A week from Saturday we are going to be flying from Shannon, Ireland to the Beauvais Airport in France. I bought tickets on Ryanair-- a decent price and reasonable logistics... I thought.
Our Ryanair flight leaves at 12:05 pm. We can't do their online check-in because we have US passports. (Online check-in is only for EU passport-holders with carryon bags only.)
We are spending Friday night in Killarney, after the conclusion of our walk on the Kerry Way. Killarney is approximately 1-1/2 hours from Shannon Airport.
The walking tour company offers a free shuttle to Shannon Airport on Saturday morning. This would be great, except the shuttle is scheduled to arrive at Shannon at 11 am. (I have been told the actual arrival time is more like 10:45 am.)
That would put us at Shannon about 1 hour and 20 minutes before departure time. The Ryanair website says that the check-in line closes 40 minutes before departure time, so assuming everything goes right, we would have 40 minutes to get checked in.
The Ireland rep of the walking tour company tells me that a taxi to Shannon would cost us 160 euro. I have also looked into getting a rental car in Killarney, and we could do that for about 50 US dollars. I've also asked the Irish rep if we could pay them (or the driver) a little something to leave earlier, but they won't be able to tell me that until we are in Ireland... it depends on how many other people they are shuttling that morning.
So what do you think, especially those of you that know Ryanair or the Shannon Airport? Would you take the risk and go with the free shuttle or do the rental car? (Amazing how this one small detail of a 7-1/2 week trip has occupied my worries!)
Kathy
Slow Travel Talk 
