soooo much information in the website and forum....please help

Michele Erdvig · Host

RE: soooo much information in the website and forum....please help

guinness · Veteran Member

michele,

waiting for your 2006 edition :)

thanks,

debbie

guinness · Veteran Member

hey michele,

waiting for questions to be answered by many hotels, like....what's the cancellation policy incase of an emergency, what are your 2006 rates, would like to know if your rates are pps or rate for the night (although only a couple of those, most were quite clear).

here are some places i have to choose from:

dublin:

jury's christchurch in dublin - no rooms already! good thing i'm doing now.

so i think we'll stay at the arlington hotel 220 euro for 2 nights (you seem to think that place was ok).

kilkenny:

kilkenny inn hotel

troysgate house

the laurels guesthouse

springhill court hotel

kinsale:

friar's lodge

acton's hotel

dingle:

the mainstay guesthouse

greenmount house

alpine guesthouse

pax house - not sure they are still in business

milltown house

emlagh house

kinvara:

merriman hotel - looked good (the only place that looked ok, do you know of others?)

ennis:

the auburn lodge hotel

queens hotel

soooooooooooooo......hope you are still ok w/ me asking....

like any of these? dislike any?

would love to hear your ideas.

spoke w/ a travel agent today and you can get insurance just on the plane tickets....i can get it on the hotels, if i feel necessary after i find out all the cancellation policys....i can get ins. on the car rental....all food for thought :) errrrrrrr.

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 19:51, 2006-01-25

Michele Erdvig · Host

Debbie,

These are new for Kilkenny:

Laragh House: http://www.laraghhouse.com/ (I really liked the looks of this one & host Helen was lovely)

Alcantra: http://homepage.eircom.net/~alcantra/

As I recall a forum member stayed at the Laurels Guesthouse a year or two back and didn't care for it. Evidently the room was extremely small and there was no sitting room.

Kinsale: Friar's Lodge looks lovely on their website. Also have a look at Kilcaw House: http://www.kilcawhouse.com/ I heard Acton's has recently had a re-do so should be fine.

Dingle:

I loved Emlagh House. If the rates are not too steep for you it is perfect. Others to consider:

Heaton's: http://www.heatonsdingle.com/

Tower View: http://www.towerviewdingle.com/

Dunlavin: http://www.dunlavin-house.com/

Gorman's: http://www.gormans-clifftophouse.com/

Fiuise: http://www.fiuise.com/

Emlagh Lodge (not to be confused with Emlagh House): http://www.emlaghlodge.com/

Kinvara: I don't have any personal recommendations for Kinvara. I do have some good recommendations for Ballyvaughan, which is not too far away if you are interested.

Ennis: Take a look at Old Ground Hotel and Temple Gate. They are right in the thick of things and you can walk to everything from either.

You might try this site for trip insurance: http://www.insuremytrip.com/ You don't have to get it through your travel agent.

Michele

guinness · Veteran Member

michele,

need, to check out all those recommendation, thanks so much :)

just got an email from:

merriman hotel - looked good (the only place that looked ok, do you know of others?) THEY'RE BOOKED SOLID :( of course the only place that i have no back-up.

so yes, any help in the kinvara area would be great! wow, i can't believe that the choices have to be made probably by today or tomorrow or we won't get into places we like.

responses have been coming in from the hotels, i'm very impressed that they respond so quickly or at all.

debbie

guinness · Veteran Member

michele,

You might try this site for trip insurance: http://www.insuremytrip.com/ You don't have to get it through your travel agent. so many choices....pretty scary.

booked my flight to dublin from boston and shannon to dublin. it went up $30pp since last night! so i decided to book this am.

lots of hotels/guesthouse/b&b's don't have availability that had it 1-2 days ago, so really had to make all my decisions today w/ out losing out on other great options. so.....

