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Review 6/9/2010
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We took the Shades of Ireland tour May 25-June 3, 2010. We wish we had toured Ireland on our own. We started in Dublin and except for a morning bus "tour" of Dublin and a brief stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral we were left alone. Good thing I brought my book on Ireland so that we knew what to visit by ourselves - like Trinity College, Christ Church, Dublin Castle, museums, the Temple Bar area, the jail, Guinness, and on and on. Too little time at sights - only 1 1/2 hours at Cliffs of Moher and WAY too much time at tourist shopping traps. We don't know why we even had to include those when there is certainly time to shop after reaching our hotels. (Heads up - I bought a necklance at one of the stops they pushed only to find it at 50 euros less at a shop in the airport when we were leaving.) If we had done our homework, we could have come up with a much more satisfying vacation on our own. There was another Collette group doing the same tour as ours and the two guides were not on the same page - theirs was more organized and up to date. When anyone asked our guide questions, she said she'll answer us "later". In this day and age, it only sent people to their Blackberrys to google the answers and find out on their own. Waste of time sites - Blarney woolen mills, local farm (the family was charming but with so much to see you don't need to spend all morning to eat scones and have tea to hear about farming today and family life), Limmerick - the hotel was too remote to access the town and we didn't tour any sites there - our guide told us the city wasn't safe! Near the end there was just way too much time on the bus although kudos to the bus driver for manuevering the narrow roads! The hotels were so-so with one exception. If we are lucky enough to go back to Ireland, we will definitely do it on our own. If you are determined to use a tour operator, keep looking!
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