Welcome to Tauck’s The Best of Ireland, Small Groups Forum

Tauck Emily

Welcome to Tauck’s The Best of Ireland, Small Groups Forum - Find the answers to your trip questions, answer questions posted by fellow travelers, plus share your Tauck experiences and stories. Stop by often and join in on the discussions.

Linda and Rich

My wife and I are on the tour on 8-1-2018 and would any information and reading materials that would be helpful.

AlanS

Linda and Rich wrote:

My wife and I are on the tour on 8-1-2018 and would any information and reading materials that would be helpful.

Kinda of a wide open question! Have you read the tour page itinerary, all items under the "Before you Go" tab, etc. and the Best of Ireland forum posts? That should help you narrow your interest to some specific questions. It is likely many have already been answered. Also, at the bottom of the tour page you will see an area titled "Suggested Reading" where you will find books about the people, history, etc. of Ireland.

Claudia Sails

We're doing this tour in Jun so I've been doing lots of reading.

In addition to Alan's suggestions, if you own a smartphone or tablet there is a new Tauck App you can download. Prior to the tour start it has the itinerary, Before You Go and maps already loaded. In addition they appear to have loaded most/all of Fodor's Ireland travel guide with info about restaurants, sight seeing, etc etc. Once on the tour there will be the list of your fellow travelers and the detailed daily itinerary (like what time to have luggage ready, when to be on the bus, etc).

For other travel guides my personal favorites are the DK Eyewitness guides and Rick Steves - both have been updated for 2018. I don't usually take the DK guides on tour with me as they can be very heavy - loads of wonderful color photos and maps - but the Ireland one is actually not too big. Rick Steves come in both paper and Kindle versions. I like his recommended self guided walks, he lists loads of books and movies to watch before you go, and has good recommendations on reasonably priced restaurant choices. Tauck tours feed you so extensively it's nice to get something smaller/more casual. You might want to check out his website which has alot of country specific info and general european travel info like getting local currency, using/charging electronics, how to avoid pick pockets, and more.

TTFN

smarks50

Claudia Sails: I am on the June 28 Small Groups departure. What is your departure date?

Claudia Sails

There is a group of 6 of us on the 16 Jun start. Confusingly, it's a tour under the Best of Ireland tour but it is a small group. For some reason they didn't put all the small groups starts under the BofI, Small Groups tour.

AlanS

Claudia Sails wrote:

There is a group of 6 of us on the 16 Jun start. Confusingly, it's a tour under the Best of Ireland tour but it is a small group. For some reason they didn't put all the small groups starts under the BofI, Small Groups tour.

That whole process last summer was strange! If I remember, one of the tour pages kept disappearing on and off for a few days and they also have slightly different itineraries and lodging- one doesn't stay at Ashford Castle.