Car rental at Shannon Airport (SNN) is about as friction-free as Irish car hire gets: the desks line the arrivals hall to your right as you exit baggage reclaim - Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty among them, joined by Irish independents - and the pickup lot is under five minutes on foot, with no shuttle bus in the equation. Shannon is the natural gateway to the west coast: the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Galway and the Wild Atlantic Way all sit within easy reach, mostly on regional roads that reward a compact car. Two booking notes matter in Ireland: manual transmission is the default - reserve an automatic early if you need one - and Irish rental insurance terms differ from what North American cards assume, so read the excess and CDW terms before the desk, not at it.
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