My boyfriend and I am going to Ireland for 7 days (the last week of September) and staying in Westport, Galway, Shannon and Roscommon. I have been trying to reserve B&B's ahead of time using the provided e-mail address. Unfortunately, noone is responding to my reservation requests by e-mail. I don't have long distance service on my phone anymore because of my cell phone so I cannot call them. My boyfriend and I don't want to stay in a hotel at all. I am worried about going to Ireland without reservations but my boyfriend (who lived in Ireland for a summer) says that we can easily get accomodations once we get there. What should I do? Take his advice and book B&B's once I get there or find a way to make reservations by phone?

I wrote my post too quickly and forgot some information. We are also staying in Donegal Town, along with Westport, Shannon, Galway and Roscommon.

you are staying in a different place every night?

No. Staying 1 night in Westport, 2 nights in Galway, 2 in Donegal Town and 1 night in Shannon.

If you do not want to take the chance, you could buy one of those prepaid phone cards that they sell everywhere (Sam's Club and Costco spring to mind). You can use them from any phone.

I am not one to travel by the seat of my pants and reserve as I go along. But your boyfriend has some experience, so maybe he feels comfortable doing this.

Good idea. I would be comfortable booking at least our first night's accomodation rather than leaving it to chance.

I bring my cell phone (with international roaming) and , with a list of phone numbers and locations accumulated at home, I phone ahead a day or so before, once I'm there. At times, I've even arrived at a town or destination and made 2 or 3 calls, then decided where to stay, having the luxury of a visual inspection first.

Give them some time. In my experience, B&Bs do not see any need to respond instantaneously to e-mails and can take up to a week to reply. Also, make sure that your spam-screening level isn't set too high.

Buy a prepaid long distance phone card at Wal-Mart. Call about a week in advance to make a reservation for your arrival date.

Get Phone numbers of B&B's you might want to stay off the Internet - take a list with you. Then buy an Eircom Phone card when you get there (not the kind where you have to dial an 800 number - the kind with an I/C chip on the card). You should be able to call the day before (that time of year) and reserve a B&B. Just don't try for west Clare (Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival) the last week of Sep or the first week of Oct.

How long ago did you email them. Sometimes it can take several days for them to get back to you. I booked 8 different B&Bs in Ireland for my upcoming trip and all of them did eventually respond, even those that were full. On previous trips (other countries) I've experienced an occassional place that doesn't bother to respond but the vast majority do. If they don't respond try a different B&B, there are so many. But even though late September is less busy than August I would still try to get them booked ahead.

I'm surprised you are not having any luck with the e-mail method! I booked all 4 of our overnights by e-mail without any problem three years ago. If you've waited long enough...try sending again? Good luck!

Thanks for your feedback. I have decided to book our first two nights in advance (calling from the U.S. using a phone card) and then waiting until I get there to book the rest. A nice compromise, I hope. I will also wait 1-2 more weeks to hear back from those B&B's I sent e-mails to . Thanks for your posts!

I'm sorry I didn't see this until now. We were in Ireland in June and I can assure you that you will not need reservations beyond the first night (excpet maybe for Dublin). B&Bs are everywhere, and we never stayed in one that was sub-par. For the most part they better than England's and more modern. You shouldn't have any trouble finding vacancies.

Do the B&B's in Ireland have pvt baths?

Most of then do have private bathrooms, but some don't. You need to look for "en suite" which means the bathroom is located within the room and not down the hallway.

I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who doesn't get responses to emails to Ireland. I'm going next weekend and still haven't heard from many of the B&Bs I emailed. It's really stressing me out.

If you are getting stressed out, just give them a call. From my experience the b&b owners usually email back once, maybe twice but are not real chatter boxes. There have been times when I didn't get a response, so I just moved onto the next choice which is their losss, especially this time of year. Just have a nice trip and don't fret the b&b situation.