We Drive on the left ... most of the time

Did you know that in Ireland that we drive on the left - well most of the time.  If you are coming to Ireland as a tourist you may have heard some bad stories about our roads.  However it isn't that bad.  One thing to try and do is to get a car with an automatic gear box.  The default when you rent a car will be stick shift.  So to eliminate an even more confusing thing to do (assuming you drive an automatic car) ensure that this is in your rental agreement with Avis or Hertz or whoever you rent with.

Most inter-city roads are now of a reasonable standard with some exceptions.  In the smaller rural areas the roads can be of a worse standard but that is typical of most European countries.

When you do go to rent a car be aware that our makes differ from the US so make sure when contacting the Irish rental company that they even have the car you want. I f you go online to book it doesn't hur t once booking is made to ring the car rental office in question and make sure the model and size you need is available.

Some rental companies may not havethe pool of cars that you may be usd to when arriving into US airports where you can nearly pick the colour you want.

New Site

I was surfing the other day and I thought http://www.wheretovacationinireland.com/ would be a good site.  I have registered it and set it up and I am waiting for it to go live on Dreamhost the provider that I use for most of my sites (pretty slow at the moment - not sure why)

I plan to put information on there for people mainly US visitors on what to do when they visit Ireland in practical terms.  Items like what you can get done in Cork/Dublin/Galway in a day with a limited budget or with limited time.  It will have Google walking maps and some links to places to eat and visit.

Accommodations Options are Varied

Did you know that in Ireland that people are generally friendly and that we are the nation of a thousand welcomes.  On top of that there are many excellent bed and breakfasts to stay in of a high standard.  If you had planned coming for a period of time to Ireland it is worth spending some time in a Bed and Breakfast instead of a hotel.

It is worhtwhile as you get to meet a local and they usually will help you understand the local area.  The Bord Failte web sitre is a good starting point as is the Discover Ireland site,  There are a wealth of web sites out there with information so check out Google for these.

Tipping is Optional

Did you that in Ireland that we do not usually tip in bars.  Americans are surprised to learn this.  It is not usual to leave a tip at a bar.

The reason for this is that unlike in the US the staff do not rely on tips as part of their income.  they usually get paid a wage per hour that is not based on earning money from tips.

However for taxis, hair dressers, restauraunts a small token is appreciated.  In some places where a large group eat they may add a service charge so watch out for that.

Everyone Speaks English

Did you know in Ireland - everyone in Ireland does speak English. You may laugh but there are some people who still think that we speak Gaelic. On a more serious note however Gaelic (Or Irish as we call it here) is only spoken widely in certain areas of the country and is a language under threat. During your holidays you will rarely hear it. In fact the first and last time may be when the Aer Lingus person welcomes you (if you travel with our national carrier).

The ironic thing about that is that the language is compulsory throughout school so students have 100s of hours of study behind them on either leaving or going to third level. However the vast majority of them do not speak it to any conversational level.

Per the Central Statistics Office

Majority of households have an Irish speaker
53.4 per cent of private households contained at least one Irish speaker in 2006. The corresponding figure for households in the Gaeltacht was just over 80 per cent.

Irish usage: A million persons who can speak Irish rarely or never speak the language
Of the near 1.66 million persons who indicated that they could speak Irish, just over 1 million (60%) either never spoke the language or spoke it less frequently than weekly

On travelling around Ireland you will see that most signposts have the English and Irish version of place namse so don't be confused when you see them.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on the Irish language that will give you a detailed history of it