Ireland- 5 year anniversary

Hello All!

My husband and I are planning our 5 year anniversary trip for next July (Our anniversary is the 23). It's kind of our "last hoorah" vacation, so we wanted to do something special. I found online this escorted "Taste of Ireland" deal that sounds like something we would enjoy, and it includes pretty much everything except for airfare and a couple of meals. In my mind it makes sense, but I wanted to get some advice first... I'm a little hesitant because we'll be on a bus with people we don't know, and we might not have the opportunity to do the things that we want to do (we want to check out the guiness storehouse and the jail next door, which aren't included on the tour). Any advice? There probably is downtime, and we could always book an extra day if needed to do the things that we want to do. We're currently looking at a week trip. He's a teacher, but I work in banking and only get a couple of weeks off a year.

And, we will be flying out of either Dayton or Cincinnati, but we are within range of Indy and Columbus also. It might be a 2 hour drive for those two, but for a cheaper fare, it may be worth it. I've been watching flights, and right now the cost is about 1100/each for flight tickets, which is a little more than the tour itself. Would anyone have an idea when the best time would be to book our flights to Ireland? it looks like we would fly into Dublin and out of Shannon.