April, 2018 - Husband (David) and I did two Rick Steves back to back Tours. Our first on was the Heart of Ireland 8 days then we hopped over to do the Best of Scotland 10 days. I have already done the Scotland report. Of the two tours, I preferred the Best of Scotland. You can read that later if you wish. Both of us are now retired since 2015 and he is now my travel partner now (my sister was before he retired). He had no time to go to Europe with me (his vacation consisted of playing golf). These tours were my 4th and 5th and his 3rd and 4th trip.
My first was 14 day Best of Ireland. I enjoyed that trip so much, I told him I wanted to go back to Ireland. Took the 8 day tour because it was easier on the budge combined with the Scotland tour. I enjoyed this tour, but if you have an interest in Ireland, the 14 day tour is better option, in my opinion.
Our guide was excellent and did a wonderful job with providing us the history of Ireland and relevant info. I was looking over my past tour brochures and I think this trip as been tweaked several times (maybe three?). This years changed. It includes 1 night stay in Ennis; 2 nights stay in Dingle, 1 night stay in Kilkenny, and 3 night stay in Dublin.
Group - 27 members. We had a several groups traveling together. Family of 4 adults, Family of 6 adults, 5 friends who travel together, two couples who were friends, 2 single ladies who traveled together (friends) , 3 separate couples (this included us) who were not traveling with anyone else. Lots were first time Rick Steves travelers. I had an awesome buddy (for our buddy check). Everyone seem cordial and I did not notice any grumpiness, but the group dynamics kept from having more socializing with all group members.
HOTELS: Ennis - Old Ground Hotel - This hotel and staff was wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here.
Dingle - Milltown House - We enjoyed this hotel also. Half of the group was split into two places.
Kilkenny - Kilford Arms Hotel - It was a good location, seems centrally located for all the local sites. Hotel was Ok but nothing special.
Dublin - Cassidy's hotel - I did not like this hotel. It was not centrally located with all our sites. Long way to walk to places we were going with the tour and on our own. Rooms were subpar compared to other hotels I have been on with RS tours.
FOOD: All our group dinners were excellent and lovely presentation.
We arrived one day prior to the start of our tour and stayed one extra day in Dublin.
Our first day on arrival, we just walked around to get our bearings in Ennis and grab lunch. It was an easy flight into Shannon and to catch the #51 bus to Ennis and short walk to the hotel. That evening we went to the Glor to hear El Divas. These are four London Trained friends in music/singing. Two of them are from Ennis. It was a packed crowd. We enjoyed this.
On the last day in Dublin, we went to Kilmainham Gaol, National Archaelogy and History museum and the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl.
I am going to post this now, then comment on the sites. I won't go into each days activities. I will just make comments of the sites that we saw.