i booked arlington hotel in dublin for the 6/6-7

emailed to book laragh house to book 6/8-9 hope that will be ok

booked the friar's lodge in kinsale for the 10th

waiting for gorman's clifftop to email back....looks great. the emlagh lodge only has a small room w/ a double bed left (did have large ones w/ king), but w/ a great view of bay and harbor and a big bathroom.
what did you think of greemount house? which is best for location? that would be the 11th and 12th.

would love advice on ballyvaughan, kinvara won't work (apparently i tried for the ONLY hotel in the town). you mentioned you had a lot of advice there, would love it. need to research it. that would be the 13th and 14th

ennis: down to the temple gate hote and the queens hotel. seem like both are close to town and the airport. have you seen the website w/ the queens hotel? why do you like the old ground hotel better than others? that would be the last night the 15th

your advice has been invaluable, thanks so much. i can't say it enough.

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 08:35, 2006-01-26

-- Edited by guinness at 09:31, 2006-01-26

-- Edited by guinness at 09:44, 2006-01-26

-- Edited by guinness at 19:21, 2006-01-26

Michele Erdvig · Host

Debbie,

Thanks for the email. I think that all your postings have gone through now. The forum has something called a post flood safety check, which means that people posting in a rapid-fire manner can be frozen out from posting for a period of time. It is actually a safety method to keep spamers from flooding the forum with junk. Sorry it locked you out this time!

Ballyvaughan:

Drumcreehy House: http://www.drumcreehyhouse.com/

Rusheen Lodge: http://www.rusheenlodge.com/

Cappabhaile House: http://www.cappabhaile.com/

Dingle:

I understand Greenmount House is undergoing renovations. You might want to check with them on that. Gorman's is not near Dingle town but about 10 miles away on the north shore. The others I posted are near Dingle town. FYI, Emlagh House has very large rooms.

Michele

Melissa5 · Guru

guinness: I researched buying trip insurance on-line before our trip to Costa Rica. The site you mentioned was highly recommended by many people I chatted with on-line. www.insuremytrip.com I sent a couple of inquiries to them and was impressed with the answers they gave me. I never did buy the insurance, but only because it was a stressful time for us, poor hubby's father was in the final stages of Alzheimer's, and he actually died and we had the funeral right before our trip. But because it was such a long illness, everyone had pretty much come to terms with it long before the funeral. Therefore we went ahead and went to Costa Rica. I think it was a healing trip for hubby, who is a biologist.

So I will probably buy travel insurance from www.insuremytrip.com for our Ireland trip. Unless anybody has another suggestion? Frommers travel guide suggests Travel Guard, which is one of the companies offered under www.insuremytrip.com If you purchase the insurance within 10 days after you make your first payment for any part of your trip, then you are even covered for pre-existing medical conditions. (But you aren't allowed to purposely plan a trip just to get medical procedures done, it is stated in the rules.) You estimate the cost of your trip and purchase insurance based upon that estimate, you don't wait until everything is paid for before buying the insurance. I asked about this and that is the info I got. You only insure the parts of the trip that have to be pre-paid and would be therefore lost if something happened. (So you don't insure things that you will buy as you go.)

Anybody with more info on insurance I'd love to hear it also.

One thing I do is, when researching accomodations, if I like several of them, I will choose the one with the best cancellation policy, just in case of emergency, even with insurance, I just like the extra safeguards when they are available.

guinness · Veteran Member

melissa5,

so sorry to hear about your father-in-law. i have several students who have dealt w/ this disease, my thoughts are w/ you and your family.

you are just the person i was going to email today! thanks so much for your advice on the travel insurance, i'll research it today and since the hold on my tickets to fly were being put thru this am.... guess w/ that company the time is ticking.

so where did you decide to stay in ballyvaughn? anything in that area that you researched that you can't wait to go to?

debbie

Melissa5 · Guru

Debbie, thanks for your sympathy. It is really a more peaceful time now that hubby's Dad has gone on hopefully to a better place where I believe he has rejoined his memories.

