I've just booked the Introduction to Ireland tour from Globus for my parents who are in their early 70s. It will give them a taste of the country and an easy way to travel. If anyone has taken this exact tour, I would appreciate hearing your opinions. Thanks for any you can give.

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If you want an opinion about Globus's Ireland tour only, stop reading here.

I went to Switzerland with Globus, the tour was good, hotels were nice, 2 out of 4 were in perfect locations (one was for 1 last night only by the airport). Rooms were small except the airport one, but all European hotels have small rooms. I had gorgeous views out of all of them. Beds were soft. Bathroom spacios and equipped. No complains.

Food - all breakfasts buffet style. Ahhh, Swiss Cheese Dinners were superb (2 or 3 included, don't remember for sure) with a great wine selection.

Schedule - you can be busy always if you want to pay for optionals or take a couple of hours off the tour.

You may be able to find more info if you check the travel talk at the Affordable Tour website. They also give 10% discount off Globus. And if your parents are members of AARP it will give them additional $50 discount.

My parents went with the Cosmos Ireland tour about a year ago. Cosmos and Globus belong to the same company, with Cosmos being cheaper with lower-grade hotels. But even their coach says Globus on it.

The tour was very well run, and the guide and driver were both very professional. But they highly enjoyed it. Globus has run these tours for years, so there shouldn't be many surprises.

A friend and I took that tour in late January this year - we stayed in very good hotels, well-located in each city - especially in Ennis; had good, filling meals, made enough bathroom/coffee stops, saw a lot and heard a lot of Irish history.

I would say though that don't sign up for the side extra-charge tours they offer maybe with the exception of the one to an historic village whose name escapes me which was the second night. We didn't take it but everyone else did and they seemed to like it although the description of the goings on at it seemed rather juvenile to me -audience participation type of stuff.

We did go on the trip to a pub near Waterford for a sing-a-long but it was just for the group, our driver and guide both sang, and then we went back to the hotel, went for a walk and found we could have heard the same thing in a pub down the street for the price of a drink although our drinks were included in that little trip and the guide was very good about getting everyone drinks.

The final extra-charge trip was in Dublin, again we didn't go, but those who did uniformly said it was awful. We went off for a walk downtown and had a meal in the centre of the city but we could just as easily have eaten in the hotel.

We were a small group of 18, all ages and everyone got on well.

It was my first tour of that sort so didn't know that we'd be given "suggestions" on what to tip. Since most of the group was Australian and they don't tip there, there was much talk about who was going to give them what - most found the "suggestion" too high - we settled on giving them half of what the company said.

I'm sure your parents will enjoy themselves.

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.

Bunratty Castle was the place where they went for dinner the second night.

Many thanks to all who posted on this! I'm feeling more confident now, though I felt I had done some good research beforehand. I will definitely warn them about the optionals. Hopefully they will be into going off on their own now and then. Thanks again!

There really isn't a lot of time to go off on your own unless you don't do the day trip out of Ennis (where they stay two nights).

They will get travel package in the mail about a month before the trip, the optionals will be listed there.

You know beauty is in the eyes of the beholder...I read all the time on tours I am interested in about the optionals...some of which are raved about and some of which are hissed about. What one person likes, another might not.

They are not necessarily rip offs; some indeed are. You read the descriptions and listen to the tour director's spiel the first day and you make your decisions. Some people are inherently lazy and want everything done for them, others are taking the tour to save money and don't want to spend one penny more than necessary (no knocking these pople because of that) and others like to brag about how they went off and did this that and the other thing and saved a bundle (rarely is it a bundle but a penny saved is a penny earned)....

Almost all organized tours that do Ireland have an optional for a banquet at Bunratty Castle (or another one)...some people consider this an entertaining evening others think it is a rip off. But then again some people enjoy gonig to Medieval Times (even some adults believe it or not) in Buena Park or in Orlando, others find the show a rip off. The answer is always in the middle.

Let them read the descriptions of the optionals and then when they go there ask the tour director any questions they might have. And once them make the decision, if it turns out they optional was well we'll describe it as a rip off, just chalk it up to part of the deal. Some people prefer to go out with the tour group each night then sit around in the hotel or walk about town looking for a restaurant and food they find palatable.

Never get mad at yourself about these decisions. In the end they won't detract one bit from your holiday.

xyz -- a very thoughtful post about the optional trips. Thank you, and to the other posters. All good thoughts.