Book in advance?

Hi! My husband and I will be heading to Ireland in a few days! While planning our itinerary, I noticed that pretty much everywhere we want to visit (mostly castles and the like) want you to book in advance. I understand why, but are they strict about it? I figured we'd just go and book things a day or two in advance because we don't know how things will actually go until we're there (weather, driving, etc), but I'm feeling a bit stressed out about having to book everything in advance -- especially considering some things may end up needing to be skipped due to time or weather, which we won't know until the day of.

Same thing with restaurants... They, too, seem to all want you to make reservations, but you know how traveling goes -- things don't always go as planned. At least with restaurants, that wouldn't require paying in advance, so you don't waste money. But can you not just show up to a restaurant and get a table?

Any advice? I'm more stressed about this trip than I usually am. I guess Covid has changed everything.

Thanks!

Hello Elysia,

It's great to hear that you and your husband will be over with us soon!

As you mentioned, Covid made it a necessity to book in advance as places needed to adhere to strict numbers of people at the location. Most of these restrictions have ended, fortunately, but the advice we would always give is if there is somewhere in particular that you wish to see or eat at on a certain day, that you still book in advance to avoid disappointment.

A lot of attractions offer price reductions when booking online, so this is an advantage too. When there are time slots, again, if you turn up then you may have to wait at a popular location. It really depends on where you are looking to see. It may be worth contacting a specific attraction to see if they are accepting walk-ups as well as pre-booked tickets.

With restaurants, pre-booking is the norm now as they try to recover from the last few years. It is possible to turn up or contact on the day but again, places can be limited. Pubs usually are okay to just arrive at that serve food, plenty of wonderful food on offer at these places too!

Where have you on your itinerary so far for your time with us?

Martin