As for Ballyvaughan, I chose to stay at Drumcreehy b&b, (might be called drumcreehy house), recomended by Michelle, partly because it's right on the N67 coastal road, and I wanted a nice family-run b&b which we could find in the dark after enjoying the pubs with hubby and 2 young adult daughters! So drumcreehy is down the N67 from Kinvara, where we will enjoy the Dunguaire castle medieval banquet. Even though it's on the coastal road it's set back a bit from the road and is across the street from a beach which we can walk to. Also it seemed a convenient drive from there to the Cliffs of Moher as well. I also went on AA roadwatch web-site and checked the driving time to Kilfenora, where I hope to enjoy set dancing in the barn at Vaughan's. Mark is right a lotta great music pubs in County clare.

Plus The Burren is in County Clare, near to Ballyvaughan, and hubby is a biologist and most interested in the Burren. Plus the Aillwee caves are close by. Plenty to do!

And if that's not enough, from Drumcreehy which is about a mile outside the village of Ballyvaughan, it's about an hour's drive to Galway, in case we want to get to a bigger town. Plenty of choices!

Nearby Lisdoonvarna also has pubs and is a spa town though I don't think we will bother with the spa, I haven't checked into it.

If we wanted to go to the ARan islands we can get a boat from Doolin, but I don't think we will have time.

I like to pick a base b&b with lots of choices of good day-trips. We do something in the morning and have some free time in the afternoon. Then we do something in the evening. Works out great with a family.

What are you up to so far? The other places I had considered staying in County clare were Rusheen Lodge and oh darn I forget the name of the other place. I'll remember tomorrow. Had insomnia tonight but it's wearing off!

-- Edited by Melissa5 at 08:25, 2006-01-27

Melissa5 · Guru

Debbie I will double-check the names of those roads I mentioned in County Clare tomorrow. I am so tired right now. The information I just posted is correct except I recited the names of the roads from memory, my books aren't handy right here. I will check tomororw or maybe Michelle will beat me to it. Good night!

guinness · Veteran Member

hey melissa (and all who can help me if you heard of these),

where do you live that it's night time?

i've been on the computer for the last couple of hrs. today already at 8:45am and have come up w/ choices from:

hylands burren hotel...130 euros a night, about 320 usd for two nights. does anyone know how far it is from the center of town? any reviews of the hotel? great reviews from trip advisor.

gregan's castle hotel...way too expensive... 180 euro/night

cappabhiaile house....they haven't emailed me back yet...although a mile from town

rusheen lodge....right in town and all reviews on trip advisor, esp. people from places i know where they live and what they might expect, sounds really good. they haven't emailed back yet either (although i only emailed them last night-emailed again just now, just to make sure they got it - 12pm).

and then the one you decided on the drumcreehy house (14 day ahead cancellation policy, longest ahead i found yet, they just emailed back, but they do have a room "so far"). obviously the last 3 choices are the most economic ones.....

we are two adults, no kids w/ us. pubs are a definite for the pm for dinner/drinks....but we also hope that if we did choose some place like the rusheen lodge that it would be quiet enough to sleep.

if anyones knows ennis:

ennis: down to the temple gate hote and the queens hotel. seem like both are close to town and the airport. have you seen the website w/ the queens hotel? why do you like the old ground hotel better than others?

dingle:

down to heatons: still waiting for an email about avail.

emlagh lodge...will stay in one room one night and switch to a bigger room the 2nd night.

very confused.

thanks for your responses :)

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 09:11, 2006-01-27

-- Edited by guinness at 09:22, 2006-01-27

-- Edited by guinness at 12:49, 2006-01-27

guinness · Veteran Member

hey michele,

finally nailed down the 8th and 9th at the laragh house, the host, helen seems very nice in her email....

still trying to figue out ballyvaughn, as i wrote to melissa, but have come narrowed things a bit.

dingle: i do realize that the gorman's clifftop is too far away from town as you mentioned...wish you didn't show me, seems very picturesque. do you think its worth it at the emlagh lodge to switch rooms (1st night small and 2nd bigger)? seems like that place is really great, is it? or should i keep waiting for the heatons to respond?

had to "bite the bullet" and go w/ the travel agent who booked by flight for the temple gate hotel in ennis....they have a great rate of 134 euro per room for one night, the best i could do was 154 euro for the same w/ a "aaa" rate.

have you heard of http://www.alpineguesthouse.com/ just looking for backups incase i'm too late for something.

