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Elegant Irish Tours / Paddywagon Private Tour Sister Company - DO NOT BOOK

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you book with this company.

I booked a multi-day private tour for my parents with this company in July 2025 for an August 2025 tour date. In the beginning, they were responsive and eager to assist. However, once they obtained our deposit, they stopped responding timely and would not confirm basic details of the itinerary such as pick up / drop times and sites to be seen. I was concerned that we had been scammed. About 2 weeks before my parents' trip was set to begin, we started to receive no response at all - via email, phone, I even went to the brick and mortar location of their sister company (Paddywagon) while on my own vacation to Dublin! At that location, I was advised that the Paddywagon team did not have visibility into their sister company's operations (despite sharing the same website which represents that Paddywagon "together with its sister company," provides these private tours). When the Paddywagon rep in Dublin tried to call their sister company, they also got no response.

Posted by
5547 posts

So what happened? The tour didn’t happen? They lost their deposit? Your parents cancelled their trip?

Posted by
3375 posts

Sarah, you have my sympathy. Please let us know the outcome.
I had a problem with Paddywagon Tours a few weeks ago when they changed a booked and confirmed day tour (tour company, time and meeting place) causing me to miss the tour. Persistence and insistence paid off and I was refunded the money I paid.
Paddywagon has good reviews. But I would now warn people to be very cautious booking with them. I can only hope that my experience was a one-off problem.

Posted by
3766 posts

From what I’ve been hearing, tour companies in Ireland are having trouble finding drivers for their tours. I know Rabbie’s, another well reviewed company, has also had to cancel tours in Ireland this year.

Some more reports from forum members:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/day-tours/help-rabbie-s-cancelled-both-killarney-day-tours

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/ireland/tour-cancelled-need-ideas-for-this-week-dublin-daytrip