4.6/5

Would Recommend Scottish Dream Tour

Pat - our tour guide - was excellent, very knowledgeable and always helpful. Joe - our coach driver - was amazing, can't believe the tight roads he managed to drive, always delivered us safely. The destinations in our itinerary were great.

Wonderful Small Group Tour of Dublin and SW Ireland!

Pat, our driver and tour guide was very knowledgeable, a good driver and terrific! We were able to relax and enjoy the beautiful sites of Ireland!

Great tour guides

The tour guide was very knowledgeable and did a great job filling us in on the history of the country . He and our bus driver were pleasant and a joy to be around

Wonderful driver/tour guide. Great humor & education throughout. Great tour stops, except too much shopping. Stop at jewelry store in Dingle & Moriartys not necessary. Breakfast was great every morning. Most dinners sub par.

Amazing Trip With A Few Hiccups Along the Way

This is my 3rd trip with CIE and there’s a reason why I keep coming back. I love the services and places that they offer which is amazing. I don’t have to worry about making sure to book things or places since mostly everything is already included in the price of the tour. And it’s great that some things I wouldn’t have thought of wanting to do is included like the Scottish evening,

Our driver/guide Patrick was absolutely fabulous.

The taste of Ireland is just a taste but it makes me want to come back again. Supper in the castle also Merry Plowboy were both great entertainment. The scenery and greenery were beautiful. My favourite event was watching the border collie working sheep.

As Usual, FABULOUS

This was my fourth tour with CIE.and I’m planning another tour September of 2024. I can always rely on the driver/guide to be well informed, professional and yet clever and funny. This last trip, Sam was all of the above and I’d travel with him anywhere.

I would absolutely recommend CIE Tours and use them again myself for my vacation. The whole itinerary was very well thought-out, the guides were personable and knowledgeable, and the drivers did a great job as well.

The majority of the hotels that were chosen were very nice and the accompanying breakfasts were great. Our first hotel in Glasgow, Scotland was still under construction, so it wasn't the best experience.

The Scottish Night was cheesy. You can truly eliminate that event, particularly the Clappy Doo, although the piper was very good.. The Irish experience was very nice. Most of the live music experiences were well done. The locations and castles we visited were wonderful. One experience, the sheep dogs, was repeated in both Scotland and Ireland. One of these is enough; you don't need two. Luckily, the one in Ireland also had an archeological site which was very interesting. I wandered around the site instead of watching the sheep dogs and was very pleased.

I found that a 16-day trip was a bit much. Especially since there was no down time weaved into the schedule. My motto has always been, "I'll sleep when I'm dead." However, I would have liked to take at least a half-day break. Being that tired lowered my defenses and I caught a cold, which is never ideal on vacation. In fact, half of our coach had a cold. Most of the group was older than me, so if I was tired, I imagine they were exhausted.

The modes of transportation were great. The coach was very comfy. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi almost never worked on the coach, but it was nice to have plugs to charge our electronics. I enjoyed the ferries and the boat rides on the Lochs.

Thanks for an unforgettable trip!

