A castle sits in the middle of Roscrea center, and by the looks of it, you might think there's not…read morea whole lot going on. There's a ton going on here though. I highly recommend taking a tour and checking out their gardens at the very least. You don't have to take a tour to see the gardens, but hey, you might as well! I went in the fall, so the garden wasn't lively, but I hope to get back in the spring or summer to appreciate it again. Great stop if you're just looking to use up a half hour while also shopping in the area.

I'm generally not a fan of historic sites, but the restoration of this property is rather…read moreimpressive. It's a good place to visit in the event that you find yourself in Roscrea.

A great tour guide who shows parts of the city that would otherwise get missed. He is able to…read moreanswer all questions as he is born in the city.

From the owner: We offer walking tours of Kilkenny in English, French and German. Our tours last approximately two…read morehours. Your guide is a certified national tour guide.

Great way to see all of Boyne Valley! Michael was knowleageble and planned the whole day…read morebeautifully.

This was my first trip to Ireland and I kicked it off with a tour of Boyne Valley. It was…read moreincredible to see the historic sites. Michael was a great guide. I look forward to my next visit and booking a tour with him to see more of the country. I highly recommend this company.

Excellent tour of the Dunbrody! Our guide, Adam, and the two re-enactors were perfect. We received…read morea great deal of information about the Dunbrody, and the living conditions onboard the voyage to Savannah. The actors represented a first class passenger and steerage passenger with her baby, talking to us in the middle of steerage quarters. They were wonderful! After Adam and the actors, we toured the quarantine area and quarters for first class passengers. We also posed by the bell and steering wheel. The section after the tour was a revelation of Irish who immigrated to United States - Maureen O'Hara, Walt Disney, JFK's great grandfather, and so many others. The gift shop had reasonably priced souvenirs. We bought shirts, necklaces, chocolate and a polo shirt for under $74. Leaving the ship area, we admired the emigrant flame, lit from the eternal flame at JFKs' sure in DC.

Somber, yet insightful. The living conditions for the poor Irish was disheartening. I enjoyed…read morelistening to the re-enactment of Mrs. White and Mrs. O'Brien, the poor and rich travelers of the Dunbrody. I also enjoyed the Irish hall of fame, which included several political figures, movie stars, JFK, and Walt Disney. Ironically, the "museum" part of the famine ship included a restaurant (in which we indulged in the carrot cake and some tea). We were given 3 hours here, which was probably a little too much time for the tour, gift shop, exploring the town nearby, and lunch

Doing a Smithwicks tour on St. Paddy's day was quite the experience! Truly one we didn't know we…read moreneeded! We came here on a of a whim after the parade. It was something like $13 euro a piece for our family. The tour took about 45 minutes and our guide Evan was amazing! Very interactive, engaging, funny, informative, all the things you'd hope for from a guide. We learned a lot about the company, including how they're older than Guinness (who ironically bought them in the 60s). The tour ended with a stop at the tasting room - major tip - pay the extra $5 and get the three half pint tasting flight! They're lovely! It's a great spot to chill for a bit and chat with new friends! The gift shop has swag and plenty of cans to take home with you, as well as glasses that you can have custom etched. This was an amazing tour for the price and something that anyone visiting the area should consider!

This experience is well worth the stop if you are in Kilkenny. Our tour guide was fantastic (i feel…read moreterrible i have forgotten her name) and did an amazing job leading us through the history and science that is Smithwick's. The tour is very interactive and has a great production value. It is super engaging and interacting which was great as it was our 3rd brewery tour on our vacation. I highly recommend checking out the cream ale at the end of your tour. Absolutely delicious!!!

