4.6/5

The trip was fantastic, enjoyed the locations we visited and our tour guide John Cunningham was great. I would recommend CIE and am considering taking another CIE tour in the future.

A first class touring company. Everything was great but I found the schedule somewhat grueling with so many early morning starts and very little downtime.

The tour/coach drivers were very knowledgeable and very personable. Everything was well planned and taken care of. The only negative was our interaction with the flight department. We had to have our flight fixed twice and the final fix ended up not being set for the time we told them we wanted to leave at.

Wonderful experience

Overall wonderful experience. Hotels all very good, guide and travel great!

Highly Recommend!!

We could not have more pleased with every aspect of our tour of Ireland. Everything excellent - tour director, coach driver, itinerary, special CIE only stops, hotels, coach, on and on… Highly recommend!!

Eileen helped me book the trip and she was excellent, thank you Eileen

The tour was excellent. No extra fees

Irish Odyssey

Saw several cities, great attractions, excellent guide
Particularly enjoyed the Epic Museum, the titanic Museum and the mounds at Newgrange

Everything was taken care for us I would definitely book with them again!

Best trip ever!

Definitely would use CIE Tours again. I loved their service, helpful and payment schedule was so accommodating. I received help with booking my flights and whenever I needed a copy of my invoice, they sent it right away. Top notch!

There was too much time on the bus I

would travel with CIEagain great trip

Great guides in Anita and Colum. Nice bus and hotels.

Great tour, great driver/tour director, great sites we visited.

The tour was great. The tour director was wonderful. We loved the sheep dog demonstration, the Covb, Waterford and Galway walking tours, and the hotels were very good. Food was also very good.

CIE lacking compassion.

The guide in my tour I would rate 4/5. The lower rating for service is primarily due to almost no assistance from the CIE office once I got COVID part way through my trip.
Any communication from CIE staff seemed only to be interested in whether or not I had medical coverage.
I was told I could not rejoin the tour even if I tested negative before my tour ended.
I realize it is not CIE’s responsibility to arrange accommodation and alternate travel once I was feeling better but I think it would have been appropriate to ask me a few more questions and offer some suggestions.
At the very least I think an email to check in to see how I was doing after a few days would have been in order.
Compassion was definitely lacking.

I would suggest this tour to anyone

The guide and bus driver Sam was excellent. They had stops that I wanted to see

Trip abroad was wonderful

Excellent trip going to Italy

Awesome tour guide.somany beautiful places to visit. Comfortable accommodat

CIE had everything figured out for us. Very enjoyable experience. We will book with them again in the future.

You feel safe and see a lot of sites with meals.

Great, they even did my plane arrangements. It went well.

While the first half of our tour was most pleasant I am sad to report an incident on the second half that has polluted the a very positive and effective trip.
On the morning of October 18, our guide, Lloyd Creach reported a tooth ache and sinus infection that was causing him some discomfort. He had no medications but was able to get some pain relievers from one of the guests. He did well through the morning and afternoon.
The trouble began on our return trip to Calway. We encountered some heavy traffic which added 1.5 hours to the last two miles of the trip. Without notice, our guide left the coach in the middle of traffic (it was stopped). The next hour was miserable for everyone but made worse by the unexplained absence of our guide.
The next morning our guide made an “apology” of sorts where he informed us that his work was done for the day when he left the coach, that his needs and where he went was no one’s business but his own. He went on to share that he left to get to a pharmacy before it closed so a to treat his tooth ache and sinus pain.
I certainly have empathy for those in pain and would not stand in the way of their relief. The whole coach would have supported him had he made this known before leaving. Rather his silence was a great disrespect to those he had confided in earlier, for those who had earlier offered him aid and all who had to remain on a slowly moving bus. Many of us would have gladly left at the same moment. His defiant attitude the next day showed he has no appreciation for the trust and confidence he lost.
It is difficult to say whether the very positive experience of Scotland will displace the distaste of this event. It is certain that our abandonment will be a family legacy sadly associated with CIE.