Bed and Breakfast Guide to Ireland 2003

Rating:
Summary: Good Guide to Bring with You
Review: This book is put together by Town & Country Homes, an Irish company who goes and approves people's homes for quality of accomodation and hospitality. All who pass get in the book and a special Shamrock seal to display outside their home. Most travel guides will tell you that just because a home is not "shamrock seal approved" that does not mean the quality of the B&B is lacking but it's nice to feel you have a back up in case the place you picked in less than par.

The book divides the country into sections (North West, Cork/Kerry, Dublin, etc) then goes through over 1600 B&Bs in each area. Every B&B has its own color photo then lists the owner's name, phone number, email address or web site, the nearest town in kilometers from the B&B, open dates (very important!), symbols for amenities, if they accept travel agents vouchers, the cost for the room per person sharing (pps) and if food is available at the B&B.

The amenity symbols are listed at the beginning of the book and informs you of things like whether credit cards are accepted at the B&B, if parking is available, whether rooms have a tv or if the home is non-smoking and what sort of outdoor activities are nearby/available. Very useful information to have, especially if you have allergies, children or looking for a home that speaks Irish!

Should you not like to do the actual booking yourself you can go through T&C, via the book or web site, and have them do the work for you, for a fee of course.

There are plenty of pages in the back for notes and the book has sections for speakers/readers of Italian, French, German, Swedish, Spanish or the Netherlands. A few ads are included but are not too obtrusive.

T&C also have a web site (TownAndCountry.ie) which displays the exact same information as is in the book but for free. A book however is much more handy and you can bring it with you; especially valuable if you will be traveling during high tourist season and may need several choices due to full B&Bs. The web site has good links for planning your tour to Ireland.