I am travelling around the island of Ireland for more than 10 years now. During my training as a badged guide for the island we covered all the main routes. Offering small tours opens up so many more areas than travelling with a coach in a big group. There is the fact that many scenic routes are too small for big coaches and usually there is not enough time for those special places. For one part of my small group tours it is you, the guests, telling me what interests you or where you want to go. And there are tours, especially to areas that are not mentioned as much in the media, that I love to organise for my guests. Interesting places are mentioned in papers, online, amongst the tour guide community and during the off-season I go on exploration trips to check out those places. For the planning of a tour I get the map out and imagine a round trip which I then check for timings and distances. It takes some time moving things around and adjusting the itinerary until I get that sense of ‘Yes, that fits now, it’ll flow’. I avoid too many kilometres/miles to travel in a day, make sure that the time to visit a place is just right, not too short to have to hurry and not overlong either. A tour works best when it seems like it is completely at leisure and the plan is totally ‘hidden’.

Recently I travelled North-West. I know parts of Donegal very well, including beautiful Glenveagh National Park and also Derry in Northern Ireland I have visited many times. On my North-West Tour 2022 I have included the Inishowen Peninsula with the most northern point of Ireland, Malin Head. Check out the tour amongst the list of Extended Tours!