Car rental Northern Ireland

General information and regulations

In order to rent a car, you must be at least 21 years old (age may vary by car category) and have held your license for 2 years. Drivers up to 23 and over the age of 70 may incur an additional fee locally. Some rental companies have a maximum age for rental as well: 69 years old.

Seatbelts are mandatory, the same goes for child's seats for children up to 3 years old. Traffic travels on the left and the steering wheel is on the right. Driving on the left side of the road may take some time to get used to, so beware of this when you enter a roundabout.

The speed limits are as follows: in the city 30mph/45kph, on open roads 60mph/95kph and on highways 70mph/110kph.

Driving in Northern Ireland with a rental car

Northern Ireland is relatively compact as a country and exploring it by car is a delight. All of the large cities are easy to reach since the country is only 136 km long and 112 km wide.

The Causeway Coast & Glens offer excellent possibilities for daytrips and most cities are easy to reach from Belfast. A nice trip is going from Belfast to Coleraine (77 km), a small town with the Mount Sandel-fort and a lovely city square.

Furthermore, places such as Newtownabbey (less than 10 km from Belfast) and Ballymena (38 km) are well worth a visit. At 98 km from Belfast lies the town of Bushmills, known for its 'Old Bushmills Distillery', dating back to 1608. It has the oldest whiskey license in the world.

One of the most famous Irish UNESCO sites is located at 3 km from Bushmills. The 'Giant's Causeway' is a unique rock formation that consists of 40,000 basalt columns. These rocks, with their typical hexagonal shape, are believed to be formed 60 million years ago during the eruption of a volcano.

Renting a car in Northern Ireland

At Belfast City Airport and the somewhat bigger Belfast International Airport there are many car rental companies available. You can use the services of Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and National.

Another option is booking a car through EasyTerra. This website compares the rates of well-established car rental companies for your convenience.