Elegant Irish Tours

On my recent trip to Ireland we based ourselves in Dublin but since the other three people I was traveling with had never visited before, they were anxious to get out into the countryside to see some of the sights. On a previous trip, my friend Kathy and I had hired a driver for the day to take us around. Since driving can be challenging for Americans on the left side of the road, it seemed like a good option for this trip. I looked around and found Elegant Irish tours and passed the info to my friend Irene.

She contacted Elegant tours and books a full day tour to the Boyne Valley. What was included was a stop at Newgrange, The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Center, The Hill of Tara and Trim Castle. We found this to be an excellent selection of things for us to enjoy. The cost was €595 plus tip for the driver. Split four ways this seemed a good bargain. No entrance fees were included but tolls were.

Our driver picked us up at our hotel and we headed out of Dublin. Traffic on the way out was easy, however, on the way back it was horrific. It made us very glad that Jerry was dealing with it and not us. We were very comfortable in the high-end minivan with onboard wifi.

Our first stop was Newgrange. I am so glad we stopped here, it was absolutely amazing.   It was our longest stop and I estimate we spent about two hours here. The tour tickets are timed so you know when you will be taking the bus up to the tomb.

Next, we went to the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Center. It is the most significant battle of the war between English Protestant and the Catholic Irish. We spent about an hour here. We headed to the Hill of Tara where we first stopped for lunch.

We then had a short time to accomplish the climb to the top of the hill. In November the days are short in Ireland so we had to head out a little quicker than perhaps we would have liked if we wanted to see Trim Castle. We did manage to get there but the castle is closed in November for the season so we just got to see the exterior.

As it got dark we had to deal with traffic as we tried to get back to our hotel in Ballsbridge. Jerry managed it wonderfully in spite of the crazy bicyclists who seem to have no regard for their lives.

We had a fabulous day, it was without a doubt the highlight of our trip and I would highly recommend Elegant Irish Tours if you are wanting to get out of Dublin for a day or even more. We were treated like valued customers at every part of the journey from booking to drop off at our hotel.