Railtours is a great way to see Ireland if you want to avoid driving on the left side if the road. We had three different yellow jacketed tour guides for different legs of our trip. Brian, Andrew and David were all very informative and took time to speak individually with each person on the tour. The only criticism was that for the second day’s tour of the ring of Kerry we were escorted by another tour company under contract with rail tours. Tour guide was “meh” at best and the bus was uncomfortable. Days one and three involved transfers between trains and busses for the actual tours, which were fully escorted by Railtours. You might want to contact the tour company before booking to see what tours are completely controlled by Railtours. The subcontractors were not of the same caliber.

The tour was very well organised, the train and coach trips very comfortable and the Drymond B&B, which was cosy and very clean, gave us a wonderful taste of Irish hospitality. We had great views of the stunning scenery and landscape of the South-west of Ireland and all admissions to points of interest such as Blarney Castle, Cliffs of Moher, etc were efficiently taken care of with adequate provisions for rest within the scheduled times. The piece de resistance of the whole tour was our guide, Jonathan Beaumont. He gave us the best possible insight of Irish hospitality and welcome, he was professional and attentive to everyone, and imparted such in-depth and accurate historical facts of Ireland especially about the Great Famine. He also gave us interesting insights into the folklore and superstitions of Ireland such as the Fairy Tree :) . Our enjoyment of the whole tour was enhanced by this very special tour guide - thank you Jonathan! Doreen and Paule from Seychelles.