I booked the Cliffs of Moher & The Burren half day tour through Galway Tour Company this past…read moreNovember. The value of the tour was great, only costing around $45 (42.50 euros) for an eight hour tour. I was able to select the pickup point at a nearby hotel. The bus was prompt and we headed on our way shortly after 10am. The tour bus driver was an absolute delight. Incredibly friendly and full of knowledge and funny stories. We stopped at a couple spots along the way including a castle, a very old cemetery, and a pub in Doolin. We drove through the Burren on our way which was a really interesting sight to see. I enjoyed learning about the geology of such a unique place. We had adequate time to explore the Cliffs of Moher once we arrive - almost 2 hours to roam around, take pictures, and check out the gift shop. Then we made our way back to Galway and arrived around 6pm. The timing was perfect and I really feel like it was a valuable experience. So glad I booked a group tour instead of renting a car and trying to navigate to the cliffs myself - the roads to get there were really wild and I'm not sure I could've handled it on my own (plus, it would've been way more expensive). I'll also note that the tour company reached out the day before my scheduled tour to let me know they had to reschedule due to the snow and ice that rolled through that night. They put me onto the tour the following day and communication was seamless throughout. I highly recommend booking your tour through Galway Tour Company!

If you're looking for a tour company while visiting Galway, search no further…read more My friend and I took the Cliffs of Moher and Burren Day Trip, Including Dunguaire Castle, Aillwee Cave, and Doolin which conveniently picked up right outside our Galway hotel. The scheduled time frame was 9:30am-5:30pm so not too early and not too late - just right when committing to a day trip tour time frame I'd say. The order of the day trip started with Dunguaire Castle (which featured misty rain when we arrived so not the best weather for traipsing around a castle - sadly it didn't seem that we were able to go inside the castle so this wasn't a long stop), followed by Aillwee Cave (note, this was an additional €20 if I remember correctly), then onto Cliffs of Moher (with perfect weather I might add; I think we had about 2 hours or so to spend here, including shopping in the store which has a lot of great merchandise), an added lunch break at Fitz's Pub in Doolin, then the last stop before heading back to Galway was the Burren. I really enjoyed the Cliffs of Moher stop as well as the Burren - the views were incredible for both. Sadly I didn't spot any puffins at the Cliffs of Moher though. If I could've changed anything about the tour, I probably would have skipped the Aillwee Cave to spend more time in Doolin. I definitely need to find a way to get back to that area to explore more. This was my second day trip centered around the Cliffs of Moher but the previous day trip left from Dublin and included a stop in Galway so it was through another tour company. Choosing between the travel for both, I prefer this trip originating from Galway - it was more reasonable of a time frame as the trip from Dublin started hours earlier and still ended around the same time. We booked this tour directly through Viator, and it cost for 2 adults $109.82 plus tip (which we tipped cash following the end of the tour). Oh and I can't end this review without praising our tour guide Barry Hopkins - he was fantastic, very personable and friendly.