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 13:24, 2006-01-27

Melissa5 · Guru

Hey Debbie, I live in San diego and my insomniac night was...ummm...morning actually. I was still on the computer at 5:00 am. I had gone to bed and stared at my thoughts for hours, given up on sleep, and returned to my new home, Michelle's web-site full of on-line friends and a fabulous mirage of Ireland available at any hour. Thanks guys!

Mom was in the hospital, but she's okay. She did it on purpose to get me back for all those sleepless nights I gave her as a crying babe.

Guiness, you're not confused at all, you sound just like me. You are just thorough! I also considered Hyland's, Rusheen Lodge, Cappabhaile, all good choices it seems to me. I too worried that if I stayed at a place with a fun pub I wouldn't get sleep, too noisy maybe. But you have to know your own temperament. My daughters sleep through earthquakes. Hubby snores in movie theatres. Me, I'm easily kept awake at night, so in Ireland I will be sleeping everywhere except for Westport, where I'll probably be awake anyway so might as well have a 72-hour party

Just promise us you won't drink and drive. We need you and your trip report!

guinness · Veteran Member

hey melissa5,

what's up w/ your mom? is she going to be ok?

i think i need to call the rusheen lodge (although i am a light sleeper)....maybe the hylands....., they haven't emailed me yet! do you think that this place is best?

what atlas and maps do you have? are yours any of these? http://www.maps2anywhere.com/Maps/Ireland_road_map.htm

are you scared about driving there? fodor's say's ireland is the 3rd worst amongst the original 15 eu countries on road accident freq. & has the highest atto fatality rate in europe! makes me a bit nervous :( as i am researching getting a car. makes me want a suv! that would guzzle the $5.00/gallon pretty fast, don't you think.

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 14:21, 2006-01-28

-- Edited by guinness at 14:22, 2006-01-28

-- Edited by guinness at 14:36, 2006-01-28

-- Edited by guinness at 16:51, 2006-01-28

Michele Erdvig · Host

Debbie,

Sounds like things are taking shape. Be patient and it will all come together. Send another email to Heaton's. There have been problems emailing Ireland lately. Try again at all places that have not answered.

As for walking at night; buy a small (but very bright) flashlight that will fit in your pocket. You absolutely should have one for your trip anyway. Definitely use it when walking at night. Also try to wear something light-colored.

As for car accidents in Ireland, it is mostly locals. They tend to drive like mad because they "know" the roads. Problem is even if they know the roads there is always something unexpected around the bend. That's when they run into trouble. They also tend to drive a lot faster than tourists.

I have not seen the Alpine Guesthouse in Dingle for some time. I understand it has been remodeled and I need to re-visit to see what it is looking like now.

Michele

P.S. Melissa, Hope your mother is home from the hospital and doing fine.

Melissa5 · Guru

Debbie and Michelle, thanks for asking about Mom. Ladies, listen to this. Mom thought she had a cold for a week. Chest hurt.

But then one day she was sitting down and felt pain squeezing her arm and shooting down her arm. She then realized she had a bigger problem than a cold...it was a heart problem all along. Symptoms for women are often subtle like that and can be mistaken for a cold or heartburn, but the pain in the arm part is a sign of a heart problem, I believe it's pain in the left arm (combined with squeezing feelings in the chest which may feel like a cold or heartburn) . Dad took her to hospital and they did an angiogram. She hadn't had a heart attack yet but she would have, one artery was 99% blocked. They fixed it with 3 stints (stents?). She is home and fine now.

