Liane Katz decided to come to Ireland and rent a car. She lived to tell the tale . . .
It sounded a piece of cake. A short hop over the Irish Sea, a pleasant drive through idyllic Irish pastures, and a weekend of pampering and Guinness in Adare.
But the anticipated rest and relaxation break turned nasty - a trial that might well have been avoided had I flown, as originally planned, to Shannon airport, but a few miles away from my destination.
If it started badly - a streaming cold, an early flight, an Aer Lingus "breakfast" of a couple of bourbon creams, and a shaky landing - hope was restored when our quest to find a rental car (a bus ride away from the arrivals terminal) bore fruit.
Mr Hertz was cheery enough and seemed convinced our road trip to Adare, Co Limerick, would take two hours max. Mrs Stena Line had told me it may take three and so we had allowed four before the first of our treatments was booked in at the hotel spa.
One hour in and we're still on the Dublin ring road. I notice with glee that our hire car has a CD player and whip out a soothing selection. Denied! The damn thing doesn't work. I concentrate on map-reading and apologising to my boyfriend whom I've dragged along to sample the delights of the in-house Health and Beauty suite.
When driving in Ireland, don't expect anything larger than a two-lane A-road at the best of times. Look out for those EU signs - they herald a temporary break from the potholes.
Try not to look out for the less optimistic roadside signs informing you of road kills - of the human variety.
Our short country spin was turning into a four-and-a-half hour odyssey of gridlock. Cow trailers. Tractors. Belching lorries. And little villages - woah there, you can't exceed 20mph on those narrow roads.
This was akin to driving to Cornwall on a bank holiday weekend - but locals confirmed that Fridays were always this bad.
Tip no 1: Don't go near a car on a Friday in Ireland.
Tip no 2: When travelling to Adare, fly into Shannon airport, a cool 45-minute drive away.
By the end of my 270-minute drive, Co Limerick became worthy of a rhyming ditty of its own - although most of the ones I came up with in the car can't be repeated here.
From the Guardian's travel section