Ireland - we loved Barratt's Guided Coach Tours
 

We just returned from Ireland. When staying in Limerick City, we signed up for a one-day guided coach (bus) tour with Barratt's Tours. We signed up for the Cliffs of Moher Tour. My husband and I both highly recommend Barratt's Tours. Richard Barratt was our tour guide for the day. I can't say enough good things about them. The price was reasonable for a one-day bus tour (30 Euro each) and Richard was friendly, entertaining, and full of information. He was great. He and his wife, Christine, own and operate this business. If you want to have a WONDERFUL experience AND patronize a small, family-run business, then go to their website: www.4tours.biz
You won't be sorry!

From: Rosemary in Michigan

It would be nice to see the rest of your trip report. What else did you do in Ireland? Where did you go? Did you self drive? ((b))

welcome to fodors.

I have been called cynical more than once - but I do find it curious that for a first post, one would write a glowing review of a coach tour in Limerick. What about your trip, what you thought of Ireland, where you went, anything???

Budman, I am in the process of writing my Travel Journal, but it will be long... in short, we had a 10-day vacation. We spent about 3 days in and near Limerick City, drove to Dublin, immediately dropped off the car at the airport and took a shuttle into the city (BTW, next time we will do strictly buses, they have a great public transit/ bus system). In fact we met 2 young Welsh woman on our Barratt bus tour and that is how they traveled Ireland, they simply bought bus passes. More about that later, suffice to say that we probably won't rent a car again, we will probably just rely on bus transportation. The roads are unbelievably narrow. Anyway, we spent 1 full day in Dublin. We took the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour which I recommend highly. My personal favorite stop was the Kilmainham Gaol. Dublin wasn't our favorite, but we are not big city people. We stayed at the Jury's Inn in Limerick City and we liked it. However, in Dublin we stayed at the Jury's Inn Christchurch and we would NOT recommend that. Then we flew to Edinburgh and spent 3 days there and we LOVED that city, we want to go back. We stayed at the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh and LOVED it. In Edinburgh, we took a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour the first evening and we highly recommend that. David, our tour guide, was funny and informative. We got the lay of the land and we were able to plan out the rest of our days there. Janis, it sounded like you were wondering why I wasn't more negative? As you can see, we were primarily in 3 areas and Dublin was our least favorite. However, I was touched by the guided tour through Kilmainham Gaol (Jail), where we learned a great deal about the Irish fight for freedom. Other than that, I don't like to dwell on the negative. I am going to order my photos tomorrow through snapfish, do you want to look at them?

I'd like to see your pictures and hear more about your trip. What did you see around Limerick? More details about Edin. after you did the hop on/hop off.

Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed Ireland. Without taking an organized tour, I doubt it would have been possible to see the Cliffs without a rental car, and some of the other wonderful sites in Ireland.

Looking forward to viewing the photos. ((b))

Great - looking forward to hearing more.

My question wasn't re you not being more negative. I was just a bit suspicious since we often get first time posters on here trying to slip in "satisfied customer" reviews which are actually advertisements planted by the tour operator/owner. When you registered and posted this glowing report out of the blue it had the ring of one of those fake ads.

But now it is clear that wasn't the case . . . .

I would love to share some photos, but I won't have time to upload any photos until Sunday. Too much going on. We were only in Limerick for 2 full days. We took a one-day guided tour (Barratt's Guided Coach Tours) to see the Cliffs of Moher. When you take that one-day tour, you also see other sights. Richard Barratt has that info on his website at
www.4tours.biz. The next day, we spent most of the day at Bunratty Castle near Limerick. We also spent a couple hours at King John's Castle in Limerick City. We were not on the go 24/7. We are in our 50s and frankly, we don't like to be on the go constantly. We loved Edinburgh. The first night we did the hop on hop off tour bus. It is a really easy city to walk around in - most of the sights are in walking distance. Other activities in Edin: The Edinburgh Castle. We took 2 separate walking tours through Mercat Tours. The first walking tour is called the "Secrets of the Royal Mile." The second walking tour is called the "Ghosts and Ghouls" Tour. We enjoyed both of these tours. For more information, you can google Mercat Tours. That's all for now. I'll try to upload some photos on Sunday, if I have time. Good night everyone.