Pre-Trip Service
Aran and Dan were very responsive and helpful. The website gave a good description of what we were going to do. It would have helped a little to get some more details about the rides (like the RideWithGPS routes I found later in the trip) -- though I know Donncha and Andrew changed a couple of the routes when we did the ride. The guidance on material to bring with us was also very helpful. That helped us plan ahead and we were able to arrive with a set of clothes and gear that worked well.
Trip Comments
Hotels were very good - comfortable and quiet. The food was very good as well. The scenery was beautiful and impressively varied for how much change we'd see in a day or two. Mostly the routes were well-designed and I appreciated the changes on day seven to ride along Killary Fjord and up the valley past Delphi which avoided the need to spend as much time on the N59 in favor of smaller roads. Routes were well-chosen overall. (e.g., I'm happy that we didn't try to ride into or out of Galway City given the traffic as well while most of the days routed us in ways that avoided the most traffic. And where we had to deal with traffic, the local drivers were generally very good.) The level of challenge was about ideal for us and just about exactly as the website described. Bikes were in good condition, comfortable, and well-tuned. While I typically ride with narrower tires at home, the wider tires on the road bikes were ideal given some of the road surfaces we encountered along the way.
Accommodation & Food
The hotels were very good overall. To nit-pick, the breakfast in Ballina was less impressive -- and while our room in the Rathmullan hotel was spacious and beautiful, a single rider in our tour got stuck with a small room just over the entryway. (This meant that she had to listen to the door opening/closing for part of the night as well.) The B&B in Ballybunion was a little far from downtown but Andrew and Donncha helped us get to dinner that evening. But that's niggling stuff.
Overall, we were very happy with the hotels and the food.
Your Guide
Donncha was clearly very knowledgeable and worked to teach us a little more about Ireland, its history, and its people. He handled technical issues with the bikes well -- helping me manage a broken spoke on day one while also adjusting my handlebars when I needed it. Andrew is immensely likeable, enthusiastic, and supportive to the riders. His focus on our experience showed in things like shuttling back and forth between riders to make sure we all made it through any tricky bits of navigation like day three on the way out of Killarney and getting reservations set up each night for dinner. When another person had a sore knee that kept her from riding for a couple of days, each made her feel welcome in the van when they were driving. When we arrived (soaked) at Killarney on day two before all of the rooms were ready, Donncha was able to help the hotel swap our rooms around so we could start getting cleaned up and dried out some of the riders were still on the road.
The Bottom Line
We had a great trip! The theme in taking us from Mizen Head to Malin Head is a nice way to see the country with some amazing scenery along the way. (And kept us with the prevailing winds as much as possible.) Hotels and food were very good with only minor exceptions. Donncha and Andrew were organized and supportive -- and we enjoyed their company as well. As compared to previous reviews, we had Garmins and they worked well: routing wasn't difficult and we had only a couple minor quirks to deal with. The office staff was good about letting us think through the implications when the trip didn't have a minimum group to start -- and then were in touch immediately as another group committed so we could lock our plans in.
What does this mean?