For those who want to meet Irish people and experience all the country has to offer, there really is no alternative to hiring a car and taking a self-drive tour of Ireland. Those who book their vehicle in advance can simply pick up your hire car at Dublin Airport and get started on their experience straightaway.

The Automobile Association in Ireland has created the AA Route Planner, an excellent online resource for putting a tour together. To put the AA Route Planner to use in planning your self-drive tour, just follow these steps:

• Specify your starting point (be as specific as you like, e.g. Dublin Airport or Quay Street, Galway).
• Specify your destination.
• Specify what places you want to visit along the way (e.g. you may want to take in a historical sight, such as the Blarney Castle, when going from Shannon to Kinsale). Note that you can specify multiple places to visit along the way, should you so desire.
• Specify whether or not you want to avoid toll roads (though there are not too many of these in Ireland, particularly outside the Dublin area).

The AA Route planner will give you detailed directions, including all road names and junctions and signs to follow. Print this out in advance and keep it for your journey. The planner will also give you estimated journey times – though  of course you should add more time as required, for each of the stops you are going to make.

Picture Credit: By Worak (flickr.com (cropped)) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons