Personalized, Driven Tours of Historic Ireland

Our lovely spell of dry weather has come to an end and it is now showery and cold once again. At least we are getting periods of nice sunshine so it is not all bad news. May is fast approaching anyway and that can be a lovely month here. The rain is needed for growth at this time also and we will be awash with colour soon as all the flowers begin to bloom. I love the Killarney and Dingle areas as they are particularly colourful due to their proximity to the Gulf stream. The Rhododendrons and Montbretia, and of course our native furze bushes, grow in abundance in these areas and the contrast is just beautiful. It is a lovely time of the year to come to Ireland. May looks like being a busy month for me but i will try to keep updating my blog and maybe some of you out there will give me a hand to keep it interesting. I look forward to hearing from you.

Touring Ireland

What lovely weather we are having for an Irish tour. I have traveled to the sun myself for holidays abroad but i would not swap a fine day in Ireland for any of them. It never gets too warm here and it never gets too cold. We do get our share of rain but there are very few days where it rains all day and you can get a lot done between the showers. Many people come here from very warm climates and just love to stroll in the rain. Many more appreciate the cool Irish breezes carrying rich fresh air to clean out your lungs. I love where i am beside the sea on the west coast where right now the fresh Atlantic south-westerlys' are teasing my trees. Even as i sit typing the sun is shining through the window as the day is drawing to a close, and what a lovely day it was. May can be a beautiful month here and i am looking forward to it as i have a busy month ahead. It would be lovely if the weather holds up but i have never had a tour which was totally spoiled by the weather. People do not come here to get a suntan. There is so much to see and do here and the rain does not stop you from doing these things.
Now i have to feed my pony. Drop me a message.

Tour guide...Chauffeur Ireland

Special thanks to those of you who are contributing to my Blog. I really enjoyed Leon's latest gem on the financila situation. I hope that he tells us more about his Denver guided tours. As long as he stays over there and does not try to usurp me over here. Joking aside, I love to see your comments and without your contributions i feel my Blog would become boring. I intend to keep updating it and feel that there are many people out there who just might find that my touring experience and my knowledge of my country might be a great help to them if they are planning an Irish holiday. Try me out...it will not cost you anything.

Dave

Ireland of the welcomes

It looks like everybody is feeling to varying degrees the effects of the economic downturn. For those who are really badly affected we have to have a lot of sympathy. The elderly who spent so many years trying to put a little away for the rainy day must be very high on the list. Also people who were saving so that someone who was dependent on them might have a certain amount of protection when they passed on. Those of us who have to begin to learn how to live without the luxuries we had become used to are not too badly off at all. If we look at it more closely there is an opportunity there for us now that can be a blessing in disguise. In Ireland in bygone days there was such a thing a as neighborhood and people looked out for one another. They did their best to support those who were less fortunate than themselves and i am sure that in many areas in the USA it was no different. Maybe now is a time when we can once again become more conscious of what we might be able to do for those around us, especially the older generation who live alone and have nobody and are too proud to ask for help. I live in a rural area and it still retains a lot of the old style neighborliness and i am never short of a helping hand if i need it. I have not always lived here but having moved here from a city it was something i recognised and appreciated from the begining. I have good neighbors. City life has changed from my youth. There was a time when if you walked down the centre of my town you knew everybody, or at least you knew somebody belonging to them. Nowadays i would not know anybody in the same town. People do not know their own neighbors nor do they want to know. There is so much rented accomodation now and people keep coming and going and you never know who is next door to you. There is an element of fear involved in getting too close to people.It seems to be easier and safer to keep to yourself. That does not mean that we should not be alert to what may be going on around us and maybe be ready if an opportunity presents itself where we can help somebody. The rewards are great.
Despite the general feeling of gloom that hangs over our world right now there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of enquiries i am still getting and my bookings are good. I am also noticing just how welcome i am being made to feel when i am contacting hotels etc here to make reservations for my tours. All of a sudden people are grateful to be getting your business. I believe that i am going to notice this even more as i tour this year. I do not bring big busloads of people around with me but now even specialised operators like myself are getting special attention. I am fortunate that i have built up a relationship with all the people i regularly do business with and they are always most attentive to my needs. It is when i sometimes use a different restaurant or pub or hotel that i am now noticing a welcome a little more like the one that earned us the nickname "Ireland of the Welcomes". People are going to have to be more conscious of their prices and there will hopefully be better deals. The touristy shops have many great bargains on offer and i feel that as a result of this those coming to Ireland this year will be getting great value.The rip-off days are numbered and people are now becoming more aware of what they are spending. Shop around is the in thing. I refuse to buy my fuel in any filling station that is over the odds. I am the same with general shopping and there are places that offer value. People are not going to continue to pay the ridiculous prices they had to pay for a coffee or a Coke. We are growing up at last.....and do we really need that extra coffe or that extra Coke?
Now i better go and do some work or i will have nothing left to buy shares. Anybody got any tips?

