Dublin to Glendalough, Wicklow & Kilkenny Tour

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, especially the leisurely drive through the beautiful Irish countryside and the visit to Glendalough. The scenery was breathtaking, and I appreciated having time to explore the Lower lake. However, I have a few recommendations that would make the experience more accessible and less stressful for Deaf travelers. At Glendalough, it would have been very helpful to receive a printed walking map of the Lower Lake with the recommended route, estimated walking times, key landmarks, and the exact bus departure time clearly marked. Having this information in a visual format would have allowed me to explore with greater confidence without worrying about getting lost or missing the return bus. I also learned only after the tour that it was imperative to return to the bus on time because of government regulations governing the driver's schedule. Since I did not have access to the driver's spoken announcements, I was unaware of how critical the return time was. Learning this only after the tour caused unnecessary stress and anxiety during my visit. Overall, I greatly appreciated the warm hospitality and the bus driver/tour guide's wonderful sense of humor. However, for the price I paid, I did not receive an experience that was equitable to that of hearing travelers. Hearing passengers had continuous access to the driver's commentary, safety information, schedule updates, and important instructions, while I did not. With a few simple accessibility improvements—such as providing visual pickup and drop-off instructions in advance, offering real-time speech-to-text captioning for all onboard announcements, supplying printed maps and itineraries at each stop, and reserving front-row seating for Deaf passengers—this tour could provide a truly equitable and inclusive experience for Deaf travelers.

Nice day trip through the beautiful valleys and mountains of Ireland. Our guide had a lot of great information about the land and the history. We drove through beautiful villages and walked through pristine nature. Our time in Kilkenny was fun and lively. We ate lunch at Kettlers Inn, which is a town favorite. The bus was very comfortable for the drive back into Dublin.

Great value, guide was very friendly and informative along the drive. I was expecting a guided tour before we did our own exploring but that wasn’t mentioned in Kilkenny, there was a brief overview given in Glendalough before we set off. The views along the drive were beautiful especially in the Wicklow Mountains.

I stayed in Dublin an extra day just so I could take this tour. In the brochure, it said that they were going to stop by a place, in Hollywood, where we would see sheepdogs, and sheep. It’s on the cover of their brochure, as well as on the inside of the brochure, but it never happened. When my friend asked the bus guide when that was going to take place he said “oh we don’t do that anymore.” Needless to say we are very disappointed. It was the whole reason why we stayed an extra . Not only that but then the 2nd Stop the brochure says you can see the mountains and you’ll see a waterfall and grab your camera, etc. that never happened either. The bus driver basically pulled up to the top of the hill and Said you have 10 minutes to get out and look. he kept stressing about how you better be back on the bus on time by the time however, by the time everyone got off the bus it was really like six minutes to go up the wooden plank and see the mountains, there was no waterfall. Needless to say, I am so disappointed in this tour. It doesn’t give me a lot of faith in Paddy wagon tours in general and I would never do this trip again! I’m sad that I stayed an extra day in Dublin to do this. I would not recommend doing this guide even if it was free.

The places were nice, but the time in each city was too short, the guide wasn’t nice when asked about the time, I understand we have to be on time but there’s no need to be rude about it, so my overall experience with the driver wasn’t good, I don’t recommend