Ireland - Scotland Back to Back

We have taken both of these tours, but not back to back. We have taken several other RS tours back to back with no problems. Your 3 day break between tours should be perfect. Enjoy!

You know yourselves and your ideal pace best. Make sure that three day break is a true "doing nothing whatsoever" time - sleep in, read a book, sit and watch the world go by. Last year we did two different tours back to back with London in between, so no real days off. I hit the wall midway through the second tour and had to take an unplanned day of rest.

The only back-to-back I've done was doing the South England right after the Scandinavian tour. It was wonderful to start a tour without any jet lag! The big plus for me was not having to do two flights from the west coast - which I always find exhausting. Having three days between tours seems like a nice buffer. Maybe, besides touring, you can take a day to find a laundromat. The South England tour has ranked up at the top of my favorites (15 tours) partly because I fully enjoyed the first few days of the tour since I was acclimated to the time zone. In fact, I liked it so much I convinced my daughter and cousin to join me on a repeat (the only time I've repeated a tour). I always look for back to back possibilities because it worked so well the one time I've done it.
Enjoy your trip.

Responses have been great as usual. Thanks all for sharing your experiences!

We've never done back to back but on all 3 of our Rick Steves tours, someone has. They always suggest multiple days between to rest and do laundry, but have otherwise been positive.

We are considering in the future. The flights from the west coast take the wind out of our sails the older we get.
By the way, one of our tours was the 14 day Ireland. It's wonderful.

We have done two back to back tours a few years ago - Sicily and Southern Italy and Scotland and Ireland. We had one day between the Scotland and Ireland tours (both tours 13 and 14 days) and a few days between the two Italy tours. It was nice to have those few days in Italy between tours to get a little rest, tour around on our own and do some laundry at the laundromat around the corner. We did just fine on both back to back tours. Only you know your energy level to do this.

We did the Best of South Italy and Sicily tours back-to-back in 2019 with three days in between. It was a good pairing of tours. You will be tired by the end of the second tour, but so worth it!

We did the RS Ireland and Scotland tours back to back a few years ago, starting with Ireland first and we had five days between the tours. Took the Irish ferries across to Holyhead and spent three days in Conwy area using RS' books. Followed Wales with stop near Hadrian's Wall (with a guide from RS book for a day excursion worth it) before heading to Scotland. Loved it. We used BnBs from RS. We loved northern Wales (where sheep outnumber the people) so much. The Tourism office in Conwy was just fantastic for help and ideas. Public travel on trains and busses...no major problems and would do it all over in a heart beat. BTW we are both over 65.

I've done a number of back to back 2-week RS tours. I once did 3 back to back to back (21 day best of Europe, Best of Paris and Village Italy). I think the break in between is key for me. I also accidentally structured them so that I did not have hotel changes after I moved from the 1st tour location to the 2nd tour location. That helped a lot because for me the packing and moving aspect of the RS tours is what is tiring.

I will say that I did the Southern England tour followed by the Scotland tour and I was slightly shocked at myself because I got really tired of "castle ruins", lol!

In spite of the time you are already spending, I would try to arrive in Dublin a day or 2 before the tour start and add time at the end in Edinburgh. There is SO much to see in Edinburgh that one full day and a part of another day is just not long enough. No comments on extra time in Belfast as I did the Ireland tour before Covid when this was just a couple of hours stop on the way back to Dublin.

Have a great time!

Funny how this topic flared up again today but both comments (as well as the rest) greatly appreciated. If I had a 5 day break I would be tempted to do Dan’s itinerary (we are 66/63). Pam your three tour sounds quite a run. I recall many years ago talking to someone in the RS office over the phone saying “We pretty much wipe everyone out on that 21 day tour” by itself (we did the 14 day).