himself before he can drive a car which has the steering wheel on the “other” side.



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[nothumb]

I had no idea what the hell he meant by this, I just figured it was Sober Saul coming out to haunt me.

NT

[InchoateHand]

Goddamn that sober Saul. Luckily I vanquished him. [censored] bitchassmotherfucker

[ShortBus]

It is the same. You'll do fine.

Some advice... Buy plenty of maps. Locals are generally hard to deal with. Everything is "up the road a wee bit"... which can mean anything from 1 mile to 20 miles.

[MortalNuts]

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I am going to be in Ireland for 5 days. I rented a car and the manual was 150 Euros vs. 310 Euros for an automatic. I obviously can drive a manual in the US, but how hard of a time am I going to have driving one over there? Has anyone ever tried it? Or vice-versa in the US?


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Quick summary: I went to Ireland last year with some friends. We rented cars. It was sweet.

I didn't actually end up driving, because it was significantly cheaper for us to only have one driver for each of the two cars we rented. But my friend who drove (and drives a manual all the time in the US) didn't find it difficult. Be aware that the quality of roads varies throughout the country: the big national highways are perfectly fine, though, and generally the roads on the coasts weren't particularly frightening. I'm not sure I'd want to drive through the middle of the country, but then again I didn't try. We started in Dublin, then took the bus to Galway and rented our cars near there.

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Also, any suggestions on things to do would be appreciated. My wife and I are planning to spend one day in Dublin, 2 in the Killarney area and another 2 in Galway. We fly into Dublin and out of Shannon.



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All these are awesome. I also flew into Dublin and out of Shannon, though I spent more time there than you have. Personally I enjoyed the Galway area the most -- if you're into Irish trad. music at all, you'll never want to leave that place. I liked the Crane bar (on the less-touristy side of the river) a lot, but there were several great options. From Galway, I recommend exploring both north a bit (connemara) and south, towards Doolin, the Cliffs of Moher, etc. Doolin's become sort of a backpacking mecca, but was still amazing for music. Go hear Kevin Griffin, possibly the best irish tenor banjo player I've ever heard; he plays at one of the sessions (McDermott's? or was it McGann's? something like that) most nights.

When you drive down the coast, stop to see the cliffs near Kilkee. Walk along them, take lots of pictures. It's all just stunning.

The Killarney area is pretty sweet, too. I liked driving along the Skellig Ring, which is kind of the less-touristed cousin of the Ring of Kerry.

I guess my highlights for each of your regions would be roughly as follows:

Dublin -- the bars, no question. Best Guinness ever. I thought the Jameson factory tour was kind of fun, although I might not do it if I only had 1 day in the city; if you go, volunteer quickly, and you'll get a sample of a bunch of whiskies. (Don't volunteer, and you get just Jameson.)

Galway area -- more bars. watch the step dancers at this one pub in Galway. travel around connemara. see the coast. go to a session in doolin, or in galway, or in ennis.

Killarney area -- skellig ring, hiking there and elsewhere. killarney national park can be absurdly pretty if you catch it when the light is right. If I'd had the time, I would probably have made the trip out to the big skellig (skellig michael, I think) -- basically a big rocky island off the coast, where a religious order lived for hundreds of years. Also, there's an award-winning toilet somewhere on the skellig ring. Yes.

Bottom line is I think you'd have to be dead not to have a great time in Ireland. Have fun, and let me know if I can give any more info.

later,

mn