Irish Discovery Reviews

I am almost blind and have trouble seeing what I am writing so to keep it short, I had a great time and would recommend it as a great holiday.

We had an amazing trip to Ireland. We really have no criticisms about anything. The hotels we stayed in were all very good - clean, comfortable and varied i.e. some modern and some older. Our tour director was very knowledgeable about Ireland, its places and history. The bus drivers we had were also very good. The only thing I would have liked to have ...read more seen was a get-to-know-other travellers event on the first day/evening. This could just be a glass of something where everyone says their name, where they are from etc. I think this would make it easier for people travelling by themselves. But we really enjoyed our Ireland trip.

Thank you to Yvonne Brooks for making the booking process so simple. Everything was done immediately and all information arrived in good time for travelling. The booklet provided was particularly helpful and had all the information on hotels, optional excursions and costs which made planning easy.

The accommodation was uniformly good with The Southern ...read more Hotel Sligo and their dinner being exceptional. The tour guide, Peter, was brilliant, so knowledgeable and amusing. The driver, Shaun, deserves a medal for negotiating those country roads so skillfully. The tour itself was relaxed and enjoyable with plenty of comfort stops, picture opportunities, shopping options and beautiful scenery and interesting experiences. Overall it was an excellent overview of Ireland and her people. Thank you for a wonderful holiday.

We chose this tour because it went right around the island of Ireland, including a visit to Northern Ireland. The scenery was spectacular and we were fortunate to have fine weather most of the time, with just light showers on a couple of days. Highlights included the Cliffs of Moher, the Dingle Peninsular and the Ring of Kerry. The Irish are a fun ...read more loving people, are very hospitable and it's easy to understand why they are so proud of their country.

The accommodation was of a high standard. We have travelled with Cosmos before and be aware, that to maintain a reasonable costing, accommodation is sometimes outside of the main city area. This fact often forces people to join the optional evening tours (which are sometimes expensive), as there may be otherwise few venues to dine at. When travelling, hotel location is not a problem, but on the last night, our hotel was situated a good forty-five minute drive from Dublin City and not on a direct path to the airport. We stayed at a different Dublin hotel on the first night and this hotel was directly on a route both to the city and to the airport.

Breakfast was included each morning, which is always a bonus and was a reasonable standard. We thoroughly recommend this trip for its variety and pace. Some roads around the Dingle Peninsular were quite narrow and high, but we cannot speak highly enough of the skill of our driver, Philip. Our guide, Liz, would have to be one of the best. Well done, Cosmos and thanks again to Georgie for organising this trip for us.

This is a great tour if you want to see all of Ireland. Northern Ireland (Belfast) was particularly interesting due its the political history and our visit to Giant’s Causeway was quite spectacular. The rest of Ireland didn’t disappoint either - the beautiful town of Killarney, the Cliffs of Moher and kissing the Blarney Stone were just some of the ...read more enjoyable experiences on this tour. Kevin the tour director was extremely knowledgeable, and very witty which added to the overall enjoyment. The coach was extremely comfortable and included WiFi and individual USB ports for recharging phones etc on the go. However, there are some long stretches onboard the coach that can be a little tiring and tedious at times but that is part of touring I guess. Sean, the driver ensured a safe journey.

Most of the hotels were comfortable and centrally located although the final hotel was way out of Dublin which was most inconvenient for those transferring to the airport or back into Dublin. Some optional excursions were on the expensive side, so these need to be carefully considered. Thanks must go to Global Journeys in particular Jemma, for her efficient, thorough and speedy response to my booking request which was made as a last minute decision.

I recommend this trip for travelling to Ireland. It gives you a good overview of the country. The optional extras like the Guinness Brewery Tour were great. Our guide, Carmel, was fantastic. Her knowledge of Irish history was immense. Our fellow travellers were a fun group with lots of laughs. I would definitely recommend booking with Jemma Rosen and ...read more Global Journeys who made the whole process easy. This is the second time we have used Global Journeys, and will be back!!

Very pleased with my 9 day tour around the coast of Ireland. Great tour director and driver and a good mix of passengers. All hotels were lovely, with the exception of one, but it was only a couple of small things there. We got very lucky with the weather, as it started off cold and wet but just got better every day. I would do another tour again and ...read more may look into going on another one soon, but for my 2019 holiday.

This is our second time travelling with a Cosmos tour, so we had an idea how things operated. Though that was almost 5 years ago! The seat rotation was still there. Occasionally you get people forgetting where they were supposed to be and sitting on the wrong seats, but that was quickly sorted and it is a fair system. Ally, our tour director, was excellent. ...read more She is knowledgeable and had plenty of yarns. Never a boring moment on the bus.

Cosmos took us to some of the most beautiful sceneries of Ireland. Our tour was only for 9 days and we covered almost all of Ireland and some parts of Northern Ireland. We would have loved to spend more time in some of those places. We also included all the optional excursions. We are glad we did as we had so much fun.

The hotels that we stayed in were cosy and clean. On those nights where dinners were not included, the hotel locations were quite central. Breakfast was excellent. Gerry, our driver, was great. Even driving on the winding and narrow roads, we never felt unsafe. And Ireland has plenty of that! We also got plenty of toilet stops.

Our group was a good mix of young and old, couples, family, friends travelling together and a few solo travellers. We had a few older travellers and Ally made sure they were well looked after. We had an amazing time visiting Ireland. It was as beautiful as I expected and more, and with a great bunch of people whom I will never forget.

