Sustainable Connemara and Galway Bay Rail Tour saindo de Dublin

Tour cancelled with less than 24 hours notice because they didn’t flog enough tickets. I’m not annoyed the tour was cancelled in anyway at all. However, I am furious about the short notice given and total disregard for failing to give me proper notice. I booked my travel and hotel to ensure it covered a date when this tour was running. Companies that charge a premium price and offer a Ryanair service like this can not expect my custom in the future.

My daughter and I had a wonderful experience taking this tour in spite of the rainy, cold weather. We were the only two rail passengers from Dublin to Galway so had our guide, Andrew Roche, all to ourselves for the three-hour trip west. He was very knowledgeable and pointed out many interesting facts along the way and shared many stories about the country with us. Once on the coach, we had a lovely time taking in the many sights through Connemara. I was especially struck by the beauty of the mountains and, of course, Kylemore Abbey. On the return train ride, we were kept up to date about our expected arrival time in Dublin, and were well taken care of. Andrew, again, made the time on the train fly by, keeping us entertained with more stories. I highly recommend this tour!

The rail trip was great. The scenery and sites visited were gorgeous. The guide was a bit rude - didn't really seem to want to be there - and "salesy" on the places we visited / passed by. The coach driver was dangerous - very high speeds on narrow roads. It felt a bit rushed. I might do the tour again for the convenience of rail and coach but would choose a different operator.

The views were awesome but the trip seemed like forever! Our guide was very knowledgeable but never took a minutes break in speaking that got to be a bit much but don’t want to take away from his knowledge and life experiences as he is fantastic.

We wasted a day. We were booked on the Sustainable Connemara and Galway Bay Rail Tour from Dublin. However, our train was 15 min late and the tour bus would not wait. The guide on the bus said they couldn’t wait and our only option was to take another tour which included things we already did on another tour the day before and didn’t include Kylemore Abbey, which was the reason we signed up for that tour in the first place. She was not very pleasant. There is an earlier train from Dublin to Galway and I really think you should consider that earlier train rather then just throw customers on another bus, when the train is late, to take a tour they didn’t want. When we got back to Dublin we signed up, and paid for, another tour on another date so we could see Kylemore Abbey.

I have a very bad experience with this company. On July 5, 2024, we should have been on the all-day trip to Connemara, which was canceled for operational reasons less than 24 hours before the start. Our disappointment was enormous as it happened at the last minute. We didn't even have time to organize a corresponding replacement program. They had the money from us in their account from April 23, 2024 (3x139 euros). This company never again and one star only for the fact that they returned our money.

Today was absolutely fabulous! John Todd, our tour guide, was the very best. He has a heart of gold and looked after us so well. Galway and Connemara are stunning. It was a day to remember forever!

We did this tour as a replacement because the weather was too rough for the Aran Island tour. Our first Railtour guide was Frank and he was very nice and got us situated where we needed to be. Then once in Galway we transferred to a lollytours bus and stopped for tea and pictures. We got the authentic Irish experience and it downpoured on us. The rain/fog made it hard to see the landscape but later in the day it cleared up and Connemara is absolutely beautiful! We enjoyed our time at Kylemore Abbey we should have found the kitchen sooner because we ended up crunched for time. Galway was very busy with the Christmas market.

John, our bus driver/guide who works for Lallly Tours was phenomenal. He provided so much history including the local flora. He spoke when needed but not overly talkative which can be very annoying by many guides. This tour started and ended in Galway which is a beautiful town. Seeing the Connemara and the Burren along with the Cliffs of Moher is a must see when visiting Ireland.

Train host, bus host and bus driver were all amazing, as were the sites. My disappointment is that I spent $250 and was only allowed 1:50 minutes at Kylemoore. 1. No breakfast on train even though your trip details listed that. 2. Was rushed from train to bus even though we needed something to eat and drink, and my wife is diabetic. 3. We were told the bus would stop for tea in 45 minutes. It was 1:30 before the first stop. More time when my wife's sugar was dropping without food. 4. Had to choose between Kylemoore OR the national park. Trip details leads you to believe you see both. 5. Drove past Kylemoore to drop folks at Natl Park first, then returned back to Kylemoore to drop us. We could have had an addtl 30 mins at Kylemoore if we had been dropped on the way by the first time. 6. No one greeted us at the train station to accompany us back to Dublin. Not significant, but again we were told several times that there would be someone. This was our third Viator trip this week and the first one that was a bad experience. Whether intentional or not I don't know but there was quite a bit of misinformation. Bob Hilbert fggrider@yahoo.com