Big change...Ireland went metric with all their road signs!  So unless you can convert the 1.609344 km/mi in your head, you should make sure that the car you rent has km/hr on the speedometer.  

Go Slow!!!  The hardest part about driving in Ireland is not driving on the left, it is the very narrow roads...so be careful!

Unless you are a manual drive expert, do not get a manual drive car...the automatic is very worth the extra expense.

Some of the rental car places charge for a full tank of gas (petrol) when you first rent the car which can be pretty hefty.  For examples, we had to pay €54 ($70) for our tank when we went a couple of weeks ago.  So keep this in mind when you are renting a car.  If you are only going to be there for a couple of days, you might want to consider going with a place which requires you to bring it back full.  But if you are going to do at least 300 miles of driving, this is definitely the way to go.  Just for point of reference, we drove to and from the airport, to and from Tinakilly, and to and from Dublin four times and we put just over 300 miles on the car.  Traveling to the west and back will put about 400 miles on the car. 

Make sure to obtain your passport at least 3 months before you travel....the sooner the better and it is coming up soon!

You should carry your passport with you at all times while in Ireland.  You never know when you may need to be identified.

Ireland is on the Euro currency which is trading at $1.34/1 € or  €0.73/1 $ as of Mar. 10, 2005.  On currency exchange, rule #1 is to NEVER CONVERT AT THE AIRPORT.  These places are RIPOFFS!  They typically charge a surcharge of like $2 per transction AND add a commission of as much as 10%!  We have never seen the commission less than 5%.  And if you overestimate your money need for the trip and have to convert the money back, you will also be paying the commission and surgcharge again!  The best route to go is ATM which gives you the best daily rate, no surcharge, and a commission less than 2%..  There are plenty of ATM's in Dublin, Bray, and the other major towns of Ireland.  And they accept most ATM networks such as Cirrus, Star, etc.  Or if you have a Debit Card with Visa or Mastercard, then you are pretty much guaranteed to operate at the ATM.  As an alternative, you can associate a PIN with your credit card to obtain a cash advance via the ATM machine.  

As often as possible, we pay for items there with credit card as you don't to worry as much about obtaining the right amount of currency.  Major credit cards are more and more widely becoming accepted.  Visa and Mastercard are pretty much the standard with American Express and Diners Club accepted sparingly. Forget Discover!  The credit cards also give you the best rate of the day with a less than 2% commission (1% typical) and no surcharge.  

As an American, you do not need to pay the Irish sales tax, which is pretty hefty at 21% on most goods.  They have this very convenient way of collecting the tax back through a company called Global Refund.  Anywhere you see a "Tax Free Shopping" logo in the store, you can ask them for a special form to specify the tax that you paid.   Just gather up all of your forms and bring them with you to the airport on your departure.  At your final departure airport from the Euro Zone, go to the Global Refund booth and you will get back all the tax you paid either in cash as $ or as a credit on your credit card.  Pretty cool huh?  If Dublin is your final Euro Zone departure airport, then be sure to get to the airport at least an hour earlier than you typically would as the line is usually very long.  Remember this includes any items you may have bought in duty free as they still include the duty in your payment for some stupid reason. 

Almost all of the prices listed in stores already include applicable taxes so what you see is what you pay!  Now doesn't that make sense?

In Ireland, tipping is not expected.  A tip of 5% is a good tip and 10% is an excellent tip but your really should pay based on the level of service you get.  Service is typically not so good so expect to not pay so much in the tip often!