I see alot about driving yourself thru these countries, but has anyone ever had a wonderful experience with private tour companies that offer day trips or multi day trips? This will be our first time visiting these 2 countries, but we used a fantastic tour company for our Italy trip last May that i would recommend to anyone - just hoping someone here feels the same about a tour company for Ireland and Scotland. Thanks so much for any advice.
Hi Becki, I have had good luck in Scotland with Rabbie's tours, http://www.rabbies.com/, and the company is now offering tours to Ireland. My tour experience in Scotland has been the day trip from Edinburgh to St. Andrews and the 5-day Highland Explorer tour. Cheers.
Can address Scotland - we based ourselves in Edinburgh and took several day trips throughout Scotland. We also used Rabbies and another company called Timberbush. We were pleased with both tours and would definitely use either one again. There are several available and all are very similar. Have a great trip!!
thanks so much Betsey and Tom! i've checked into Rabbies already and it sounds great!
Bus Eirean (may not be the perfect spelling) offers day trips. We did one out of Dublin to Newgrange/Boyne Valley. The bus started at the downtown bus station (we didn't reserve, just picked up our tickets there the evening before), it's well paced, and a great value. While it's not a guided trip, the bus driver gives you information on the area and sites, as well as very clear directions what to do at each stop. Without that trip, I might not have known that a "turd" of Dubln's population live "nort" of the river. :)
We took a bus tour to Northern Wales last summer from London with Just Go Tours. ( Great little Trains). They have lots of options. It is defiantly an older crowd but fun and a very good value. I know there are more options for Scotland and Ireland. I would travel with them again,
There are also lots do private guides in Scotland as well. Check out http://www.stga.co.uk/ Pam
I have used Inverness Tours on both my trips to Scotland. Both times the company picked my group up in Edinburgh and traveled north to Inverness with stops along the way. Our group then took day trips out of Inverness with the tour company. I would highly recommend Inverness Tours.
Becki, In Edinburgh my husband and I used Highland Experience for two separate day trips last fall, and a few years ago used Highland Explorer for a multi-day day trip. We were pleased with both companies. Mary
We used Puffin out of Inverness a couple of years ago and were very pleased with their Skye tour.
Here's an organisation that may be of help Becki, a good company from my experience.
http://www.eilireland.org/visit-ireland/what-we-do