Mmur, I enjoy Rick Steves' tours. However, if it was my honeymoon, I would not go on a tour for the following reasons:

1. It would be a honeymoon, and most tours are rushed.

2. There would not be a language barrier in Ireland.

3. I have been told that Ireland is a very easy place to travel to.

For a 10-12 day trip in Ireland, I would say you can do the trip on your own and join day tours if you base yourself in the larger cities and use trains or buses to get to those larger cities. If you really want to get out into the countryside for a few nights, then you can rent a car - this saves you the hassle of having to drive constantly and saves money on rentals and gas. Rentals can be more expensive if you don't know how to drive a stick.

Escorted tours have to cater to the masses - if you stop somewhere that you'd like to stay and explore, you can't do it because you're on someone else's timeline.

mmur - In the end, as you can see, whether to take an escorted or independent tour is dependent upon the person. I would suggest that you and your fiancee think and talk about the way you both like to travel:

1. Do you like talking to/being around other travelers or are you loners?
2. Do you enjoy planning a trip or do you hate that part?
3. Do you have the patience to go at your own pace, which may mean getting lost or turned around, or do you prefer having someone take you exactly where you want to go?
4. Do you have any dietary restrictions (it is sometimes harder for tour groups to properly meet dietary restrictions)?
5. Do you want time to relax or do you want to see as many sights as possible? (personally, after our wedding, my husband and I were so exhausted that we spent the first two days doing little more than sleeping).
6. Are you good drivers and do you enjoy driving? (driving in Ireland can be very stressful so if you don't like driving I would not recommend it).

We went to Ireland for 10 days independently, and loved it --- but we like to do things on our own, at our own pace, and have infinitely good humor and patience when we travel. Hope you have a wonderful trip and if you need advice on an itinerary, this is a great place to look!

Another vote for traveling independently.

If you have the time, pick a handful of locations and enjoy your time traveling between them. Don't pack in too many locations.

I enjoy researching and planning my own trips. For my honeymoon to Australia 1.5 years agao, though, I decided to enlist an expert. We booked through a travel agent specializing in Australia (where we went). I'm glad we did because he handled all the details - accomodations, transportation between locations, car rental, some small tours, etc. He gave us a packet of our booking information, and then we were on our own. During the planning process, we met with him and emailed often. We gave him a list of the top 3-4 areas we wanted to see (we had 3.5 weeks), and he always consulted us regarding accomodations, activities, etc.

It was great. With all the wedding details, I just didn't have the time to organize anything.

Now I'm back to planning on my own, which is great! But if you don't have the time to do your own research, a travel agent could be a good option.

I've had fun on tours when I was in my early 20's, but I would not recommend them for a honeymoon.

You pose a very difficult question to answer because there are so many variables. We can start with the type of tour you are on and the level of accommodation they provide.

We took a tour of Ireland with Insight, and it was not to my liking at all. On the bus, off the bus, some commercial stop at a shopping place that had a rest room facility large enough to handle the group, back on the bus, and then off again to some other place I don't remember.

We were in different hotels almost every night and never spent long enough at anything I was interested in while all the while we often had some kind of optional tour at extra charge available while those of who did not want the option had nothing to do but wander around the town.

I honestly could not tell you where we went in great detail because I had not planned the trip and was not enthralled with the whole situation.

By in large unless you take a high end, luxury tour, you will not get what I would call good hotels in Ireland. On our tour some were OK while one in particular was abysmal and one was weird: the Earl of Desmond outside of Tralee that we dubbed Hotel Crazy-xxx for multiple reasons. (E.g. shower handle in the shower, not enough hot water, less than top level food, etc. Not such good food was a characteristic everywhere we went. No meal was memorable.)

I enjoyed Ireland more when we left the tour and freelanced.

On the other side of that coin is the fact that Irish roads are not all that good for finding your own way and, frankly, the trains I rode on were ratty dirty, easily the poorest train system I have experienced in Europe.

Are you dead set on Ireland? I can think of other situations where you could do it yourself and have the time for yourselves.

For example, in Paris you can find a decent hotel that is inside the peripheral highway and go places at your own pace. I have been to Paris 4 times and there is ALWAYS something to do.

In addition to just being in Paris, there are ample opportunities for day trips at your pace to wonderful attractions.

So you could have a base and your own pace.

I also think that the Berner Oberland of Switzerland, or the area around Zermatt, would be good. My wife and I took what we looked at as a "third honeymoon" after I retired. We were both stressed on the job, and with retirement there was that euphoria of new enthusiasm. So despite the fact that we had been married for over 35 years, it was the adventure of the start of a new dimension to a long-term relationship.

In Switzerland we found good places to stay, plenty of opportunity to go on our on, and lots to see and do at our pace.

Well, those are my thoughts on it.

We just came back from Ireland and for the first part of our 14 day trip, we went on a CIE tour of Dublin, Glendalough, Waterford, Blarney, Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Galway, Westport, Ballina and Malahide.

There were two couples on their honeymoon, when asked why they chose the tour, they said they wanted to stay in nice hotels and see the sights without the worry of renting a car or deciding where to eat.

The tour was a great value, we stayed in moderate to superior hotels and the breakfasts and dinners were excellent.

I have never been to Ireland, but I know English is spoken there and I also know driving and stopping at B&Bs are very popular vacations for Ireland. On my honeymoon (33) years ago we went to Mexico City, Taxco and Acapaulco and had such a great time, because we were on our own, found our own adventures and made wonderful discoveries, that are harder to do on a tour. The Ring of Kerry, I hear is a popular way to spend a week driving from village to village and then maybe go somewhere for a few days, like London (?). Mainly, taking a group tour just sounds like a bad idea for a honeymoon.