Jewels of Ireland was a comprehensive tour of the Island

We hit many 'hot spots'.
1) Five Star - The driver, Tony Byrne was knowledgeable, entertaining, and safe on the winding back roads.
2) Four Stars- Most of the hotels were very nice, with pleasant staff & nice amenities. The Kinsale hotel had exceptional vistas, although dinner was the most mediocre included meal on the trip. The Skellig Dingle hotel was great top to bottom. I would not stay at Treacey's Oakwood Hotel in Shannon again - dirty, unresponsive staff. Galway Bay Hotel & The Mill Park Hotel in Donegal were very nice & had great locations & staff. While the Knightsbrook resort was a very fancy hotel, we could have skipped it & spent another night in Belfast. The Croke Park Hotel was great & a 15 min walk to the river.
3) 4.5 Stars - The sights we did hit were fantastic.
- Dublin speaks for itself.
- *The 'Walking Tour of Kinsale' was OUTSTANDING, led by historian & author Barry Moloney.
- A pass by Rock of Cashel & a visit to Blarney Castle were awesome.
- *The Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry was breathtaking, & the Blasket Islands museum was great.
- Cliffs of Moher were 'as advertised'. Dinner & show in Knappogue Castle was great! Sheep dog demonstration in the Burren in County Clare was surprisingly fascinating.
- the cruise on the Killary Fjord was incredible as was the trip to Kylemore Abbey Castle - STUNNING
- The Cliffs of Sliabh Liag (Slieve League) were amazing.
- Walking tour of Galway was a waste of time - horrible guide (I drink here. I drink there. There used to be a store here.).
_ *Walking tour of Derry" was OUTSTANDING - historian Sorcha Donner was our guide & told us facts about Derry past & present. UNESCO World Heritage site - The Giant's Causeway was awesome. Tour of Croke Park Skyline tour was excellent!
- * The FOOD everywhere was great - from fresh seafood to lamb to brown bread. (Special shout out to the Oslo Tavern in Galway that had the most fantastic seafood chowder EVER & in Dingle at the Reel Dingle Fish Co for INCREDIBLE choices of fresh fish for lunch).
4- Downside - We were rushed. We did NOT see "Brú na Bóinne". Many people on the tour had looked forward to this & we were not told before the day that we were supposed to visit (according to the itinerary provided) that they could not fit it in.
- We did NOT see "The Nine Glens of Antrim".
- We spent a total of 13 hours in Belfast including sleep.
- We only had 2 hrs at Blarney Castle & there was a 1 1/2 hr wait to see the Blarney Stone. Only a drive by the Rock of Cashel for photo shot.
- We had 2 "Stop & Shop" stops at "preferred shopping partners" - prices were higher than in any of the towns for the same brands.

On balance this was an excellent tour. The knowledgeable driver guide, 2 GREAT walking tours in Kinsale & Derry, Great food across the country, gorgeous scenery & castles, free time to interact with friendly Irish people all over, & all the side tours included in the price - all made this very enjoyable.

It was a wonderful!!!!! CIE Tours exceeded our expectations.

The itinerary was full of amazing places that we couldn’t have done without CIE. It was so nice to relax on the bus and not worry about anything. We took in all the beautiful views and created wonderful memories to share and to cherish a lifetime!

Loved our driver, Pat.

Loved our driver Pat, he was extremely knowledgeable, very happy with the hotels, meals etc. enjoyed the special events that were planned.

Fantastic trip! First class all the way. Everything was seamless.

Great time. Well worth the cost. So well organized. Ireland is beautiful and very friendly. Marion our tour director was wonderful and Martin our coach driver as well.

the trip was probably too fast paced for us felt i spent the first 7 days strictly on a bus . did see a lot of english country side from a bus . did not feel that we spent much time actually seeing england. i appreciate that the trip was a quick cross-section of england in 7days. the london part and hotel were fine.

SCOTLAND, isles & glens

Excellent tour guide, great driver, wonderful itinerary, good value with many meals included

History, Castles, Beachside towns and the English Countryside, loved it all

I thought it was very well organized. I felt very comfortable right from the start. We were well taken care of throughout the whole tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable not only about the places we seen on tour but about the country as well. Our driver was great at his job, we were in very capable hands.
We got to see and experience so much in just a few days. The history was so interesting, and the places out of story books. Beautiful country.

Overall satisfactory

Yes I would both use and recommend them.

We loved our trip.

I would have given 5 stars but disappointed that NO BACKPACK received prior to the trip and after asking the Tour Director many times it turned up on the very last day. However it was missing the map and information on Iceland. I would like that information and have requested it from the Ireland branch of CIE and to date have not received any acknowledgement of my request. Extremely disappointed especially as the 38 American tourists had all received their backpacks and all information prior to leaving the States. Living in Australia as I do should not present a problem.

This was my second trip with CIE and had no problems with the first trip.

Iceland was an excellent trip but spoilt by lack of attention to detail.

Busy days and experience much!

Coach driver was perfect. He knew so much and talked when interesting sights were coming up. Additional guides were expert.

Well organized. Great driver, tour guide. My only negative was the hotel choice in Killarney, the Scott. Very sub par and noisy.