stannseniors
Registered User
Posts: 26
(9/11/03 11:06 am)

few questions

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I took a few days off from the madness of planning for a few days but I'm back at the helm and starting to think about things. I have a few questions - i know they won't be the last.
Since we are doing the driving around w/o reservations thing I'm concerned about how you go about that. Is it best to get there early, mid afternoon or early evening? Do you just knock on the door and ask if there are vacancies? I thought about asking the previous B&B owner to call ahead for us, do they do that? Is it better to see the place first? How do you find these places?? When they say a "ten minute walk" do they mean that or is it really far?? How hard is it to drive in these little cities? Is it better to part outside the city somewhere and just walk?
There will be more - but any help would be very appreciated!!!!!!!!!

Andrea
Unregistered User
(9/11/03 4:27 pm)

Questions

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Michele will have complete answers, but I can say that I've found a lot of variation when it comes to the accuracy of claims of walking distance. I'd say that the estimates are often wrong, that the distance is greater than what is claimed.

As far as difficulty driving around little towns, it's easy! Have a great trip!

Andrea

Allison
Unregistered User
(9/11/03 4:52 pm)

a few answers

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I'm sure you will get a lot of different opinions on this, but here's my two cents:

Our first and last nights have usually been pre-booked, and we have gone off-season two of our three times. Since I am a nervous nelly about places to stay, (fields are not my style!) we always called ahead in the morning to a b&b in the town we were headed for. Sometimes the owner of the place where you just stayed will be able to recommend a place for you, and many times they have called ahead for us. We often just chose a B&B out of the books we got from either the travel agent (when we used vouchers) or from the Irish Tourist Board. (In the past they have been very good about sending us packages of information from their NYC office, but last April they never came through after several calls.)

This last trip we booked first and last, then the morning of, called the next B&B. We stayed in several that Michele recommended in her book (using last year's edition since we couldn't wait long enough for the 03) and were not disappointed.

We have also seen people knocking on the doors or calling in the late afternoon and early evening, looking for rooms. I have heard many hosts recommending other local homes when they have no room, so there is a pretty good network of owners out there.

Part of the fun for us used to be discovering the B&B once we got in. We one time had a room so small (this was in Blarney) that the toilet was in what used to be a closet, raised about 6 inches - a "throne" we call it here - and we had to drop our drawers in the room and back up to it to sit down. (Dude, didn't you have a similar experience?)

As for walking, we have usually had pretty accurate estimates. We love to walk in Ireland, so if it's really 20 minutes instead of ten, we don't mind.

And driving in the little cities is really easy compared to the larger cities. We usually had no trouble passing through them, and if we wanted to really see the town, we never had trouble parking and we just wandered around on foot. Parking in cities like Dublin and Galway is difficult as well as fairly expensive, plus driving in the cities is tough if you are still not comfortable being on the left side of the road. As has been said many times in the forum, it's a good idea to stay outside of the city and take public transportation in.

You will have a wonderful time!

Allison

cjmford
Unregistered User
(9/11/03 8:42 pm)

reservations or not

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We went in late August, the height of the season, but once there were told that tourism was way down this year. We started planning without reservations, but Michele and others on this forum convinced us that this was not the best thing to do. I suppose it depends on the season you are traveling, how adventurous you are about your accommodations and how much time you are willing to spend looking for a vacancy. Having reservations definitely ties you to a specific place on a specific day, so that is the trade off. Weekends do seem to be a wise time to have reservations, especially in popular sites like Dingle.

As it turned out, we made advance reservations through the internet and phone calls about a week before we left and decided to wing it 2 of the 11 nights. We didn't wind up staying where we had planned on those two nights, settled for something that we wouldn't have done otherwise and paid more than we would have with reservations.

This was our first trip to Ireland and we found it difficult to find the B & Bs, even with locations. The maps are deceiving, they don't use numbered streets and addresses, so it was very different from what we were used to. You find them by heading in the general direction and looking on a street pole for the arrow that has a B & B name on it. Or asking someone in town.

Using the internet allows you to actually view the property, including the rooms, breakfast menu, etc. Michele's recommendations were good and we found others through the internet, recommended by Fodor's, Frommer's, etc. that were also very good.

