Rick Steves Best of Ireland trip report (May/June 2019)

We just returned from the 2 week BOI RS tour a few days ago. We have amazing memories of this wonderful trip and I thought I would share some highlights. We arrived a few days before the tour to get over jet lag and get into the travel mind set. By arriving early we were able to see 2 areas not covered by the tour. The first day we toured Powerscourt Estate Gardens & Glendalough with Hilltoptreks company, it was a very nice day. The second day we took the Mary Gibbons tour to Newgrange and Hill of Tara. This tour is recommended by RS, we had Mary as our guide and she was full of information and wit. We did the Literary Pub Crawl the evening before the tour began, it was great fun.

Our RS tour started in Dublin and we fell in love with this city. It’s clean and very walkable city. We didn’t even make a dent in some of the things to do. The architecture in Dublin is so pretty.

Tour info: Our guide Declan was amazing, he really made the trip extra special. He was a fun storyteller and had a great wealth of knowledge about Irish history. He was witty, insightful, and most helpful with any request. Declan arranged for an extra private music evening for our group, a highlight for all of us. The last evening he treated us to drinks and we all received lovely, Irish made gifts. Michael, our driver, showed incredible skill in getting us place to place, sometimes through very tight corners. In addition, he was such a nice man, always willing to share his thoughts about Irish life.
Ireland has so much beauty, it was simply astonishing. Although we all yearned for more sunny days (Ireland get 80 inches of rain annually), the rain usually held off for our walking tours and outside activities. We were grateful for that but our rain jackets did came in handy. There were many, many WOW moments during this tour: Cliffs of Mohr, the Giants Causeway, the Slea Head Drive, the Burren, the raptor walk, Aran Islands, Killarney National Park, the sheep farm, Derry, Belfast and so much more. Riding through the countryside, seeing the sheep grazing as we gazed out the window provided priceless moments.

The hotels were all fine, our favorites were Buswells in Dublin and the Milltown House in Dingle.

Besides Dublin, we absolutely loved Dingle and Kinsale. These darling towns were so picturesque. We all fell in love with our local guide in Kinsale, Barry. Barry charmed us during the Kinsale Historic Stroll, highly recommend if you find yourself in Kinsale.

We previously had done 2 RS city tours, Best of Paris and BEst of London. By staying in 1 hotel in each of these cities, there was no need to pack and unpack. But, we understand that in order to see as much as we did in Ireland, there needs to be lots of time on the bus and several hotel changes. We felt we actually walked more on the city tours and expected the Irish tour to be more strenuous than it was. All in all, though, we were impressed with how much ground we covered, what we learned about Irish history and current Irish issues. We met many interesting, lovely people on the tour. The group was very cohesive and there was much laughter and fun among us. I’m grateful to have shared this trip with all of them. Ireland’s beauty stole my heart!