Vagabond Small Group Tours of Ireland Makes Big Fuss over Milestones That Get More Mileage Here than Elsewhere

A leading travel company in Ireland that offers tours for the active and inquisitive sleuths out individual milestones tucked somewhere into every group it guides. Be it a special birthday, an anniversary or notable life event, Vagabond Small Group Tours of Ireland knows how to celebrate it in style.

“Why take your milestones to Ireland?” asks Rob Rankin, company founder/owner. “Simply, milestones get more mileage here. Milestones create excuses to move our hectic, fast-lane schedules onto slow cook for a few hours or days. Someone is always celebrating something on our trips. We make the most of red letter days that have a degree of sentiment connected to them.”

In fact, he added, when it comes to sentiment, Ireland may indeed take the cake.

“Think extra rounds in the pub, requests passed over to the fiddlers to play a favorite song, nostalgia-evoking vistas and touchingly gentle, happy people. (I can say this because I’m a Scot.) Creating an emotional experience around fond memories and events is as natural to Ireland as the good luck that comes with our four-leaf clover!” Rankin notes.

Vagabond Small Group Tours of Ireland (https://vagabondtoursofireland.com/) offers two styles of travel, each designed to maximize milestones. Vagabond Adventure Tours are for active travellers who want to mix up hiking and biking and other outdoor adventures with history, culture, dining and shopping. Driftwood Journeys of Distinction follow similar itineraries but at an intimate and in-depth looking and lingering pace, sans the physical exertion.

“Besides having a keen interest in discovering their heritage, the couples who travel with us are very conscious of sustainable travel, love good food and want to get under the skin of Ireland – without the stress that can come with self-driving,” adds Rankin. “For foodies we can even source what the BBC calls a “trendy superfood,” a reddish-purple algae known as dulse that’s taking center stage.”

Itineraries popular for celebrating milestones include…

• Driftwood Journeys of Discovery’s leisurely paced 7 Day Kerry UnCorked Tour explores Ireland’s southwest including two nights in its foodie capital, Kinsale, where guests savor seafood, visit craft breweries and enjoy whiskey tasting in a local pub. Another stop with plenty of time allotted for exploring is Dingle where galleries and pubs (54 at last count) abound. The per person rate is €1,699. For details see https://vagabondtoursofireland.com/tour/cultural-ireland-tour-7-day/.

• Vagabond Adventures’ 7 Day Magnetic North Adventure Tour hikes, bikes, kayaks and horseback rides along what’s known as the Great Atlantic Way. Timeout calls for a visit to Westport, a town famed for its pub scene, with the likes of Matt Molloy’s, owned by a musician with The Chieftains. The per person double rate is €1,619. For details see https://vagabondtoursofireland.com/tour/7-day-magnetic-north-northern-ireland-adventure-tour/. 

• A similar but more leisurely paced itinerary exclusive of strenuous activities is Driftwood Journeys of Discovery’s 6 Day Northern Ireland Tour. The per person rate is €1,509 per person double. For details see https://vagabondtoursofireland.com/tour/6-day-northern-ireland-tour/.

As with all Vagabond small group tours, these itineraries blend history, culture and fun activity options as far from maddening crowds as possible, often on ancient roads that only Vagabond’s custom-designed vehicles can navigate.

“Every stone we walk over has a story to tell. The ruins and castles we visit are, after all, about people who, in addition to millstones aplenty, probably celebrated their own milestones – if they were able to keep their heads about them,” says Rankin.

For details on all of Vagabond Small-Group Tours of Ireland itineraries, availability and for 2018 reservations, please visit https://vagabondtoursofireland.com/. Call toll free (from the US) 1.833-230-0288; in Ireland 00353 (0) 1 5634358; or email: [email protected].

About Vagabond Small Group Tours of Ireland

Since 2002 Vagabond Adventure Tours has been creating opportunities for visitors to embrace Ireland by walking, biking, horseback riding and kayaking its lands and waters, imbibing history and culture along the way. In 2013 the company was honored by National Geographic Traveler with a Top 50 Tour of a Lifetime distinction. In 2015 and 2017 Vagabond Small Group Tours of Ireland was named the “Best Adventure Experience” at the Irish Tourism Awards. In 2017, Vagabond became Ireland’s first tour operator to achieve Ecotourism Gold Level Certification and in 2018, Vagabond Tours won The Green Tourism & Entertainment category in Ireland’s most prestigious Green (business) Awards.