We had two things to do after our flight landed. 1. Purchase a sim card for our phones and 2. pick up our rental car. The sim card did not work for our phones. FAIL. Even after some research and contacting our phone companies, we still didn’t have any luck. I am determined to get this figured out. Anyone have a tip for us?!

Luckily the car rental process was easy. We quickly checked in at the Alamo counter, took a taxi that they provided to the car lot, and then waited a few minutes before they introduced us to our mini Kia for the next few days.

Jason was nice enough to be the driver. We chose a manual car because it was cheaper than an automatic. So not only was Jason driving on the left side of the road, but he also he had to sit on the opposite side of the car! I recommend getting a small car when driving in Ireland. A lot of roads are very narrow, especially in town. There are a lot of hedges used as walls or fences and sometimes it was hard for us to see if a vehicle was coming around the corner. We had to roll down our windows at times to listen for cars! Good thing we went with the good car insurance.

Once Jason had the keys in his hands, we were off on our adventure! We drove to our first Airbnb in Doagh. This was the first time we used Airbnb and I have nothing but good things to say about our stay. We stayed in an annexe of a country house. It was very cute and clean.

Bonus– The Airbnb had a pretty view of the countryside

The host, Richard was there when we arrived and he gave us a few recommendations for our trip. He also put together a book that had a list of restaurants and attractions nearby. We also had access to a few maps of Northern Ireland. This came in handy!! Since we didn’t rent the GPS system with the rental car we had to find our way around with a map, just like we did in ICELAND. It was a little exhausting at times, but we got through it!

We decided to have a low key night. After we put our bags inside we headed to the grocery store. The closest grocery store that we found was Asda Superstore. It had everything you needed.  We found clothing, necessities, food and alcohol. Everything was reasonably priced for us. My favorite part was the selection of pasta salads. Delicious!

Once we were done, we made our way back to our Airbnb. We made dinner and then called it a night.

Click Here if you would like to book a few nights at the Airbnb we stayed at in Doagh.

Tips:

• Always buy a map if you are traveling to any country. Even if you have access to a GPS system. It’s nice to have a a map as a back up if needed.
• Keep in mind that Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland use two different currencies. Northern Ireland currency is Pound Sterling and Republic of Ireland currency is Euro
• Visa credit/debit cards were accepted at most places. Always check with your bank or credit card company prior to your trip and make sure your card is accepted.
• Check Google Maps online to see if there are any toll roads, or atleast have the proper currency available. There was one toll route that we came across and they only accepted Euro currency and debit/credit cards as well

Ireland day 2