Hi,
This is my first post to the forum and am excited to finally have a place to get advice and answers to questions.
My wife and I are spending three weeks in Ireland this summer. We've noticed that several of the places we want to visit suggest making advanced reservations. This seems very simple on the surface, but gets more complicated as I look deeper.
We are considering buying passes, such as the Dublin Pass or OPW Heritage Card. These cards essentially pre-pay entry into various sights of interest. When trying to make advanced reservations on-line it seems that we have to pay in advance.
I guess my question is, if we have one of these passes do we need to make advanced reservations? If so, how does this work using a pass?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Jim
Posted by
NM, USA
911 posts
Do yourself a huge favor and buy Rick Steves 2019 Ireland guide book. You can buy here or go to Amazon (Kindle version $17 for instant gratification or paperback on prime is slightly less). Not only worth it for info on various passes but also which sites to bother seeing, transportation details, hotels, food, etc etc. Worth every dime.
The Dublin Pass has a website with lots of detail. Not so much the OPW.
We went to Ireland last summer with a tour group. Some of our favorite sites: Chester Beatty library ( free and more interesting than Book of Kells), walking in St Stephens green and Grafton street, Titanic Museum in Belfast, Kylemore Abbey, driving Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, sheep herding dog demo and a falconry demo.
Posted by
OP
Olympia, WA
2 posts
Thanks cj-traveler,
We actually have the 2019 Rick Steves Ireland. We've identified many things we want to see and do and we've made all of our reservations for accommodations. I didn't really see any specifics in the book on making advanced reservations for attractions and using the passes. I've looked at the details on two of the passes that we may buy. In the descriptions they vaguely hint that at most attractions you can show your pass and just skip the ticket lines and walk straight in. I guess I just want confirmation from someone who has used any of these passes for entry into popular sites. I'd hate to invest in the Dublin Pass, for example, and find that we have to wait in very long lines and possibly miss seeing the attraction all together.
Thanks again for your reply,
Jim
Posted by
NM, USA
911 posts
The only sites i can think of where it might be an issue were Book of Kells (kind of disappointed in), the Guinness storehouse, and Titanic Museum.
Posted by
76 posts
You don't need advance reservations for the Guinness Storehouse or Titanic Belfast. Technically, you don't have to have reservations for the Book of Kells and library...however, the lines do get very long. You can actually go to the Trinity College website and buy 'Fast-track' tickets, which allows you to skip the line and go right in. It's a little more expensive (a few euros), and you have to pick an actual date, but it's worth it. Last time we went we walked right in, while the regular line snaked around the buildings.
If you plan on visiting Kilmainham Gaol - and I highly recommend that you do - you can only do so on a guided tour. And because you're going over the summer, if you don't get tickets ahead of time, odds are you won't get it. Not saying it's impossible...but I wouldn't run the risk of being disappointed when you can get tickets ahead of time. When we went, while we were waiting for the tour to start, four or five people came in and asked if they could join a tour and they told them that all tours for the next two days were full (they only allow a certain number of people on each tour).
Posted by
51 posts
With the OPW Heritage Card you are given the option when making your reservations to indicate that you have the card and thus do not pay in advance you simply show them the card when you arrive. The only advance reservations we made last summer were for Kilmainham Gaol and Newgrange (which at of right now is not taking reservations due to renovations). The Gaol was our first stop so along with checking in for our reserved time we arrived early so that we had time to buy our passes. I just did a mock booking. You will need to scroll down the page to "Show Tickets for" and selected OPW One Year Heritage Tickets to prebook without paying. The Heritage Card will more than pay for itself.