I tell you ladies this long story because I have learned that signs of heart problems for women are often different than they are for men.

I sat visiting with Mom yesterday, thinking, we should all enjoy our moments with family. They are precious gifts for today.

Oops have lost track of the Ireland conversation now. Enjoy Ireland with your families, everybody!

Guiness, I think you were asking about driving in Ireland. I'm not scared because we drove in Costa Rica, where roads are also narrow, and full of potholes and rocks, and there aren't guard rails on any of the mountain curves either!!! Driving anywhere is hazardous, can't believe how freaking bad some people drive on our southern Cal freeways. Put my life in danger here every time I get on the freeway.

So, Guiness, I think you have to try to figure out how to minimize the driving dangers on any vacation. Normal precautions. These are some of the precautions I am taking:
1. Flying into shannon first because you are learning to drive on the left out in the country instead of in Dublin area traffic.
(If I was flying into Dublin first, I wouldn't plan on driving. I would get a taxi to hotel. The next day when I rented a car I would choose a route out of the city traffic into the countryside. I hear Trim is a relatively easy drive from the Dublin airport for example.)
2. When our plane lands in Shannon and we have jet leg, we will be staying close by for 1 night so that we can be fresh and rested the next morning to take our first longer drive to dingle.
3. We're renting an automatic because driving on the left will be challenging enough.
4. I have a good map...Ordered it on-line. It's a multi-page road atlas for Ireland, including Gaelic names of towns. "The Complete Road Atlas of Ireland", by Ordnance Survey Ireland. Also has an index in the back. It is spiral bound. The web-site you are looking at seems expensive, Guiness. Try this one: www.irishmaps.ie Price for the map I bought is 12.50 euros...don't remember postage charge. It has 107 pages including index. Also has road signs.
5. Don't drive too far in one day and break up the drive with stops. (Tired drivers make mistakes.) For us, hubby is the best driver in a new country. (I think I am a better driver at home but he is better in unfamiliar places.) For Ireland I have planned our longest drives to be about 4 or 5 hours (not including stops.) If we break this up with stops the driver will be alert.
6. Read trip reports to familiarize yourself with what sorts of driving situations to prepare for, and get a vehicle that is best suited for those situations.

Okay enough of my driving lecture! Guiness I guess my answer is I do worry about transportation safety, I learn about it for a new country and make transportation decisions accordingly. (In Italy we didn't drive at all. But we were mostly going to big cities which have excellent train connections, so we didn't drive. The train was safer.) But in Ireland we're going mostly to villages and we need a car. (I wouldn't drive in Dublin, that's asking for trouble in my opinion. Neither did we attempt driving in Rome.)

Stay safe everybody and have fun!

-- Edited by Melissa5 at 02:30, 2006-01-29

Michele Erdvig · Host

Melissa,

I'm glad to hear your mother is out of danger and the problem was caught before it did any more damage. That is enough to keep you up all night. Thanks for sharing the symptoms for women. You never know....

Michele

guinness · Veteran Member

hey michele,

thanks for getting back to me.

all hotels and air are set.

dublin - arlington hotel

kilkenny- laragh house

kinsale- friar's lodge

dingle - emlagh lodge (only wants cash, thought that was odd, what do you think? why not even traveler's checks?)

ballyvaughan - hylands burren hotel (between your website, fordor's and trip advisor i picked this and dingle....the later two all last night, frantic).

ennis - temple hotel

called all hotels this am to confirm all the online reservations.

air is all set. just car rental (arlington hotel said that they have a discount w/ thrifty that is only a few doors down, seeing tomorrow if the travel agent will beat that price) and travel insurance. oh, and of course restaurants....any suggestions? we don't have ecletic palates, but good food only (italian, fish and chips, chicken, steak, burgers, seafood). would love to find a traditional pub w/ great pub food, all that are sup. to be great were in this great website for the best pubs w/ food, i forget it off hand, but a lot of them were quite ecletic.

