"Renting a car - Manual or Automatic?" Shannon Transportation Tip by RickinDutch

Thought I was ready for driving on the left side. Have relatives in the UK and had
driven there a bit, but always with automatic. I drive a manual tranny here in Alaska so I thought - why not?.
Our first driving trip in Ireland, we started with a manual and ended up switching to an automatic after 3 days as we left Limerick and headed up to Galway. I found the coordination required from shifting with the "wrong" hand was too much in addition to all the other left side thinking that I had to do. After a near miss at a roundabout in Limerick, looking the wrong way for merging traffic, and then
shifting wrong and stalling, my wife swore if we didn't switch out we could just spend all 2 weeks in Limerick.
With the automatic, I relaxed considerably and actually could take in the scenery. Cost an extra 12 euros a day but probably worth it.
My wife never fully relaxed as passenger on the left side, however. Roads are narrow and
folks drive way faster than seems reasonable. Plus she had a control issue - in the driver's seat with no steering wheel or pedals. And yes - I did ask her to drive but she declined :)

Been back since and alway rent an automatic. It's cheaper to make the
arrangement when you book rather than switching later on.

And don't judge the rest of Ireland's roads by the highway out of Shannon. I'm told, and haven't seen anything yet to contradict it, that short stretch is the nicest road in Ireland.

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