I loved being on tour with Shamrocker.
I have just finished the Giant’s Rocker 5 day Shamrocker tour that left from Dublin and travelled up into Northern Ireland, through Belfast and back down into Dublin.
As Shamrocker run a range of tours varying in length, I was surprised but happy to discover that there were in a mix of people on 3, 5 and 7 days tours. Due to this tour structure some passengers left the tour after 3 days, and the remaining groups merged and changed tour leaders for the second half.
Whilst this type of group change can often (I’m not sure why) make people uncomfortable, personally I like when groups merge and change tour leaders. Bringing in new people provides a change to the group dynamic, and most of the time I have found this change is positive.
That being said however, there was definitely a division between the two original groups once we merged. But again, I don’t think that is a bad thing. The passengers within my original group became closer as the days went on due to having learnt names and nationalities, without excluding the new passengers.
I was also happy to see a range of age groups and nationalities on tour. Whilst the majority of passengers were in their 20’s and Australian, there was also a number of passengers over 35 years old, and a mix of Canadian, American, New Zealand and British people on board.
Both Shamrocker tour leaders, Rachel and Kim were excellent. Their knowledge and enthusiasm about Ireland, it’s history, culture and people was fantastic, and they were really fun to spend time with. We also covered a lot of ground on the 5 day tour. Visiting the major sights of Cliffs of Moher, Inis Mor and Giant’s Causeway as well as the small towns and unique stops along the way (Bailey’s hot chocolate on the way to Derry is amazing!!!) I am extremely happy that I was able to see so much of this beautiful country for what I consider to be a small amount of time and money.
Shamrocker offer passengers a number of additional optional activities whilst on tour. My favourite of these was the Black Cab tour through Belfast. For the price of 10 euro Belfast locals, both Catholic and Protestant, described the ‘troubles’ within the area and drove us in black taxis to the monuments and places of significance. I found it extremely interesting to hear first hand accounts from those who lived through some of Irelands extremely violent history.
My least favourite of the optional extras was unfortunately the pub crawl in Galway. I did not feel it was worth the pricey 14 euro cost. We were told the price included shots at three pubs and free entry into all, but the only real shot was at the first pub – either baby guiness or sambuca, with the other two shots at the following pubs being the very small cordial type that barely contain alcohol. Entrance to all of the pubs was also free for everyone – not only those on the paid pub crawl. I would have been happier to pay 5 – 10 euro as there were no actual drinks included in the price, but I didn’t feel it was worth the 14 euro price.
I chose Shamrocker Irish Adventures as they are part of the BusAbout group of companies along with the Scottish Haggis Adventures. Having now experienced all three branches, I am happy to say that all three exceeded my expectations and will happily recommend them all to anyone who is interested 🙂
I went on the 7 day shamrocker tour and absolutely loved it! I agree with you about so much in this article. The groups did feel divided the first day but as the trip went on, it was easy to talk and hang out with everyone. I agree with the pub crawl thing! Not worth it. A lot of people who didn’t pay for the pubcrawl came along but just didn’t get any of the free mini shots. I would exclude that from the tour. That video is also very helpful. It gives people a good idea of what will be going on on the tour. The beauty of Ireland can’t be shown in photos or videos! I also have a review and a video on this tour on my site.
Hi Briar,
I’m happy you enjoyed the tour and I’m not alone in my thoughts about the pub crawl! It’s so true that Ireland is so stunningly beautiful everywhere you look that photos and video really don’t do it justice.
Hi! I went on the 7 day tour like Briar and had a really good time! Like you, people felt the pub crawl wasn’t worth the money but I think that was our only low point. I tried to take lots of photos and was blessed with some pretty good weather which is nice! Overall, I definitely recommend Shamrocker and think it’s a great way to see so much in just a week.