Karen

I'm just getting divorced after 16 years of marriage and want very much to get away from all the tremendous stress with a long foreign trip. My soon to be former husband is a language professor so we have been to the countries on the Continent many, many times but never to Ireland. I have always wanted to go to Ireland, but he never did. After 16 years of always traveling with my husband I don't want to go to Ireland by myself though. No one I know wants to go either and I'd hate going alone and being lonely in this situation after all this stress. I like the outdoors and walking and in the past have heard people mention that there are organized trips for walking in Ireland. Does anyone here have any trips or companies that they would recommend that do trips of mostly walking in Ireland that are about 3 weeks long? I'd love to hear about people's personal experiences with walking in Ireland or these type of tours. Thanks.

Santa Chiara

Karen: Try Sherpa.com; Backroads.com; Exodus.co.uk; countrywalkers.com. Also, go to away.com or Gorp.com or shawguides.com for a long list of companies. And lastly, try the travel column at outside.com. You could also go to google and do a search using key words such as Ireland, walking, tours.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide.

beth anderson

Hi

Try Irish Cycling Safaris, you can do a full week cycling tour, SAG wagon and B&Bs included, for about 400 euros if I am not mistaken.

I did a tour with them 2 years ago, I paid $650 but that was b/c I went through a travel agent, I later found out had I booked through them directly I would have saved a ton..

Beth

beth anderson

ps. sorry to hear about your problems right now. hope you feel better..

Cathy

Karen,

I have a ghost of a web site address in the back of my mind which I will hunt up for you but try this for starters.
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~kellsnet/kelltic.htm I think their email address may have changed to [email protected]

In the meantime contact the Irish Tourist Board and get them to forward all their free brochures and stuff to you. You should also check out the following web site as it will give you some ideas of where to head for - http://www.irishwaymarkedways.ie/
Also helpful is all the infoormation and links contained on http://www.mountaineering.ie/

Hope this helps you get starter and enjoy the trip - it sounds as if you need it,

Cathy

x

Why do you feel it necessary to give all the details of your life? You're only setting yourself up for abuse. Couldn't you have just asked if there are any organized walking tours in Ireland?

sss

Isn't it obvious? All these personal details are very important! I'm certain we would give Karen totally different lists of walking orgainzations if for example her soon to be ex husband were a plumber instead of a language professor. and there's no way we'd recommend the same walking groups to a woman who had been married for 16 years as we would to a woman who had only been married for 12 years.
Now Karen, if you could just give us the details of your current medical status, your blood type, and the names of your sister's husband's married cousins we will be glad to help you with some appropriate walking groups. Right now we simply don't have enough to base our answers on.

gail

Hi Karen:
I am presently organizing a "budget" trip to Ireland - probably arriving early February and plan to stay about a month.

I am planning to travel to various cities and take day trips (hiking, cycling) - also plan to use the many hostels with occasional B.& B.

If you are interested in discussing the possibility of joining forces, or want to know what my final travel plan looks like, I would be happy to discuss it with you.
Gail

Patrick

Two single female travel companions of mine went last year taking one of their fathers with them. They have always traveled independently and were worried about doing a "tour", but they settled for country walkers and haven't stopped talking about it. The one they did was 7 nights to which they added about 3 nights on their own. They felt the quality of the tour, the accomodations, and especially the guides were really great. They were also concerned about the father feeling "out of the loop", but there was such a mixture of ages and types in the very small group that everybody got along beautifully. Incidentally there were several "singles" in the group.

Suzanne

Why is it that MALES gets so nasty when they can hide behind anonymous "names" on the Internet? If you don't have anything to SAY on this subject then why inject your ugly male crass comments here BOYS????

To Karen: check out www.walking.travel.ie/forms/specialists.asp They list a number of companies that do walking tours. I've been to Ireland and loved it, but that was many years ago and we went on buses so I can't help with personal information. I'm sure you'll like Ireland though...the people are very friendly
(unlike some here on Fodor's).

Joyce

Try http://walking.about.com/cs/toursbritain/index.htm?terms=tours

I've gone on three walking tours in England and loved them. My favorite company is www.footpath-holidays.com www.hfholidays.co.uk also has a wide variety of walks, mostly in the UK.

You could also explore this site http://www.travelchums.com/ to find a traveling companion.

Dan

Try www.lynotttours.com. I went on one of their walking tours in - Saints and Scholars. I enjoyed it - small group, not too strenuous. I know they also have bike tours.

Ann

I don't know if any tour group does this, but there is a coast-to-coast hike you can do in Ireland, and it takes approximately 3 weeks, with an average of 14-18 miles a day. I've only done the first section, which is the Wicklow Way.

We followed a guide written by Paddy somebody. I can't remember his last name, but if you type in hiking and Ireland in Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk you'll probably come up with his books. But since you want to go with a group, just ask at some of the above suggestions about doing this specific trip.

It may be just what you're looking for to clear your head.