Please recommend a travel agent who specializes in Ireland?
 

My husband and I will be traveling to Ireland in either March or September. Could you please recommend a TA to help us in our quest? We're considering either a B&B self-drive vacation or a Hotel Self-drive. I've emailed several agencies but haven't had much luck getting a response. Also, if you could recommend towns we could stay at, that would be wonderful. We've been before, but we'd like to try some new places this time around. Thanks.

12travel.ie specializes in Ireland. I would consider using this site (Fodors) for information and you will get a better deal. I would lean away from vouchers for B&Bs. Although some have liked them, I've NEVER heard someone say that the prefer vouchers to paying separately. Even if you have vouchers, you'll need to book the rooms yourself.

I suggest B&Bs over hotels. More personal service and much less expensive. You can find lots of recommendations here for B&Bs. The combo room and car rental deal is almost always more expensive than booking separately.

You are likey to get better deals in March than in Sept with the exception of St. Patrick's Day week. If you live near one of the Aer Lingus hubs (Boston, NY, Chicage, Baltimore or LA) you might be able to get a better price with a package deal through CIE (http://www.cietours.com/)or perhaps directly through Aer Lingus. I would still check flight prices and room prices separately.

We just booked our Ireland honeymoon with Lynotttours.com. We got an absolutely fantastic deal. I have also heard that CIE tours and Sceptre Tours are also good.

For each of our three trips to Ireland we have booked our airfare with a TA. (local NY outfit, Celtic Tours.) On our last trip we bought a package including car and vouchers for B&Bs.

That said, we will probably not use vouchers again. If you go in March, you will not have too much trouble finding places who will take them, but there were a couple of places where we would like to have stayed but who didn't take them. Another very lovely place accepted them, and later we learned that they got back less than half their normal price when the vouchers were redeemed. For some reason I thought using vouchers would be more convenient, but it wasn't.

Why not try pricing out some B&Bs in areas where you think you would like to stay and compare prices for the packages, assuming someone contacts you! (If it has been days and you've had no response, I would suggest calling.)

Check out http://www.irishvacationrental.com for self catering vacation rentals in Ireland