Are Paddywagon Tours Good?

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While Tyler and I are planning our upcoming anniversary trip to San Francisco, we’re also planning our big family trip to Ireland for next March. Since Tyler and I have both been before, we’ve been unofficially tasked with figuring out some of the major logistics.

So far, what that has meant is figuring out a hotel that works for everyone’s budget, while being close to all the St. Patrick’s Day happenings in Dublin. We actually just booked it, and we’re super excited! But we’ve also had family come to us for advice on what to do while there. I was just talking to my mom and sister about how they could make Dublin their home base while still seeing some more of what Ireland has to offer. My answer: Paddywagon Tours.

Paddywagon Tours has been around since 1998, and they are known for offering excellent tours all around Ireland. I have personally taken a Paddywagon tour three times – once while with Tyler in 2016 to visit the Cliffs of Moher, and twice on my girls’ trip in 2019 to visit the Cliffs of Moher, Galway, Kilkenny and Wicklow. Links to the specific tours we took below:

So are they good? Yes! Especially because we wanted to avoid renting a car, as well as figuring out how to drive on the other side of the car and the other side of the road. The Paddywagon Tours I have been on made it super easy to see a lot of the country of Ireland while offering great information on the local area – plus photo ops! We have historically stayed in Dublin, so it’s very convenient to be brought right back to the city at the end of the day (though Paddywagon does offer multi-day tours).

I know tours aren’t for everyone, but these are so convenient for getting out into other parts of the country, and the guides are generally very fun. We’ve had such good luck with these tours that my non-touring in-laws went with us on a Hairy Coo tour in Scotland to visit Loch Ness when we went to Edinburgh in 2019.

This time around, we’re taking a bit more of the planning into our own hands, and we’re currently figuring out day trips to Cork and Rosscarbery, plus a short jaunt to Belfast in Northern Ireland. But for someone new to Ireland who wants a taste of what the country has to offer, I think these tours are the perfect way to do it.

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