Hello,
My husband and I may have a last-minute opportunity to travel to Ireland for two weeks (13 days of actual touring time). We did a last-minute trip to Paris in the past, which worked out fine (just had to overpay for plane tickets and didn't use our time the most efficiently due to limited planning time), but have also traveled to destinations (such as National Parks) where it was very difficult to find last-minute lodging or where the most popular tours/activities were sold out in advance. If we choose to travel to Ireland, we were wondering how much difficulty we'd be likely to encounter due to the last-minute-nature of the trip? We know we likely wouldn't be able to obtain the best hotel room or things like that, but are lodging options and activity tickets generally plentiful enough to not prohibit us trying to make this trip happen, or will we be spinning our wheels if we try to go? Which of the most popular activities tend to sell out in advance/require advance planning (I'm thinking of things like, when you're in Florence, one might not get a ticket to the Uffizi Gallery without advance tickets, or in Maui the most popular luau sometimes requires you to reserve before you arrive)? Our plans are still taking shape, but would likely include a few days touring the top sights in Dublin, then a road trip around Galway, County Cork, Dingle Peninsula, and Ring of Kerry with hopefully a castle stay in one of those locations. Sights we'd really like to see so far are mostly the obvious ones: Trinity College/Book of Kells, jail in Dublin, Guinness Tour, Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel, Cliffs of Moher, Newgrange passage tombs, and some other castles/country estates. Thanks in advance!