now looking into "traditional pubs in all places" found two great websites: www.irishmusicbars.com and www.virtualtourist.com, for great traditional music. some websites just showed pubs, some were like the "euro ones" (much more modern) in the u.s., not what i'd be looking for. would love to know what anyone thinks are the best in the areas i'm staying.

very excited that if by chance i don't get to the aran islands due to inclement weather that galway isn't that far and that i can still go to a clanarans to get a sweater they have a store that sells them in killarney, kenmare, and kinsale.

have you ever heard about the literary pub crawl? www.dublinpubcrawl.com? good reviews?

when do you think i should order the heritage card? do they change from each season? or it goes by each year and we'd get the new 2006?

great to hear from you,

debbie

guinness · Veteran Member

melissa,

wow, so glad that they caught that in time with your mother. i guess all the warnings about the way we see symptoms (women), are right on the button, very scary. so sorry you and your family are going thru so much.

thanks for all that advice about driving, i will take it all :)

thanks for the map and atlas advice, going to look at it right after i write you. did you look at the Thomas Guide (i think that's from CA), what did you think of that?

if you get a chance could you look at my posted reply to michele and see if you have any ideas, you seem to have awesome ideas floating around. apparently neither you or i have stopped thinking about our trips very much.

debbie

Michele Erdvig · Host

Debbie,

It's great that your reservations are made and you are now moving on to renting your car. You asked about Emlagh Lodge in Dingle wanting cash for payment. This is quite common at B&Bs. They are "mom & pop" places that only have a few rooms. Many will accept a credit card to confirm and reserve a room but you must pay in cash when there. Few places in Ireland (even hotels, etc.) take traveler's checks. The fees for exchanging them is too high to absorb.

As for restaurants, you will have plenty of good moderately priced recommendations in my book. If you need additional ones afterward you can post then.

Michele

Melissa5 · Guru

Debbie, it sounds like you have thought everything out and planned well. It's going to be a great trip!

As for the map of Ireland, I chose the one I mentioned above because a friend I met on fodors has been to Ireland numerous times, and her hubby is from Ireland, and it is the one she recommends. Therefore I didn't even consider any of the other maps. Since my map arrived in the mail, I have consulted it several times for various reasons, and have found it to be a great map. The only way it would be improved is if it were waterproof! (Of course once we are actually driving around in Ireland, that will be the real test of this map!

)

You could also ask Michele which map she uses, she has been to Ireland more times than anybody I know! (I had already bought my map when I found Michele's web-site.)

You will like Michele's book. When I find that my big pile of guidebooks and miriad of web-sites gets confusing, I like to take out Michele's book, because for each area that she covers, she has recommended lodgings, restaurants, and sites to visit, enough to make it interesting, yet not so many that it's overwhelming. She also mentions whether restaurants have moderate or expensive prices, for example, very handy.

guinness · Veteran Member

hey mark!

so finally have the whole thing planned w/ accomodations, plane, car rental and even trip insurance :)

so now to the fun things like pubs. looking for mostly the traditional pubs. you mentioned that after i have the itinerary all set that you might be able to help me more, i'd love all the help you can give.

we are going the beginning of june and will be going to:

dublin (2 nights), kilkenny (2 nights), kinsale (1), dingle (2), ballyvaughan (2)....couldn't get a room in kinvara, and ennis for our last.

i have this great website of traditional pubs and printed out a bunch of pages, but that's all they are at the moment. http://www.irishmusicbars.com/galway/greensbar.asp

this website was what i found before the above site and that showed other pubs (but this was only in dublin that i searched in this site), but it showed several that weren't on the other websites lists).

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Ireland/County_Dublin/Dublin-296021/Nightlife-Dublin-Traditional_Pubs-BR-1.html

looking forward to some "pub clarity"

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 10:55, 2006-02-06

guinness · Veteran Member

hey melissa :)

hope things are going a bit better...what's the update with the family?

