Irish Tourism
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Exactly as advertised!
Exactly as advertised! Very reliable. Everything went off exactly as planned. Pretour service with many questions answered by Niamh Butler was done very promptly, often by return email. Since this was a knitting tour, it included at least six opportunities to buy Irish yarn, which was very important. I was unable to participate in at least two workshops, due to my own shortcomings, but I thought the number of workshops was about right, too. My husband accompanied me as a non-knitter and was made to feel very welcome and part of the group. There were two other husbands along also. He enjoyed the three factory tours and the visit to the alpaca farm. All the hotels and the provided meals were fine, particularly the lunch at Bushmills Inn. If anything, the experience of traveling to Inis Mor and being there was a little disappointing. Outside of driving around the island for a short time, visiting the ruins of a church, and visiting several knitwear shops, I don’t recall seeing much else. I thought there were some castle ruins there. My husband missed seeing them. Our coach driver, Dan, was wonderful—very accommodating—always helpful. The man who picked us up at the airport in Dublin and returned us there, John Lamb, is just great and a wonderful welcoming host for Dublin. Hopefully you can use these two as often as possible. We have participated in many group tours over many years and have rated many tour directors. The tour director on this tour, Freda O’Dea, did everything right, and we had a very good experience; but at times it seemed she had trouble staying organized, and I cannot give her the highest possible mark—close, but not five stars. I can only offer one comment for improvement. I don’t know if people gathered to knit together after dinner or not, but it would be nice to have a small dedicated lounge area where the group could gather, as some hotels are not enthusiastic about a group if women knitting and chatting in their main lobby area and probably not ordering anything from the bar.