Ireland using pre-paid B&B vouchers or cash/credit card?

We don't recommend pre-purchasing vouchers, since they'll limit your selection of accommodation. Cash and credit cards have you covered for all situations. Rick's Ireland guidebooks recommend B&Bs in the towns he covers. Many other search engines will also find B&Bs, such as https://visitireland.hotelsireland.com/ and https://www.bandbireland.com/ and others.

We traveled through Ireland 15 years ago using vouchers, when finding accommodations on the internet was in its infancy and we relied on the B&B catalog type books for listings, but I'd never do that now. Even three years after that first trip, we didn't use the vouchers and just reserved as we went. We were there in off season, though. I would reserve in advance directly with the B&B. I'd expect they'd mostly accept credit cards or paypal. Just google the town name and B&B, or use trip advisor listings. There will be a ton of them. Read the comments and pick one that looks good. If they don't have an online reservation system, send them an email. Easy peasy.

Our B&B in Dingle accepted only cash, so ask and be prepared.

Our B&B in Doolin and in Dingle only took cash. They made this clear on their website, I located them through Tripadvisor. Up in Doolin there are not any ATM's so we had to plan in advance to have cash in hand. There were two ATM's located at bank locations in Dingle, easy and for my piece of mind I like the bank sites better (probably unfounded concern). There are a lot of ATM's all over Ireland so if you have a debit card you can get some cash. I use Schwab checking (free) for my travel ATM and they charge no fees for checking, debit, and they refund any fee that the ATM locations may charge for usage, great deal, easy to use. I signed up for the debit card online, no hassle thru Schwab, you have plenty of time until September to open a checking and brokerage account (which they require, also free). Euro's come straight from your checking thru ATM. We also visited a few pubs/restaurants in the rural areas that only took cash so have some Euro's in hand and ask. Be sure to ask the last B&B you stay in if they will take your final Euro's to "top off" the price of the B&B so you don't bring Euros back home.

Thanks everyone. Keep your advice and recommendations coming, 👍👍

Looks like we're better off using cash, credit card, and debit card to pay for our B&B"s, restaurants, as we go. Doolan, and Dingle, are definitely on our bucket list. Thanks for the tip, re: no ATM in Doolan. 👍 Itinerary includes: Dublin, Donegal, Galway, Kinsale, Cork/Cobh, Mayo, Kenmare. Kilkenny, Northern Ireland. Our Itinerary is open ended since will be in Ireland for 25 days. We're flying in and out of Dublin Airport.

So, it seems, the consensus is: B&B vouchers are not a good way because of the limited B&B"s that accept them? It's better to pay as we go? Even though pre-paid vouchers avoids putting too much on the credit and debit cards when in Ireland?

We're planning for 4 nights hotel in Dublin when we arrive. Then pick up a rental car at Dublin Airport for the rest of our trip.

Has anyone used Lynott Tours in USA for making pre-paid reservations car rental and Dublin hotel? Or is it easy enough to make the car and Dublin hotel reservations myself directly through sources like Trip Advisor, Hotels.com, for booking our Dublin hotel, and B&B"s? And for booking car rental through car rental company's in Ireland as recommended in Rick Steves Ireland 2017 Guidebook.

We are Using Rick Steve's Ireland 2017 Guidebook for B&B recommendations, sights to see, etc.

Visiting Ireland is a trip of a lifetime. My wife is of Irish heritage, and she's interested in finding her family's genealogy immigration from Ireland to the USA.