Why Custom Tours of Ireland by Rising Road Irish Tours are Different

Custom Escorted Tours of Ireland

Creevykeel Court Tomb, Co. Sligo At Rising Road Tours we specialize in creating an escorted tour that meets your particular desires for accommodation types (castles, great houses, hotels, B&Bs) and visits to sites of your choosing.

Custom and Special Interest Tours are a great way to travel for families, groups of friends, and students of all ages.

Our experienced guide, Sam Couch, can arrange a custom tour focusing on Irish music, culture, traditional crafts, history, archaeology, language, or any subject that interests you. With his extensive knowledge of Ireland, Sam will add just the right personal touch to designing and leading the custom escorted tour of your choice.

Need more information?
Call us toll-free at 888-648-8893 or send an e-mail to sam@risingroadtours.com
We will be happy to answer all your questions!

For research, and preparing quotation and travel options for a custom escorted tour, there is a fee of $150 per hour, the first hour payable in advance. Should you ultimately decide to book with Rising Road Tours or one of its partners, this fee is credited toward the cost of the tour package you choose.

At Rising Road Tours, we agree with noted humorist Garrison Keillor who observed that people do not travel to America to see freeways, air terminals, and skyscraper jungles. Astute cultural travelers visit to see everyday people engaged in everyday activities in everyday settings. Our goal is to provide such experiences for our tour participants.

Our tours do not spend a lot of time riding in large buses, stopping for twenty minutes at highly visited sites to snap photos and then returning to the bus for another two hour ride to the next photo op. We do not stay in fancy hotels. We do not promote large banquets and cultural recreations aimed at large touring groups. We do not try to see twenty cities in five days.

Tour participants enjoying a sunny day Our tours are meant to be intimate, friendly, relaxing cultural adventures. As a result, we stay in rural farmhouse bed and breakfast accommodations in the Irish countryside. Here you have the opportunity to get to know the local people as they go about their daily activities. Our accommodation plans, while simple and plain, allow us to stay with a farm family for around five days. We will take field trips to local sites of interest and we will visit local museums, historical monuments, traditional craft shops, and geographic wonders on our daily outings. We try to find a balance between walking in town, hiking the bogs, visiting sites of interest, and relaxing. If you would rather stay behind at the B&B and read or rest, that's fine. In the evenings, we look for traditional music in local pubs. Sometimes this means we stay up a little later than usual; but since our schedules are flexible, we can catch up on lost sleep the next morning. We want our visitors to have as authentic and enjoyable an experience of rural Ireland as possible.

Our guide, Dr. Sam Couch, has spent over two decades traveling in the Irish countryside and studying Irish culture. He knows all the farm accommodation owners personally and has stayed at all of the venues many times. In some houses, he has even watched the children grow up. Bottom line is that we offer unhurried, relaxed tours to rural Ireland. Our goal is to offer each tour participant the experience expressed by a previous tour guest who observed, "We [were] able to see and experience things in Ireland that few people get to see."

If you think a slow-paced, off the beaten path, relaxing, cultural tour of Ireland is just what you are looking for, we at Rising Road Tours are prepared to offer you such a opportunity. We would love to have you join us for any one of our upcoming tours. Contact us today!

Are you interested in a traditional group tour or package tour of Ireland?

If a custom tour is not your cup of tea, Rising Road Tours is still here to make your travel experience the best it can be. We offer many quality pre-arranged package tours of Ireland selected for a variety of the most popular destinations and activities. Please visit our Emerald Partner sister site at Sceptre Tours.

Dreaming of extending your land tour with a cruise to Wales, England, Scotland, Europe or the Mediterranean?

Contact our sister agency, Emerald Valley Travel to discuss cruise options to Ireland, Scotland, and the world beyond.

Rising Road Tours
828-648-8893 (Tel) ~ 888-648-8893 (Toll-free) ~ 828-648-8895 (Fax)
sam@risingroadtours.com

28 Newfound Street, Canton, North Carolina 28716 USA