Your comments are most welcome.

Dave

Touring in Ireland Oct 2011

It is nice to know that some people are planning that far ahead and hoping to come and see me in 2011. Well Rita Nancy and Phyllis, you will be more than welcome and i have that to look forward to. I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of enquiries i am receiving despite the negative mood the media are trying to pulverise us with. I always say that when they are introducing the news programs they should never say "Here is the news". They should say "Here is the bad news." I myself do not purchase newspapers any more and i only listen to the news occasionally and mainly to get the sports results and the weather reports. Even the weather reports are not much use because you are just going to get what you are going to get anyway. The good news from me today is that i woke up this morning, and that must mean that i am still alive, and that today i can smile and maybe make someone else smile also. Like we would say in Irish "La Brea" or as pronounced (law braw).
That simply means "Nice day" or "Good Day".

What to ask your driver

Well i did ask for trouble when i offered to try to answer any questions you might have. Little did i know that Aaron and Rita would be waiting in the wings. I suppose i have to lay the main blame on Aaron as Rita was only supporting his question.
He wants to know what he can do to make back the money that he has lost due to the stupidity of the so-called financial geniuses who got us all into this mess. Aaron i wish i had the answer to that. One thing that might help is if we could capture all these geniuses ...strip them off...and get them to dance while singing "We did it our way".
I suppose all i can say about the investment side of things is that for people who have shares that have a chance of making a recovery (like myself) it may be worth hanging in there and hope that they will recover somewhat. It will undoubtedly take time and a lot of patience but it may be worth it if you are in a position to hold on.
With regard to how we can recover ourselves from the effects of this disaster. Well i think that both of you are well equipped due to your personalities to do just that. The way you landed me with this question Aaron, speaks volumes for you great sense of humour, and the way Rita supported you shows that she too is blessed in the same way. Life kicks us all in the gut and sometimes in much worse ways than financially. The time i spent with both of you will always be worth remembering and what we enjoyed together had nothing to do with how much any of us were worth. Getting over the hard blows that life dishes out is always made a lot easier when we can see what is really important in our lives. The partner we have....the family we have....the grand-children we have...the friends we have...the good health that we have....or the great level of acceptance we have of whatever it is that is wrong in our lives. Some of the best people i have ever met astonished me with their calm acceptance of hardship pain and suffering. Both of you have known hard times before and do not need me to point that out.
We laughed together before and please God we will laugh together again and i know that we will do that even if we are broke. Maybe we can even help some others to laugh too.

