How easy is it to find available rooms if you do not prebook. In other words is it as easy as it is in the U.S. to find accomodations on a day to day basis?

where?

Depends on when you're going.. Assume Ireland, since that's what topic this is under.

July and August are the busiest, so you might want to prebook for conveinence, even though you probably won't have too much problems finding vacancies. In certain areas, like Dublin and some other larger cities, you probably want to prebook for sure.

How can you tell this is under the "Ireland" topic?

Budman
Under TOPICS type in IRELAND and all you get are questions/topics about Ireland.

Thanks, I've always gone to the search engine. I guess it works if someone were to select "Ireland" on the original post.

We were in Ireland just a couple of weeks ago and had no trouble finding places by calling ahead a day or two. We didn't always get our first choice, but there was never a problem finding something.

It is much easier if you please put a location in your heading. We all don't know your travel intentions.

I never pre-book, because I like to see what I'm getting myself into, and I've only once been left stranded without a place for the night in my price-range..

But I also avoid travelling at peak times - July/August in pretty well the whole of Europe, as was pointed out, is not the time to wing it.

Harzer

I would never prebook in Ireland unless I wanted to stay in the city center (Dublin being the exception). The number of accommodations in the city center is less than out in the countryside.

I would try to book 1-2 days ahead in August though as its pretty busy. I live here and we stayed in a few kips because we wnt looking for a place to stay at 7pm! We were both eaten alive by mosquitos in one. It just means if you book ahead you are closer to the villages and the action in the evenings

Mosquitoes? I thought there were no mosquitoes in Ireland? Were they midges?

I pre-book the special places to stay. The interesting thing about Irish B&Bs is that the price range is not great and many of the nicest B&Bs are no more expensive than the lesser quality places.

Now, part of the fun for me is the B&B. I prefer out of the way places in spectacular locations to B&Bs in a town or city. I like a place where the owner likes to chat with the guests as opposed to feeling obligated to do so. That's just me. Some people just want a place to rest their head at night. In that case, other than the high months, you can easily find B&B choices in Ireland without pre-booking.

Many would argue that they don't want to waste time picking out a B&B when they could be sightseeing. Others will argue that you may spend as much time trying to find the B&B that you pre-booked as you would picking one out. Another consideration is how many people you are traveling with. If you are traveling with a group, you would want to pre-book because you could have a difficult time placing everyone in the same B&B.

I'm at a point that I've been to Ireland enough times in most areas that I can easily find the B&Bs that I'm looking for. Also, I know the amount of time I want to spend in an area.

Lastly, as stated earlier, if you are staying in Dublin, especially on a weekend, book as early as you can.

Bill

Thanks for the info on whether to pre-book hotels and/or b&b's in Ireland prior to going. My wife and I plan to be in Ireland the first week in September. I think we will take your advice and pre-book Dublin but wing it the rest of the way. We we also be travelling in England and probably will do the same thing.