This was an outstanding tour, especially for a family like us who had never been to Ireland before and wanted to make sure we hit a few "must see" spots in case we never got back there! Our small-group driver, Matthew, made sure we got a really good overview of the 'Wild Atlantic Way' and saw many spots such as Clonmaconise Abbey, Poulnabrone, Galway, the Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Athlone, Killarney, Doolin, Skellig, Kilkenny, and Blarney Castle. Our driver even was able to point out good restaurants in each town, and had the innate knowledge of not only WHAT to see ... but WHEN to see them (best example: if you want to Kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in June, make sure you get there before 10am when all the super-large bus tours arrive!). Some specifics: Kilbeggan Distillery – Exceptional stop. Loved that it was small, slightly off the beaten path, and very high quality. Felt almost like a local while checking it out. Highly recommend keeping this on the tour. Clonmaconise Abbey – Fantastic. Very spiritual place and beautiful. Took many pictures here. I would recommend visitors skip the video presentation (I hate watching touristy videos on vacation. I’d rather use that time actually SEEING the site). Skip the video and proceed directly out to the ruins and headstones. Great views of the River Shannon. Exceptional stop. The Portal - "Poulnabrone" – Another great stop. Love being up on the mountaintop. Love the ancient history lesson here. Gus O'Connor's pub (for seafood chowder) – Fantastic Stop. Best chowder on the island. Galway – fantastic city. Would have even liked to spend 2 nights there instead of just one. Cliffs of Moher – a must-stop, even though in June it is a little overrun with other tourists. Still a beautiful sight. Burren – was rainy as we passed, didn’t see much because this was among the worst weather on our entire trip. Fogged in. Athlone – Sean’s Pub is a must see! This might have been our single favorite pub in Ireland – and yes, because of the history there. Killarney – another great town. Stayed in the Arbutus Hotel – our favorite hotel of the entire trip! Also some of our favorite pubs were in Killarney – the Grand was grand. Killarney National Park - Ladie's View – FANTASTIC. Definitely worth the stop! Doolin - we had a beer at Foxy Johns. Definitely worth going a little out of the way to a pub like this. THIS Is is the kind of thing I want even more of on my next visit to Ireland! I could have spent all afternoon here. Sheepherder demonstration – Can't remember the stop name, but so neat! All the women on the tour, this might have been their favorite stop. Skellig – We liked the scenery, but we found the visitor's center overrated. I do NOT like watching videos on vacation, even if they are short. Never have. I would skip the visitor's center all together. Blarney Castle – not as expensive as everyone warned us about. Although it is more touristy than we thought. My recommendation at least for tourists visiting during high tourist season of June – get there no later than 10:00 am. We got there at 9:30 and waited only 20 minutes. By 11am the line to kiss the Stone looked more like 2 hours long. Kilkenny – great little town. We had lunch at the Left Bank (restaurant) and walked around that area for a while. We could have spent another whole day in Kilkenny, we felt we didn't get to see enough of it. A note about the city of Dublin: We saw the city of Dublin for two days mostly on our own before the arranged small-group bus tour part of the rest of the island began. We liked Guinness Storehouse (even though it was VERY touristy) but it is still worth seeing. The Gravity Bar at the very top was worth the price of admission alone. The rest of St James Gate felt kind of Universal Studios-ish. We did a Hop On Hop Off tour while in Dublin – this was very worthwhile for the first-time visitor to Dublin. Gave us as good overview of the city in a very short amount of time. We saw Christ Church – VERY worthwhile if only to see the Irish codex that contains a copy of the Magna Carta. Very beautiful old church. Very worth it. Temple Bar area – As many others have said before, Temple Bar area is great but it also has the highest prices for food and drink we saw anywhere in Ireland. Grab a beer here, but it's not worth spending a lot of time here -- it's all tourists and you're not likely to run into any locals in the Temple Bar area. O'Connell Street – A very gritty and, I feel I must write this -- O'Connell Street was the only place in Ireland where I didn't feel quite safe. Surely, a lot of large cities are also like that (does anyone really feel safe on Times Square in NYC? Or in the French Quarter of New Orleans?). But had I really known that I might have asked to book accommodations elsewhere. Lots of homeless people and open-air drug users on O'Connell Street at every time of day. In the end, If we ever go to Ireland again, I may skip Dublin all together. But at least now we saw it. Bottom line on the overall trip: We LOVED the smaller towns of Ireland, especially Athlone! Did I mention Athlone? LOL. We loved that town. In fact if I ever go back to Ireland (and I will!) I will probably hang out in Athlone for a few whole days by itself, just sitting at Sean's Bar and seeing some of the more off-the-beaten-path places around there. Athlone might have been our favorite city! We also loved Killarney and Galway!!

Prime Tours did it again. We hit all the regular stops we all enjoy along with new stops we’ve never been to before ! As always, Kevin is amazing at pulling us all together and taking care of business. Joy was a joy and very knowledgeable ! Great people. Great food. Great travel !

My son had a great time on his DC trip. There were some mechanical problems with a couple of the buses that caused some delays, but other than that, the trip went smoothly.

My son had a great time, visited a lot of cool places and enjoyed the trip. I couldn’t give it five stars because there were multiple buses and multiple bus breakdowns that interrupted the trip. It also made the students miss a few of the events on their itinerary.

The bus broke down multiple times. And we were unable to visit the Holocaust museum.