You only insure the parts of the trip that have to be pre-paid and would be therefore lost if something happened. (So you don't insure things that you will buy as you go.) One thing I do is, when researching accomodations, if I like several of them, I will choose the one with the best cancellation policy, just in case of emergency, even with insurance, I just like the extra safeguards when they are available. great advice :) i did go w/ travel guard and it only cost $94 for two people for the 9 days. i did ask for all the cancellation policies and realized that i only had to cover the first hotel all the others i could cancel right before i leave and i'd be all set (only one is 72 hrs, all others are 24-48 hrs. notice!). the car insurance is covered by my platinum mastercard. and since i booked it, as you suggested, before the 15 day cut-off period for pre-exisiting medical conditions, i got that too....along w/ coverage for the flights. thanks so much for that info, it helped me move right along w/ the right stuff :)

ordered the atlas that you suggested, just moments ago. any other road maps that you think might help?

got the car rental the other day....decided that since i'm used to a 4x4...we went w/ a bigger car and the whole thing of throwing things in and out of the car while traveling (clothes, purchases, luggage, etc....), don't want to have to be too cramped. got a great deal from thrifty.ie (called them), and they had a deal w/ the arlington hotel we we staying at 400 euros for 9 days. only extra will be 60 euro for drop off at another location and extra driver fee (8 euro/day). no one could beat this deal, they told me to take it and run :)

debbie

-- Edited by guinness at 11:54, 2006-02-06

guinness · Veteran Member

michele,

so....the cash thing. i'm so used to getting traveler's checks and only carrying a little cash.

sounds like it will be mostly cash...is that the case w/ all the pubs as well or will they take any payment? i didn't think it would be too safe to drive or walk around w/ a lot of cash, but i assume that the bank of ireland isn't in every small town (where you say there aren't extra fees), how do you handle this problem? can you charge the remaining balance on your credit card at the hotels that accepted them orginally for "holding" the reservation?

debbie

guinness · Veteran Member

melissa,

never been to CA....was sup. to go the summer after 911, but got scared, since that's where one of the planes were going (the whole lots of gas thing)....so trying the trip to ireland and if all goes well, the following summer CA :) i know it's silly, but.....

heard that san diego is beautiful would love to see it. apparently CA takes many trips to see....so many places to go! this is my first trip abroad since i was 15 or so, and there are so many countries i'd like to go back to or ones to see for the 1st time.

debbie

Michele Erdvig · Host

Debbie,

Go to my "Money" & "Tips & Tricks" pages for lots of info about the best way to handle it on your trip. Traveler's checks are a bit outdated but since I get them free at AAA I always take some as an emergency back up. Your most favorable rates are using your ATM card for getting cash at Irish banks and using a credit card whenever possible (don't get suckered into the dynamic currency conversion).

Pubs that serve food generally accept credit cards. However, you need to ask in advance at your lodgings. Hotels take CCs but many B&Bs do not and prefer cash. Even if B&Bs accept a CC for making a reservation you may have to pay cash.

If you do get traveler's checks get them in US dollars. You will have to exchange them inside Irish banks and there are charges and commissions for doing that. ATMs at Irish banks do not add extra charges.

Michele

guinness · Veteran Member

michele,

thanks for the tips :) i'll contact all the hotels/b & b's and ask what their payment policies are.

thanks again,

debbie

stewh · Guru

Hi,

Re: had to "bite the bullet" and go w/ the travel agent who booked by flight for the temple gate hotel in ennis....they have a great rate of 134 euro per room for one night, the best i could do was 154 euro for the same w/ a "aaa" rate

I recently booked into the Temple Gate for May on advice from this forum. You may want to try http//www.hotelclub.net to see what kind of prepaid deal you can get.

Also, a couple of years ago we stayed in Kilkenny for a few nights at Butler Court. Great place in a perfect quiet location in the center of town. They do not serve a hot breakfast but I would highly recommend this friendly spot. http://www.butlercourt.com/index.html

regards, Stewart