I spent 3 weeks in Ireland last March. I took my son for his 21st birthday and so his driving was out of the question. It would cost 50 dollars a day extra. We rented a car and set off. I drove a manual transmission and had no problem. We started in Shannon and drove basically the whole island. The west side (Galway, Sligo and Donegal) was the hardest. Downtown Galway City was tight. Scared the heck out me.. This was only my second day though. All of the cities in the west have extremely narrow streets.. The rural roadways where absolutely no problem. Don't worry about driving on the other side of the road. I never once went to the wrong side. Roads from Dublin to Donegal were wide. We drove to Glenties (my grandmother was a music teacher there) Those roads are a bit pot holed but we didn't see much traffic. Our trip took us from Shannon to Galway (Clifden) up to Donegal to Dublin to Cork to Ring of Kerry back to Shannon. Driving was one of the funest parts o! f the trip.. no need to break out in hives.. I have many cousins there.. and plan to return bi annually. I can't wait to go back. Carol ----- Original Message ----- From: Bibfiles@aol.com<mailto:Bibfiles@aol.com> To: DONEGALEIRE-L@rootsweb.com<mailto:DONEGALEIRE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 5:57 PM Subject: Re: [DONEGALEIRE] Question about traveling in Ireland Hi Pat, I just took my first trip to Ireland this past April. Driving on the left can be pretty intimidating in the city (like Dublin), but once you're on the country roads, it's very easy to fall into the pattern. The other trick is the roundabouts at every intersection. Sometimes you can't see the signpost until you've gone around twice! But all in all, it's not that bad. I'm used to driving the freeways in Los Angeles, so Ireland's main highways were a breeze. They are usually two lanes each way. Just give yourself plenty of time traveling between points. On the map the distance may be short, but the condition of the road, or the twistiness of it can really add time to your drive. Good luck, Louise in California