The Scots Irish Tour

Joe, our driver was fantastic! He was so knowledgeable and so fun to have for our entire trip. Di was our guide while we were in Scotland. She was great too and the two of them together made a great team! They both gave great recommendations for dining and pubs. Our first night we stayed at Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club in Edinburgh. Although the hotel was beautiful, the food was just ok. Edinburgh as a city though is gorgeous! Didn't have enough time to pack in everything. Would love to go back! One of our favorite restaurants we ate at for lunch was in Edinburgh recommended by Di. It was called Whiski Bar. The Haggis is was AMAZING! Haggis sounds completely gross, but we ate every bite here! Their whisky list is amazing too! Our next hotel was Columba Hotel in Inverness. CIE should take this hotel off of their itinerary. Although the town seemed nice, the hotel was not. The springs for our double sized bed were coming through the mattress and would get you every time you rolled over. My husband who is 6'3 could not fit in the bathroom very well. He could only take a shower by standing in the front - the ceiling dipped down and was too low for him. The sink sprayed water every time you turned it on and would spray so far it would hit the bathroom door. Not to mention that the bathroom door opened the opposite way and wouldn't open completely because it would hit the toilet and/or bathroom sink. Would NOT recommend this hotel. That day we had a free afternoon in Pitlochry. It was an ok stop, but not much to FOR 3 hours. I would've rather spent more time elsewhere. Our favorite hotel of all was Isles of Glencoe Hotel. We were only here 1 night and very much wished we could have stayed here longer. This place is on our list to visit again! Our room was absolutely beautiful and the views were gorgeous!! Not to mention how great the service was! This whole area is just so beautiful and breathtaking! We loved driving through the Highlands! On day 5 we visited Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. Wish we could have skipped this and enjoyed something else for a longer period of time. There was not much to do or see here. We had about 3 hours here to kill and you could walk through the museum in about 15 minutes, stretching it out. We spent 2 nights in Belfast after that. We could've easily spent an entire week in this city alone! So much to do and see! We had a quick lunch in Carrick on Shannon which was such a lovely town. We also had walking tours in Derry and Galway! Would have loved to have spent more time in these cities as well. So much to do and see, especially in Galway! This seemed like a fun place to spend a couple nights! Our favorite place to go though was a thatched pub called Crosskeys Inn. So quaint and cozy! Great atmosphere, food, music, and drinks! My husband says it would be the perfect place to spend the holidays. Maybe one day!! Thank you Joe for such an amazing trip! "Matilda" and Neil really enjoyed it and appreciate you making our trip so special! I hope one day we can book another tour with CIE! Booking CIE for our Honeymoon was such a stress reliever. It was great to not have to worry about any of the small details. CIE did it all for you! Loved that we had a few "free" afternoons as well to do our own thing, or relax if wanted. Would definitely recommend this booking service!

Great tour, great sights and accommodations. Tour Director, Nigel was outstanding. He made the trip incredible, would not have been the same without him. It was obvious he loved Ireland and loved sharing it with us.

We loved everything about this tour. Having our bags taken to our rooms and picked up on the morning of our hotel checkouts was great! What really made our trip special was our driver/tour guide Joe Lyons. He made the trip so special with his personality and knowledge of Ireland. We feel that he went above and beyond to make the trip special for all in our tour group and that the trip was made more informative and special because of him.

The places visited, the hotels, the driver and guide were all top notch. The trio of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland was on our bucket list and this was the perfect way to go. Would not want to drive on those tiny Irish seaside roads and have to drive myself.

Excellent guide for Scotland. Fun and fantastic guide and driver, as they were the same person, for Ireland. Only "critique" was that more time should be given to Galloway. Would have preferred to spend less or no time at the spa and used it to explore Galloway. People of both countries were warm and friendly. Great accommodations and food. Well planned tour.