4.6/5

It was a great tour, the guide was great. A couple of things could have made this much better. The food was average and a few times poor. Each hotel had the almost the exact same menu and very bland. We all were over traditional Irish food, would have loved a salad bar, taco night or pizza or even a decent pasta dish with a protein option not just vegetarian. More free time would have been great, seemed rushed at times and just skip Glascow and the loch ness, not very charming or interesting. Would have paid more for better food! Quality over quantity. Hotels were nice and charming. The canal cruise was the worst part of the trip for us, food awful and the entertainer was not funny but rude.

Reservation SNAFU on "pre" and "post" tour added nights

We loved the Kompas tour from Prague to Vienna to Budapest. No issues there. But the reason I'm only giving 4 stars, instead of 5, is because of a glitch in CIE's tour registration process. I "signed up" on line for our tour in October 2018. The online booking webpages offered the option of adding a "pre-tour" night and a "post-tour" night at the Prague and Budapest hotels, respectively. I requested both those options because they fit well with our plan to fly from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Prague for the start of the tour and then to take an intercity bus back to Ljubljana from Budapest after the tour. When I spoke with CIE representatives in October (to pay the deposit due and to remove the trip insurance option from the reservations) and again in March, 2019 (to pay the balance due on the tour reservation), I specifically asked about additional charges for the "pre" and "post" nights. The CIE reps apparently did not know how to handle these tour options and told me there was no additional fee.

HOWEVER, at some point after I paid the balance due on the tour in March 2019, the "pre" and "post" nights" got dropped from our reservation--presumably because Kompas had not received payment for the optional nights. I did not discover this change until I finally received the lodging vouchers via special request two nights before we were due to land in Prague. I appreciate that CIE/Kompas did respond to my queries on this by offering an option for adding a "pre" night at the Angelo by Vienna House in Prague and the original hotel in Budapest (not the one we actually stayed in for the tour). But the prices for those two nights were exorbitant (not surprising, given the timing). Instead, I arranged less expensive bookings via Booking.com on my own, the night before we left Ljubljana.

Bottom line: I think the retail reservation processing interface between CIE and Kompas needs a careful inspection and improvement. I may be mistaken, but my hunch is that, if I had booked directly with Kompas for the tour, the charges for the pre and post nights would have been presented at the time of the initial reservation, and I would not have been left scrambling for rooms at the last minute before our tour started. If the nature of the problem is not clear from my description above, feel free to contact me at [email protected] for details and/or documentation.

We felt the whole process of booking the tour was very easy. Everyone we dealt with was very helpful. We would definitely recommend CIE Tours to others and might look to do another one in the future. Our tour guide, Peter Scott, was outstanding. He was able to navigate any little glitches with no problem. He is a gem and your company is lucky to have him. Our driver, Nigel Ford, was second to none. We felt very safe with him at the wheel. He and Peter worked perfectly together. You'd have thought they were partners for years. Would certainly not mind having them lead a future tour for us.

Great Trip to Wales

The folks were very helpful with my questions and suggesting solutions

Daniel Maguire was the agent who assisted me with booking. He is the reason we chose cie over the other companies. After multiple attempts to find reasonable flights he found them for us. I wanted to do a run and leave the tour.for the day and he helped me arrange a rental car as well as assisted with multiple options. That’s customer service you don’t see every day.

Once they had the names spelled correctly, with correct middle names, all went well

Michelle was very helpful throughout entire process. Very quick responses to our questions.

Wonderful experience in seeing Ireland.

We really were blessed by having Patrick Smyth as our driver and tour guide. Patrick does a nice job in explaining Ireland, the history, the sites, the many stories of the country. Additionally, he is so much fun. CIE is a great travel company and Patrick Smyth represents the quality of the service.

We had a wonderful trip, the hotels were great along with the tour guides. However, the one problem was the food, breakfast was very good but I think we could have had a better selection on the dinner menu.

We never had any problems and the people who helped us were great. I thought we were going to have problems when the first travel agency went bankrupt but there wasn't one glitch.

Pleasant experience with CIE’s Scotland Tour

Our guide was an absolute doll and so knowledgeable about Scotland and its history. The driver was excellent and very personable. It was a plus that most meals were included. Itinerary was generally good with some exceptions.

Irish Gold

The process was very straightforward and the reps answered all of my questions quickly and completely. I would use and recommend CIE.

Airline ticketing/seat selection was difficult.

Best tour of Ireland

Have travelled with CIE previously so was familiar with company. Still great service and our bus driver/guide was the best.

Hassle free

Used travel agency. Was easy to obtain and package received before trip was excellent.

Very efficient, package of information arrived in a timely manner.

Great value

Everything was well planned and very well organized. The tour guide and bus driver were always very professional and informative.

One area to improve would be allowing smaller tables at the meals - I traveled with my wife only yet we frequently had to sit at tables of 6-8 people. That was sub-optimal.

I would/have recommended them

Tom O’Toole...highly recommended Tour Guide

Tom O’Toole was an awesome tour guide. He is knowledgeable and compassionate about Ireland’s history. He provided us unforgettable experiences with always being on top of the itinerary.