Whenever we were near a tourist office, I saw many people lined up looking for places to stay. But the tourist offices close early, so you have to time that correctly if you plan on using that service, for which there is a charge. We also didn't use vouchers in order to have maximum flexibility.

With a lot of daylight hours during August, we often toured til 7 pm and then headed for the B & B, always calling ahead to let them know we would be arriving after 6 pm. Otherwise they may let your room go.

I mentioned the ones I stayed in in my email entitled "Back from August trip" in the other section of this forum.

Good luck
P.S. Bring a flashlight. Walking distance to town is sometimes along a dark, narrow road, with traffic in both directions.

Chris

Dude
Unregistered User
(9/11/03 10:14 pm)

Allison's question

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That wasn't me, although I remember someone writing about that. We did have some tiny bathrooms, and since my sisters and I are "traditionally built women" (to quote Precious Ramotswe) we were often challenged in getting a good wash everywhere! But we managed.

DebbieK
Registered User
Posts: 103
(9/12/03 8:30 am)

Re: Allison's question

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I was the one with the bathroom so small you had to step into the shower to pull up your pants . (it was at Laurels in Kilkenny)

I have always had good luck asking the B&B owners ahead of time for directions. I usually explain that I would like very specific directions, as I am not as familiar driving there, and they have all been very good. The few that did not have the best directions, I was able to stop at either the Tourist office, or a gas station or even ask someone walking by, and we got there no problem.

(The directions to Dualla House were so good it almost scared us - Maidread went so far as to mention the 'pedestrian crosswalk' and how many miles from this turn. Loved that place in Cashel ! )

gharborwa
Registered User
Posts: 12
(9/24/03 8:31 am)

B&B reservations

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We just got back from our trip. We had made reservations for each night of our 3 night trip, but actually made some changes while there. In Kenmare, we decided 2 nights was enough and cut our visit short one night, which was fine with our host. We drove through the middle of the Ring of Kerry, ending up in Glenbeigh. Did the same in Ennis when we were disappointed in the room and location. Both owners were fine about our cutting our time short by one day. On finding new places, we just knocked on doors and asked to see a room. We ended up with great spots both times.

stannseniors
Registered User
Posts: 34
(9/24/03 3:24 pm)

few questions

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if you look a the rooms and don't like what you see - what do you say??? How are they with you saying you don't want to stay there?

the other Robin
Unregistered User
(9/24/03 4:00 pm)

Just got back last Saturday

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We just returned from two weeks in Ireland and you are going to love it. By far, driving in the small towns is lots easier and when someone tells you the roads are narrow...think about how small you can imagine them and then shrink them a little more. It is comical. If you stay on what they call the "dual carriageway" NO PROBLEM...just remember to stay on the left. You can always tell a tourist is passing you because their eyes are as big as saucers. We were driving a van so took up more than our share of room. Walking in the small towns is great! If you are a walker you will have no problem. My father in law did not walk so we left him and came back to pick him up. He had fun talking to the locals! As far as B & Bs-we made all our reservations before we left but one fell through. I just got out Michelle's book and looked for another one and figured if they were full, I could get good advice there. I was right! We stayed in one B & B that was ...shall we say...less than perfectly clean...mostly just dust. I was ready to leave right away but decided I needed the whole Irish experience. It turned out to be the best one yet! Excellent breakfast and really nice people. It was a big, old mansion and I think it was hard to keep the cobwebs out of the corners. I think the ceilings were at least 14 ft. If you go with a positive attitude you will have a positively delightful time. In the words of the Irish. "It will be LOVELY!"

Michele Erdvig
ezOP
Posts: 1863
(9/26/03 7:31 am)

Finding B&Bs

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Hi stannseniors,

When searching for a B&B just ring the bell or knock on the door, ask if they have vacancies and tell them what you are looking for i.e. an ensuite room with two beds or a double bed, etc. They will then show you a room. If you don't like it just say that the room doesn't suit you and go on your way to the next B&B. The suitable times to check in are between around 4-6 pm. If the B&B has no-shows they will let their rooms go at 6 pm since that is the hour when reservations expire.

You can also have a B&B that you are happy at call ahead for you in the morning if you know where you want to end up on that day. They usually have a good circle of B&B friends with comparable accommodations.

Thanks everyone for all the great info and tips!

Michele