Ireland / N Ireland Chauffer/Guide
 

We are planning a trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland for 8-9 people next July and are interested in a driver and tour guide for a private self-directed tour. Can you recommend anyone great for this? Any idea of daily cost for this type of service? A vehicle would be needed to accommodate this group with luggage. We expect to tour 4-5 days in N Ireland, and 6-8 in Ireland. Itinerary details to be determined.

Thanks!

A mini bus and driver would only be a little more than the hire and fuel charges for 2 cars

www.cttc.ie/ is the organisation for tour bus's www.butlerstours.com/ are a well known operator for private tours

Butlers are excellent. Our local pub uses them for tours. We went on two with them and they do whatever you want. We had a bus for 20. We always asked for the same driver. We did all the tours and accommodations though on our own. We sort of had a schedule as in we were to sleep here tonight and have a tour of Tullamore at two. We did stay at most places two nights. One time he took ten of us off on a day trip so they are open to that. Not everyone has to do the same thing. He took us to some out of the way places that we would never had seen on our own. It was great for our pub tours because we did a lot of brewery and distillery tours so no driving and drinking. Those were some of the best trips though not without a little drama.

We used Odyssey Coach Tours when we were docked in Belfast for a one-day cruise stop. I contacted Jim Monaghan and he arranged a fantastic itinerary for us for the day. We visited Giant's Causeway and many other wonderful places. I ended up having 27 sign up for the tour and we had a great day seeing Belfast. Jim can organize whatever tours you would like and provide vehicles according to number in your group. Prices were reasonable as well. I highly recommend Odyssey Coach Tours!

http://odysseycoachtours.co.uk/

I used a private driver for 4 days in Ireland. He told me that he would not drive in Northern Ireland. He would subcontract that out to someone else. The bigger tour groups would probably not do it that way. Drivers are not needed for Dublin or Galway. We took the bus from Galway to the Aran Islands.

Not sure when you were here Bean11? there used to be Insurance complications between the 2 countries up to a few years ago.

Are you assuming a full service guide and driver to be a single person? Typically drivers can give you some info on major sights but for a fully qualified guide you will probably have to pay more - plus cost of lodging and food for the guide as well as the regular day prices for day trips.

Suggest you contact the two tourist offices to get names of fully qualified guides who offer this type of service. Don't have specific info but an old colleague of mine did this about 5 years ago with 10 in the group and the cost was very significant (quite a bit more per person than a group bus tour).

Tony2Phones,

We travelled in November of 2011. My drivers preference for not driving in N. Ireland then was purely his comfort level. He felt that "southern plates" would single him out for unneeded harassment from NI drivers. Had we wanted to see NI he would have had a buddy take us.