great trip !!!

This was our first trip to Europe and Ireland was beyond our expectation. Emma D. was a great tour guide.

trip of a life time

Our first trip to Ireland, Everyone was so friendly, good food and loved the pubs !!!

What a delightful time

We had such a great time on our Walking Tour of Ireland! It was made even better with our tour guide Emma, she was delightful

Awesome trip

This is a great way to see the Irish countryside. The walks had specatcular vistas. I definitely am glad I chose this trip.

Great travel experience

My second Go Ahead Tour and first walking tour....it was terific. We were blessed with Emma as our Director and Joe as our driver.Emma is a great teacher with a wonderful sense of humor. She and Joe were quick to use any extra time to add additional tour opportunities for us. The size of the group (21) was perfect. Interesting and fun people..we laughed a lot. Highly recommend this way of seeing Ireland....the beauty is breathtaking. We were treated with warmth, patience and kindness wherever we went..and don't get me started on the food...especially the desserts...and of course an ocassional Guiness and Irish Coffee. Highly recommend ending the trip with the Castle banquet - even more fun that we anticipated.

First Guided Tour

Had a great time. Tour director was excellent and very accomodating. Kept us on track, but allowed as much leeway as possible. Bus driver was very good, safe, and very personable. Only negative was flights to and from Ireland. The flight personnel did a good job, my disappointment was with the aircraft. A Boeing 757 does not have sufficient room for a 5.5+ hour flight, especially when full. The 767 is a much better choice. I know the type of aircraft is the airline's choice, but thought you should know. Would have been a 5 star tour if not for the ride over and back.

Amazing Tour

This tour was spectacular. I would never have seen 1/3 of the things if i had gone on my own. I would definitely do it again!

Good, but could have been better...

I struggle with how to write a review of this tour. It was good, I will say that. It wasn't bad. But in comparing it to the Walking the Amalfi Coast tour I took several years ago, it doesn't really hold a candle. We did see some spectacular scenery... Cliffs of Moher were awesome, hiking in the national parks was awesome, the Burren walk was terrific (great guide). But I felt that we spent a lot of time on the bus, and a lot of the scenery was seen from the bus. Our tour director, Emma, seemed knowledgeable. She went out of her way to schedule other outings for the group when the planned excursions were cancelled due to not enough people signing up. Since some of the hotels were way outside of town, she and the bus driver would sometimes take us into town in the evening and she would give us a little tour, and then we could eat in town and find our own way home (taxi). The one issue I had with the way she did things was that when we stopped for bathroom breaks from the bus, she would stop in a place that was notable (i.e. Adair, the "tidiest town in Ireland"), and give us a 1/2 hour. But you can't do anything in a half hour, so when you do this three times a day, you just feel like you're getting on and off the bus over and over again and not doing anything. I would rather have had a bathroom break that was JUST a bathroom break and nothing more, and then be able to spend 1 1/2 hours in one place, rather than a half hour at three places. The Kinsale Coastal Walk was a huge disappointment. I was expecting something on par with the Path of the Gods walk on the Amalfi tour, but it was nothing like that. The visit to Charles Fort was nice, but should have been included in the tour, it's not worth paying extra for. The "coastal walk" was a joke, a lot of it was on a street, part of it went through a kind of park, but the views were not stunning at all, and were mostly obscured by vegetation. The included lunch was good, and we got a little time to explore the town (and I do mean a little, like an hour and a half). The Bunratty Banquet was nice, though overpriced. I don't regret doing it. All in all, it was a good tour, could have been better, but when asked if I would recommend it, I can't say that I will because the Amalfi Coast tour was so much better. But I will go on another Go Ahead Tour and hope that the next one is as good as the first one I went on.

A good trip, but too much time on the bus.

Overall, the guide and bus driver were very good. I think the tour guide went above and beyond what a usual guide does. However, for a walking tour with a challenging pace, the only thing challenged was my butt sitting on the bus. For a small country, and only traveling about a quarter of it, we spent a lot of time riding the bus. I suppose the pace was challenging because we never really got a chance to stop and smell the flowers. I don't mean lounge in a deck chair sipping Mai Tais, but we seemed to be rushing to and fro on a tight schedule. We stayed in hotels near the major cities, but didn't really have any time to experience what they offer. I think the trip would be better served if there were fewer hotel stops (perhaps the hotels are more convenient to the walks, but less convenient to the cities?), shorter bus rides, more hikes/walks, and maybe some walking tours of the cities. I understand the bus driver's availability is limited, but it might be better to use the daylight more efficiently, since it was light out between 0700 and 2130, so visiting a city when things are open would be nice.

One of our best ever

A very good itinerary. Saw and did a lot in our 8 days. Walks were a variety of levels...all with rewarding scenes and vistas. Mike James was a very effective tour director. A super group. Very cordial with great interaction.