redbirdsj

I am trying to book a rental car about 6 weeks out and it's very rough. The usual suspects want about $2,000/week for anything bigger than a compact. I've tried exploring alternative routes but they seem hard to secure as well. GoCar seems like it would work on paper, but the reviews are not good. Does anyone with experience there know of any local or off the beaten path companies that could help?

plunet

I can't help you with alternative options but there is a general shortage of new vehicles and extended wait times for delivery which means that the pool of vehicles that rental companies usually hoover up in bulk at decent discounts does not exist. Coupled with having offloaded inventory during the pandemic because no one was renting vehicles and it's a perfect storm of limited vehicles and high prices.

VickiSoCal

We were facing 1300 for 3 days in Scotland and decided no amount of ubers, car services and taxis could exceed that.

lwildernorva

Just finished a ten-day rental in Ireland, and my total price was $1200 for a rental in the shoulder season that I arranged three months ago. Rental cars are scarce this summer in many places. Taxis, public transportation, and ride shares may be less expensive this year unless your trip revolves around touring the roads that are spectacular drives.

redbirdsj

Our vision of the trip is Dingle and parts of the Wild Atlantic Way. Don't need a car in Dublin and can take train to Limerick or Cork and rent from there. I just don't know that we can pull it off without a car if trying to see the remote areas.

lwildernorva

Don't know how many people you're booking for, but for two with the associated travel to get to the departure points, bus tours of Dingle, which takes three hours at most, and the Wild Atlantic Way--that's a lot of territory but I suspect that you're looking at only a part not the whole thing--will cost less than $2000.

Scots_Al

Correct, but just be aware that there is a shortage of taxi/Uber drivers too - many found alternative work (e.g. as deliver drivers) during the 2 years of COVID when no-one was using them. Means you may face long waits at peak times.

whitewave

You can, but if you want a private driver to take you on these trips (wild Atlantic way, cliffs of moher, ring of Kerry) it starts at €800 per group. I just got back. (Of course, my trip was because my daughter was stuck over there with Covid….). I’m speaking of Limerick.

The regular bus tours to those places are 7-10 hours (which we obviously didn’t want to do, even if she was no longer contagious just in case…)

HGH

We just did this. We rented from Avis at the airport, drove to Galway, and circled our way back to Dublin. 7 days total, with every extra coverage available, came in just under $900. We are happy with our choice to rent, and would have done so even if it was much more expensive. We were able to modify our plans on the fly depending on weather, how tired or hungry we were, seeing something not planned, etc. One good example is Blarney Castle. I had not even looked into it because I had no desire to kiss the stone. Then, our guide at Ross Castle said we would probably really enjoy the gardens. Since we were on our own, it was easy to add that on our way to our next destination. And, yes, he was right!

The motto was - get up and out every morning - beat the tour busses to the bigger attractions.

redbirdsj

Following up with my experience. I ended up going with a company called UFODrive, which overall was satisfactory. They rent only EV cars and I got a Tesla Model 3 for 6 days for about 530 euros, which was about 800 less than a comparable car at any agency. It was delivered to the airport and I returned it in central Dublin. It came with unlimited free charging at most charging stations, including Superchargers.

It was my first time renting a Tesla so there was a learning curve related to operating the car, managing range and recharging it. The company is app-based and had close to instant customer service through the app. Of course if you are in the wilds of Ireland, it becomes more complicated if you have bad cell service so that's something to keep in mind.

Overall, I would definitely rent from them again.