Magical Ireland Reviews

4.9 Rating 132 Reviews

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smarTours is a leading provider of direct-to-consumer, affordable travel experiences to exotic global destinations. The Company offers travelers curated, pre-packaged itineraries to over 50 destinations across the globe. By offering tours directly to consumers, the Company provides premium-quality experiences at value prices, and as a result, has cultivated a highly passionate and loyal community of repeat travelers. More than 200,000 travelers have taken a smarTours trip since the founding of the Company in 1996. smarTours is… the smarter way to see the world.

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“The Magical Ireland tour with Paul Kealy was a fantastic, informative, fun-filled journey around the Emerald Isle. Paul was funny, knowledgeable, accommodating, interesting, and a great driver! Couldn't have asked for a better time. We loved it and would do another tour with Smartours in a heartbeat.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“First off let me say a big Thank you to Matt Rafter our Driver/Tour Director. Matt did an outstanding job and made the tour a magical, informative, educational and wonderful experience. As this was my first trip abroad I was blessed to have his expertise and knowledge. The other local guides did a fine job as well. The only drawback I found was the walking tours falling at the end of the day after events and stops along the way and being on the bus all day. I just wanted to get to my hotel room and have time to prepare for dinner rather than set off on a walking tour at 4 PM. Clarion Hotel in Limerick's staff was less than friendly, they had no business center and we had to buy electrical adapters that even the much smaller hotels provided? I would recommend SmarTours and would use them again myself!”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Like so many visitors from the USA/Canada, we had great fun tracing our roots back to The Emerald Isle. Surprisingly we discovered our ancestors covered Great Britain in it's entirety. We found family surnames from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales!!! Our Tour Director/Driver, Matt, was fantastic. He took very, good care of us and did it with a sense of ease. He was informative, caring, intelligent and had a wonderful sense of humor. I'm sure you consider him a great asset to your company, right? :) A couple of suggestions; no walking tours at the end of a day, also would like to see you select a different hotel in Limerick. It was very dismal with gray and black colors and staff that was very different from the friendly staff in our previous hotels. It felt like we had landed in a eastern block country. Overall I was very impressed with my first trip with smarTours and will gladly recommend you folks to others.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“This tour of Ireland by SmarTours is well worth the money! Ireland is truly a beautiful country with Paul Kealy as your guide. The tour went smooth all the way around Ireland with Northern Ireland also. I have no complaints about the quality of hotels nor food. I recommend this tour with SmarTours.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Paul was a great tour guide and driver. Entertaining and very good. The hotels were excellent. The weather even cooperative. The price was very good. Very good company with excellent sites and a good price. Well worth the trip.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“This was my first smarTour trip, although the third in my family. The trip was so well organized that everything went off without a hitch. Our tour guide Paul was fun and entertaining, and oh so informative. You could tell he really enjoyed what he was doing. Hotels were good, food was good. I could have done without the Irish night at Kate Kearney's Cottage which I thought was overpriced and repetitive of what we had already seen by that time of the trip. However, the Connemara excursion was very nice with some beautiful scenery. Overall, I would highly recommend the trip!”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Excellent all the way through - one of the very best tours we've ever taken. Much of our enjoyment was due to Paul Kealy who is the epitome of a perfect guide. In addition to his knowledge, patience, personality and humor, he obviously loves his country...reminded me of Sir Walter Scott's line: "This is my own, my native land". The country is beautiful and so very clean (as was our spotless coach), the residents are friendly, the venues fascinating, the scenery outstanding. The only negative has nothing to do with the tour itself but with the wish that Smartours could inform us at an earlier date of the airline arrangements. Others in the group expressed the same wish. We shall definitely book another tour with this company.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Never seen a place so green throughout the trip. May be that's why it got somewhat boring. Thruout the tour, all we saw were green grass, sheep, copws and horses on the green pastures, nicely sectionalized and decorated. But... believe it or not, never saw a single patch of vegetable planting throughout the 2-week traverse. Was told veggies are grow elsewhere. No wonder veggies tend to be pricey there. However, the Irish potato is "magical" indeed. Never had potatoes so soft, melting in the mouth once it's chewed into. You don't need teeth to eat Irish potatoes. Idaho, move aside. I consider the potato the best discovery on this trip. The scenery? Good, but.... somewhat a bit short of my expectations (too high perhaps). But... for the price, can't complain. Our tour director Paul was phenomenally intensive to pour our his knowledge of Ireland on us (thanks Paul). The food was much to our surprise, surprisingly good. The lodging overall was good; again, but.... the "F" (Fitzwilliams?) in Belfast, 4-star as it may be, I couldn't stand the hardness of the water. One would keep applying soap and rubbing. You'd never feel cleansed. Have had various hard water situations at lodging places. Wonder why they don't do something 'bout the water. All we needed was good clean beds, comfort sleep before the next day's activities. SmartTours did come through in this department, EXCEPT for the "F" (not the grade).”

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Posted 9 years ago