Momburd

We are interested in a group tour of United Kingdom. Have never done an organized group tour, but would mean much less planning than on our own. Particularly Ireland and Scotland.. 2/3 weeks. Small bus. We are active seniors…. Don’t want hours of daily sitting. Have you recently taken a trip that you could recommend? Thanks, Pay

KarenWoo

I have not done any group tours. But I do know that Rabbies is very popular in Scotland. Not sure if they go to England or Ireland. We saw them all over Scotland in June. Memejs on this forum took a Rabbies tour last year and she wrote a trip report.

janisj

Yes - Rabbies does have offerings in England and Ireland. I don't think they have any tours in Wales.

You say 2 to 3 weeks -- first you need to nail down how much time you really have. IME you aren't going to find one small group tour that hits all three - Scotland, Wales and Ireland. More than likely you'll need three different one week tours. To fit into 3 weeks the tours would have to be back to back to back and it might be hard to coordinate that (three 1-week tours would actually need more like 23 or 24 days when factoring in travel time)

But then - a one week tour won't let you see that much in any one of the countries. (and Two weeks is definitely not enough time)

What time of year - that makes a big difference? If you are really considering just two weeks -- then I'd limit to either Scotland or Ireland.

https://www.rabbies.com/en

Jean

Is it two weeks or three weeks? Huge difference. If it's two weeks, I'd drop Ireland.

Rabbie's offers tours in all three countries, but I think you'd have to book each tour separately which would mean the dates would have to line up. The Wales and Scotland tours are generally short-ish loops with a geographic focus or cultural "theme," so you might want to take multiple tours. Rabbie's does offer a couple of longer tours of Ireland that are a bit more comprehensive.

https://www.rabbies.com/en

lyn

Look at Overseas Adventure Travels, OAT. They are very popular in my friend group of active seniors and have a loyal following.

lyn

Look at Overseas Adventure Travels, OAT. They are very popular in my friend group.4

janisj

OAT is fine -- but they don't do short tours in Europe. Their Ireland tour is seventeen days and the Scotland offering is fifteen days -- doesn't fit the 2 to 3 week duration in the OP.

Plus the start/end dates don't often mesh . . . Plus OAT would be really REALLY expensive for two tours -- If the OP/DH were to book both Ireland and Scotland the base cost would be $6795pp for Ireland and $6595pp or almost $27,000 total (but there would be a slight reduction since they'd only need one set of R-T flights instead of two so maybe $1500-$2000 less total) but you also need to be aware they sometimes tack on $2000-$3000+ mandatory extensions. -- so over $30,000 all in.

Momburd

Thanks for your responses. I realize that 3 weeks is short amount of time, but it is a large world to travel! We plan to travel in May 2024, so decisions need to be made by us. Had hoped someone would mention a specific company, maybe Tauck or etc that has trips. I checked into ones mentioned previously, but nothing worked for us. May have to try plan on our own. Thanks

eliztlong

This may be too late but Tauck is a great tour company. I have been on 2 tours. One was classic - 38 people, and one was a riverboat cruise - 84 people. I prefer the river cruise because less stressful for me not to have to pack and unpack every 2 days. Tauck really takes good care of its guests. I would also suggest looking at CIE Tours for the British Isles. They have small group tours and that geographic area is their specialty. I did 4 with them in Ireland as the university where I got my masters contracted with them for alumni tours. I enjoyed every tour. The guides are knowledgeable and the hotels are very nice.