The Irish Explorer tour was really unforgettable. Whenever I need to calm myself I just think about the green landscape of the Emerald Isle. The other calming effect is to revisit the glorious a day in Dingle Peninsula. Our tour group was so lucky to see a boisterous Irish Pub wedding prior to our experience of the ambient Irish Pub. We would travel ...read more with tour director Julian and coach driver Gary again and the coach tour was a great "craic".

Good value tour. Great tour guide, very knowledgeable and thank goodness for two brilliant drivers. We enjoyed the whole tour, the sights and all the special events and the Guinness was great!!!

A trip so wonderful and the Tour was excellent the accommodation was totally out of the world with breakfast an excellent day to start with the tour guide and driver well informed and we had a very lovely time tour excursion was well worth and not to be missed.

Normally an independent traveller, this was my first guided tour ever. I am in my 50's and originally booked this trip with my mother. In the end I was a solo traveller. The group was varied in age and diversity. For the most part it was majority of travellers from the USA, then followed up by Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders. We had a few teenagers ...read more travelling with family all the way to senior couples. The group was good and the coach seat rotation was an excellent way to be near different people and get to know others in the group.

Jeff, our guide was interesting, often random and unexpected which just added to his appeal. Our driver - excellent. I never felt anything but in safe hands. The tour was rated as budget but our accommodation was always comfortable and in good locations. Whilst we were booked for specific sights and tours, where time allowed, there were other sights we got to see. The onboard WiFi was a bonus.

I would recommend this trip for anyone wanting to get a real feel for Ireland. I travelled with my 84 year old mother and found this trip accommodated every age group from the young to the old.

Fabulous tour, accommodation excellent, destination towns & sites, weather not so good but we did not
expect good weather anyway. Tour director very good, as with coach driver. Glad we booked with Globus. Yvonne at Global Journeys was great. Have already recommended this tour to many of our friends.

The Irish Explorer was a fantastic trip. Our tour guide Hilary was a hoot and very knowledgeable about all things Irish. Jarek our driver was courteous and fun and ever so considerate, like driving really slow and circling a round a bout at a snails pace so we could all get the perfect photo. It was quite an easy pace tour with not a lot of walking. ...read more We were blessed with almost perfect weather too. Our days on the bus weren't really long and planned evening meals were at an early time giving those who wanted to kick on into town time to do so.

Our accommodation was either really good or really, really good and close enough to town. Our stops were a decent length - plenty of time to have lunch, find a bathroom and a little explore and shop. Stretches on the bus were no more than 2 hours before a bathroom stop. These stops were always planned in a great place with something to take in. We went many places in these two beautiful countries and most of them had you thinking "I'd like to come back here again". This is a well thought out, easy holiday and I thoroughly recommend it.

Global Journeys web site is a great place to research and compare holidays from many companies. It is so easy to use and the filters are brilliant. Jemma was a fantastic Consultant; gave good suggestions and always quick replying to emails. Thank you Jemma, you'll be hearing from me again for sure for my future travels.

The reason I didn't give this tour 5 stars was that the group was too big (48 people, the only seat vacant is the the middle seat at the back and weather was bad when I was there. Because the weather was bad, nearly everyday was raining, so this tour was not a good holiday for me. Because of the bad weather and seat rotation. I missed 2 days supposed ...read more to be beautiful coast drive, it was raining anyway so I don't think I missed much but I believe if weather is good Ireland is a beautiful place. Maybe I should go during summer time so less rainy days.

We have been wanting to go to Ireland for a long time. We stumbled on to this tour Dublin to Dublin. It was a very reasonably priced. We went in January so it was winter over there. I highly recommend this tour. We had a great tour guide Bill. Our coach driver Gary was brilliant, can not praise him enough as a lot of Ireland's roads were very narrow. ...read more We made some great new friends on this tour. A highlight for us was The Cliffs Of Mohar and Gaints cause way. This tour was 9 days and was a perfect amount of time.

What should have been an excellent tour was impacted by issues in regards the lack of daily seat rotation. It became quite a major issue which impacted greatly on the overall enjoyment of the tour which was very disappointing. Tour director should have done more to enforce the seat rotation to make it fairer for all passengers. Things actually became ...read more quite nasty when people refused to move at all and just sat in what ever seat they wanted to each day. A better seat rotation system needs to be implemented and then enforced to prevent this situation occurring again. Maybe name cards placed on seats each morning to indicate where each person should be sitting and then the card being moved back or forward at the end of the day and being placed on the seat for the next day. After our recent experience on board the coach on this tour I doubt whether we would do another Cosmos tour again. The tour of Belfast and the Titanic Exhibition was an optional excursion. I think the tour of Belfast should have been included in the tour rather than having to do it as part of an optional tour. We would highly recommend Global Journeys to anyone wishing to book a holiday. We were very impressed with Michelle White's attention to detail in putting our holiday plans into place.

While this tour felt a bit whirlwind, it covered all the bases - a great way to see most of the popular sites in Ireland with limited time. The accommodation was good. Would have appreciated longer stops in those places we particularly wanted to see such as Giant's Causeway, Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Castle. Enjoyed having both Dingle Peninsula ...read more and the Ring of Kerry included as well as Northern Ireland. We did almost all the optional excursions and many of these were highlights of the tour, such as the banquet at Bunratty Castle and the folk theatre. Thanks to Yvonne and Global Journeys for their good service in booking the tour and packaging it with another tour we were doing later so we got a better discount.

We enjoyed everything Cosmos offered Paul the best guide and Shaun the greatest driver. Everything wonderful and we will certainly travell with Cosmos again.