On the Road with Reid 'Round Ireland: Bed, Breakfast, and Beyond (cont'd)

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Beyond the B&B
Frankly, proper hotels in Ireland are often pricey and, with the exception of historic ones, usually bland. Good thing there are so many B&Bs then! But if you're traveling on your own and tire of the B&B scene after a while, there are a few other options aside from over-priced hotels.

Ireland has got to be one of the most be-hosteled countries in Europe. I don't think there was a single village we drove through that didn't have at least one guest hostel, usually prominently located on the main road in town.

Hostels—communal living for all ages, though still patronized largely by backpacking youths—these days offer both the large-room-o-cots arrangement as well as smaller private rooms for a bit more, and sometimes you don't even have to walk down the hall to a large, shared bathroom (though folks in the dorms usually do). Travelers gather in the lounge to picnic and exchange tips and swap stories and form little gangs to head out in search of a good pub or three for the evening. Rates for a dorm bed range from €9 to €15 (€15 to €23 in Dublin), for private rooms €9 to €30 (€20 to €36 in Dublin).

The vast majority of these hostels are run independently of the Hostelling International body, though they do have some 32 on offer perusable at www.irelandyha.org. However, most of those are also listed on two biggest networks which collect together dozens of hostels into single on-line brochures and booking networks: www.hostels-ireland.com (reps 127 properties) and www.hostellingireland.com (offers 105).

Even cheaper, and sometimes more scenic is camping—though, given the downright Biblical amount of rain being dumped on me, I'm not wild about the prospect of doing that right now. Maybe come summer plopping down a tent would seem a bright and sunny option. You can look for some campgrounds at camping-ireland.ie or Ireland's official tourism Web site www.tourismireland.com (www.discovernorthernireland.com for Northern Ireland).

Copyright (c) 2003 by Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc.