Ireland: home base(s) or keep moving?

In my opinion self-catering is the way to go. You can eat when and what you want to, stay out late, party etc. We used it as our base of operations to explore. Can't beat the flexibility

Hi,

I like the idea of May-June and starting in the south, working your way north.

The distances are not great so if you wish to 'do' for yourselves the home base idea can work. You will save on packing/repacking time but you will give up some of the chance to mingle with the locals that you would have sleeping, eating and drinking in each location. Especailly in Ireland, I would favor B&Bs. Some of our best memories are of the folks we met at B&Bs and pubs along the way - particularly including the music.

If I had 21 days I wouldn't divide them evenly. Something like 9-5-7 might work. It would depend, in part, if this is a first trip.

We found the northern coast of Ireland to be more appealing than we expected.

I second the May-June time frame. Nice weather, everything is open, not too many tourists.

I've done the "keep moving" thing each time I've visited Ireland because I just want to keep seeing more and more. But on my upcoming trip, we're doing the weekly rental approach (two weeks, two rentals), which is usually my preference when traveling.

We spent over three weeks in Ireland last September. Two weeks we were in two self catering cottages the remaining 10 days B&B. We found that self catering places were only available Saturday to Saturday. We had hoped to get one for a shorter period, but could not find one. We took one in Kinsale and one in Ventry (outside Dingle Town). If you want details PM me.

Looking at the prices of B & Bs, they appear to be quite expensive for a "double" compared to a weekly rental. Am I off base here making that statement?

I also found that most self-caterings were only available Saturday-Saturday this June. In May, you may be able to ask for more flexibility. We did find townhomes in Dublin that we were able to rent by the day.

We did self-catering because we had a large group and a lot of kids. We needed the space, and small kids don't do well in restaurants after a day of running around. Plus, eating out in Ireland has gotten pretty expensive, you'll pay around 12 euro for a plate of fish and chips, plus 4 euro for you pint of Guiness. That adds up.

My husband and I had stayed in B&B's when traveling in Ireland before kids. Those are a great experience, too, getting to meet the locals and having a full Irish breakfast.

I'm getting mixed reviews on this so will ask more questions. the reasons we are looking at self-catering as opposed to B & B are: don't have to pack/unpack so often, perhaps cheaper, nice to have a place to come "home" to after a day of travel, more difficult organizing multi-accommodation sites. I'm not sure how the latter would be--if we didn't book ahead would we spend a lot of time looking for a place rather than just sightseeing. I've travelled both ways before and both have worked depending on the country and time of trip.

Ireland has an extensive inventory of B&Bs and several excellent guides to help you locate them so no, in May-June I really don't think that you'll have any problem at all locating lodging.

You really aren't talking about that many added stops. You are now planning on 3; using all B&Bs would add only 3/4 more, plus it would give you considerably more local exposure and flexibility as well as reducing the amount of time spent retracing your routes back to 'home'. Note that B&Bs are easy to reserve. Just phone ahead (or email) with a credit card handy.

B&B prices range all over the place. Remember that the price includes (a rather large) breakfast. When you factor that in the price isn't so bad.

Still, I prefer self-catering when possible, though as others have said Sat-to-Sat is the most common availability so that needs to be workable for you. Since you'll be in Ireland for 4 weeks, why not do a combination of both?

Personally, I find that the B&B thing gets tiring, though you do get to meet local people which is always a plus. But for longer trips I'd definitely try to work in some self-catering accommodations.