Hey VickiK!

[snapdragen]

Tell me more about your Ireland trip. I'm hoping to go in 2006 - Cycling Safari's is one of the companies I'm looking at.

I want to know everything !

[VickiK]

I'd be happy to. In fact yesterday I received the latest catalog from Irish Cycling Safari. There are so many fun tours! Here's how I did my trip:

I emailed ICS and learned they had availability on the tour I wanted...I paid by c. card. Then I booked the airfare through Aer Lingus, the Irish airlines. They had the best price (for peak season, it wasn't cheap) and they flew non-stop from L.A. to Dublin. My trip included non-scheduled time to do other sightseeing, so I started researching like crazy to devise the non-tour itinerary, transportation within the country, and the first few nights of lodging. It was very rushed, but it worked out fine.

The tour itself was easy. I didn't want to pay a single supplement, so the company matched me with another single woman for my roommate. Some people paid the supplement. We had a group of 18 people, 1/2 American, 1/2 British & No. European (Danes, Germans, and a Norwegian guy). Everyone was totally cool. The tour guide was Irish. The tour price included the lodging, the bikes, van support, and luggage handling. The guide didn't ride, he drove the luggage from one destination to the next and then looped around a couple of times to see if anyone felt like getting a lift. The lodging was IMHO simple and very nice--not the Ritz, but perfectly adequate. It always included this colossal Irish breakfast. We had itineraries and daily route slips. Average mileage was between 25-35 miles/day. I was in o.k. shape, but I'm used to riding the flat coastal routes down here in So. Cal., and our tour had lots of undulating hills, so I was the pokey one of the group. But it was quite do-able and beautiful, I loved it. One scary part for me was that you ride on the road (no bike paths) but the daily routes got you off the main thoroughfares as quickly as possible and onto little country lanes. The routine was ride for a few hours, eat lunch and relax a bit, ride for a few more hours to the next destination, and then basically relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Since the next day's ride started at 10, we stayed out late most nights at the pubs, where there was usually a traditional Irish music jam session happening. It was wonderful. There were culturally/historically interesting things to see and explore along the way. The whole group got along famously, we ranged from 23 to 67 in age. Beautiful countryside, very friendly people, I highly recommend Irish Cycling Safari as a tour company and would love to do another trip with them.

I took my own helmet for riding. The bikes were fairly new Trek hybrids. The bikes come with a little rack in the rear and front bags to stash camera, sweater, snack, etc. I had rain gear on me because Ireland can be rainy, but we were EXTREMELY lucky because it didn't rain much during the tour.

ICS has been doing this for a long time, and everything was very organized. They seemed a lot cheaper than other companies like Backroads. Yet, going in early July (peak season) and the dollar vs the euro--it's not a cheap trip. Food is pricey (but of good quality). It was an awesome experience. It was definitely the best thing about 2004!

[Dogmama]

How many days was the tour?

[snapdragen]

Sounds good - which tour did you take? I'm thinking of Conmerra, Galway and Mayo. I just got the new catalog too, time to day-dream!

[VickiK]

# of days: 7, sort of. I believe we all met on a Sat. afternoon for drinks, then went to dinner, then went to our B&B's. The following Friday night was our last dinner out together, then we had the last night at the B&B before we went our separate ways. It was typical to use several B&B's to accomodate our size group.


I went on the Clare/Burren tour. I picked that one because it included the Cliffs of Moher, it wasn't too hilly, and because music was a big part of that particular one. Next time I would like to do the Donegal one, or maybe the Ring of Kerry, which is supposed to be spectacular. Or venture into Scotland. Our Norwegian rider did that one, and it looks beautiful judging from the pictures he sent later on. Or the new and very exotic Croatian or Slovenian tours... One of the girls in our group did 2 tours back-to-back. She did the Connemara tour before Clare & The Burren tour. She said the Connemara was more challenging but she enjoyed both very much.

I don't know whether I can go on another cycling tour, but there sure are lots of fun ones! I piggybacked my own sightseeing days in Ireland before and after the cycle tour. That's one thing I can advise: if you can, schedule to arrive a few days before the tour starts in order to get over any jet lag. Coming from Califonia, it took me 3-4 days before I was back to sleeping normally.