Happy Easter

I must first of all apologise for not keeping my blog up to date but i have been busy. However i was not going to miss the opportunity to wish all my friends a Happy Easter. I myself am not planning anything other than making sure that i get time to enjoy the nice weather. We are experiencing some very lovely weather lately, along with our April showers. The cold has disappeared and i hope that it will not return eventhough what we call cold here, some of you would call cool. I am not planning any touring over the Easter period but May looks like being a busy one for me. I try to plan my tours with breaks in mind as i believe my clients want a chauffeur and guide who is not stressed out. I also make sure that i do not overload my tour with crammed itineraries which leave my clients feeling like "hamsters on a wheel. " Tour companies do this in order to make their plans look great but when they are put into action people end up being exhausted.
The feed back i received to my question "what would you Google if you were looking for someone to take you around Ireland?" has been very helpful.
The following were some of your suggestions

Private customized tours Ireland
Car and Driver Ireland
Ireland Vacation
Escorted tours Ireland
Personal chauffeur ireland

If you have any more suggestions for me please feel free to comment. I would love to see more comments. Remember....it does not cost you anything to ask me for a little advice.
In the meantime ....have a lovely Easter and take care.

Driving in Ireland

Driving in Ireland, when you come from a country where they drive on the opposite side of the road, can be a major problem. Hiring a driver can be the perfect solution if you can afford it and of course that is where i come in. many people do come here and hire a car themselves but when you are trying to keep your eyes on the road and remember at the same time that you have to stay on the proper side then there is little time to enjoy the scenery. It is much more relaxing to be able to sit back and enjoy the countryside while feeling safe with a competent driver. Many accidents do occur and some of them are serious. I have driven myself in countries where i have had to drive on the WRONG side and it has not been a nice experience, and i am a professional driver. Chauffeur hire in some countries is extremely expensive but there are worse places than Ireland. It might be worth your while to consider hiring a car and driver or a limo and driver. The roads in many rural areas are very narrow and winding and not easy to navigate so if you do insist on driving yourself just take you time and pull over and stop if you are really worried about oncoming traffic on a narrow road especially if you see a large truck or bus coming your way. Let him do the passing maneuver. If you have any concerns or questions you want to ask me about this just write me a comment. I will do my best to answer if i can.

Irish Weather

For many years now i have been a great defender of Irish weather but last year i was left totally defenseless. What a terrible year we had. There was nothing at all that even resembled a Summer's day and our beaches were empty. Now i did a lot of touring and i was amazed at just how tolerant of the weather my clients were. Ireland still has so much to offer and in the past i always said that "Ireland is always beautiful ...it is just that some days she wears a different dress". Well that seems to be how my fellow travelers saw her anyway. Of course there are those who come from areas where rain is a rare visitor and they love to get out there and walk in it. We rarely get a day here when it pours all day long anyway. Showers are more common and you can take shelter occasionally and then take advantage of the bright spells. We never get the low temperatures and snow is something you do not associate with our climate. If we do get snow it rarely sticks especially all along the western seaboard where we have the gulf stream. Many of my visitors are surprised that people swim here in the ocean but as children we spent all Summer swimming and the water is really lovely here. Today was a beautiful Spring day and i was fortunate to be able to spend most of it outdoors... and a lot of it in my garden. I love my garden and while i am there my pony Taffy loves to keep me company...the other side of his fence. He is a Welsh pony...small ...black...bold...and a real pal. He loves his carrots and when i cut my lawn he loves a taste of the freshly cut grass. I cannot give him too much as he could get a knotted gut and that would be bad. Today a neighbour's calf managed to get over Taffy's wall and it was a treat for him as he just loved the company. It was a shame to have to put the calf back in his own field but it had to be done. What a change a sunny day can bring about. People are happier and more friendly...animals the same. It cheers everybody up. It lifts depression. It makes you happy to be just alive. The depression is forgotten. Your stock in life increases. Our long range forecast is for a good weekend with plenty of sunshine. Tomorrow we are forecast a little rain but then after the last few days that will be good. We need that now for growth and followed by the sub this weekend we should get that.
What does this Summer have in store for us? Well last Summer was bad and everybody still had a great time so why should i worry. I do not really...i just want the best for my clients and they seem to be very happy with what they get. Maybe i only get the best.