We got a tour from a local guide as part of the 8 Euro a head entry fee. You pay in the shop and go…read morethrough into the 'village'. Our guide showed us 3 types of seaweed and 2 dead flatfish, which he had preserved in murky salt water. He claimed these ex-fish had been in the water 16 months without stench. I asked myself, so what. The guide was a friendly enough soul but the story of how the Irish famine came about is a historically & politically complex one to be dealt with respectfully and delicately which isn't reflected much here at all. It's a ruse to draw us in. He didn't mention the Gombeen Man, a spiv wheeler-dealer or businessman who is always looking to make a quick profit, often at someone else's expense or through bribes. The term referred originally to money-lenders. It became associated with those Irish shopkeepers and merchants who exploited the starving during the Irish Famine by selling much-needed food & goods on credit at ruinous interest rates. Its origin is the Irish word "gaimbín", meaning monetary interest. It began to dawn on me that this place isn't much to do with the Irish famine at all nor does it go through 1,000 years of Irish history unless it's a fleeting journey with few stops and fewer facts. The tour starts in a house where the guide Mr Pat Doherty said he lived in until the 1980's. It was here he introduced us to the dead fish and seaweeds. He spoke of commerce & trade. He gave a naive, almost simplistic, interpretation of Ireland joining the 'free' trade European market espousing this as a chief reason why he and his fellow country folk no longer lived in hovels, eating seaweed and boiled limpets, surviving without running water or electricity. He discussed NAMA. According to him, its an Irish government - sponsored bunch of banking gombeens appointed by the Irish government to do its dirty work post an economic banking collapse caused by a different bunch of banking gombeens who lent money to folk at exorbitant rates who couldn't pay the debt back; so NAMA can take huge salaries and the blame for the dirty work to clean up all the nasty crooked stuff and the political gombeens who appointed them (and who failed initially to properly regulate the first set of banking gombeens) sidestep blame for the punitive financial brutality inflicted on Irish people by NAMA gaimbíns for the Government. He's not so far out about this avoidable mess, NAMA's mischievous origins and questionable divisive activities; let's say he certainly has the gist. We also went into an 'Irish wake house' with a dummy body in a coffin where he began telling stories of traditions & superstitions around death across Europe to do with salt, plates atop dead bodies, wailing women and fear of being buried alive. All fascinating stuff for about a minute but what's this got to do with the Irish Famine or 1,000 years of Irish history. This private sector place risks doing a disservice to the brutality of the Irish Famine ignoring the role played by Irish people who condemned their fellow citizens to appalling starvation. This place edges close to being a gaimbín creation itself. Maybe they'll open a NAMAland where they show landlord evictions. It would have a symmetry. There's also replicas of a 'Meeting House', an Orange Hall, a naff ghost House, a travellers halting site and a republican 'Safe House'. The latter has 'secret rooms' and images of Mr G Adams, the now deceased Mr I Paisley (snr) and Mr M Maginnes with various United States political giants; President William Jefferson Clinton and Mr George Mitchell. All nearly moderately interesting stuff for a few minutes but once again nowt to do with the Irish Famine. When you pay the entry fee you get a coupon for 'free' tea or coffee in the adjacent Kitty & Sean cafe. The 'free' coffee offered by these gaimbín merchants is powdered; it isn't proper coffee (they sell proper coffee at a premium price but offer no discount for your coupon if you want real coffee) and food prices here may take the smile off your face. I suspect these prices have much to do with why the locals live so well these days so gaimbínism isn't too far away here.

Did the Kilkenny boat trip last week - beautiful scenery and wildlife and knowledgeable guide.read more

The boat tour guide was highly informative on all things associated with Kilkenny, both past &…read morepresent. He took the trouble to get to know his passengers & provided many humorous anecdotes which went down a storm with all. Thankfully, the boat didn't go down & he was highly conscientious in ensuring everyone's safety at all times whilst on the water. Top marks must be awarded for a highly enjoyable boat trip.

Simply amazing! Love that you get to walk through the fort underground and love the views. The tea…read morehouse is overlooking the water. The volunteers are a wealth of information.

Butler's Coach of Cork Ireland. John O'Donovan provided us Irish history, music, sports, and…read moreculture as well as safe driving and beautiful scenery. His narrative as we went through Belfast still affects me. He took us to the very best places and helped us experience the best of Scotland as well. He also made sure our little flock was safe and happy through 12 dayd. From pub suggestions to directions to concert halls, we couldn't ask for more. Ask for Mr. O'Donovan and you'll be pleased with your Ireland and Scotland experience.

From the owner: Coach, Bus and minivan hire. Stephen Butler Coaches is a family run coach company, who specializes…read morein luxury private coach, bus and minivan hire. Stephen established his business in 1979, to date we are celebrating over 40 years in business. We are based in the bustling town of Midleton, Co. Cork, which is also home to Jameson Distillery, Midleton. We operate one of the most luxurious and modern fleets of chauffeur driven vehicles in Cork, Ireland. We strive every day to ensure all of our customer's needs and expectations are exceeded. Contact us today for all your coach, bus and minivan hire requirements.