Paddywagon Tours Anmeldelser 

Did the Ring of Kerry tour yesterday from Cork. Booked in person at their
office. Price on brochure was 49 Euro but was charged 59 Euro by two. I wonder when the price changed? Arrive at meeting point only to find that our names weren’t on the list. Back to office, who told the guide to let us on. The bus was ten years old and didn’t have the advertised 4g WiFi or air conditioning. The guide was like an overbearing school teacher. Apart from that, the places visited were excellent and we had a good time.

I’ve done the Northern Ireland tour, to the Giant’s Causeway. The reason why I’m giving a 3 stars review it’s not because of the guide or the beautiful places we saw. But about the company itself, all explained below.
At first I was a little bit disappointed by not having a local irish guide, being a tour guide myself in my birth city in Portugal. It happened to have a portuguese guide in this tour, and while you’re traveling, and paying a lot for this experience, having a guide from my own country, made like half of the experience to go away.
He was a great guide and storyteller, giving a lot of historical information, and some personal hints about his life in Ireland. But he was also driving a big bus for at least 12h, almost 600km and talking while driving, being able to rest in our stops inside the bus. I found this very abusive, as it should be at least two people driving and guiding. Also some food or local tasting should be provided by free, as we needed to pay for our lunch.
This company was recommended by a former client I had in a tour, but would not use it again.

Aaron our driver was great! Very interactive and allowed us enough time at Blarney Castle! Commentary and Music made the day better!

The 'tour' began in Cork City where we were lead onto a black rental bus which was not very comfortable, instead of the expected green Paddywagon bus, and informed they were short tour guides so one would meet us in Limerick.

The driver of this rental bus had never done this route before.

When we arrived in Limerick a 'tour guide' got on the bus after his smoke and read what felt like a lecture off a piece of paper, this was the only thing he said until we arrived at the Cliffs.

Once we arrived we were not given enough time to explore the area, instead were shuttled to a cafeteria style 'restaurant' for 45 minutes, clearly Paddywagon is getting a kickback commission for this and there is no alternatives at this location.

Next we stopped at Bunratty castle for 45 minutes, we asked can we go look at the castle or grounds, the tour guide said no we don't have enough time it would take 90 minutes, and we should go have a pint.

When we asked how much the entrance fee for the castle was the 'tour guide' said he didn't know.

There was several food outlets at Bunratty castle, we could have spent 90 minutes here and everyone on the tour could have decided if they wanted to see the castle or eat, but no - commission seemed more important then a good experience.

Next we arrived at Limerick where the 'tour guide' departed, on the way back to Cork City the bus driver got lost several times and missed his exit, leading us down a narrow country road unsuitable for heavy vehicles causing us to arrive back in Cork 15-20 minutes late.

Most of the 'tour' is just sat in silence on a bus, you might as well take public transport to visit these places and leave at a time that suits you.

Booked half day tour to Glendalough & Wicklow mountains. Our driver André and tour guide Michael were fantastic, funny, informative and genuinely great together. The 2 lochs absolutely stunning. A great half day out well worth it!
Thank you so much Michael & André 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This is surely the worst “tour” I’ve ever been on. It was nowhere near what was described on your website. We originally booked through PaddyWagon Tours but it was fulfilled by Luxury Irish Tours. Shame on you PaddyWagon.
See comments below:

1. The information states we would be taken in style by a van with no more than 25 passengers. There were 8 of us stuffed into a taxi which smelled like smoke. The only air circulation was from windows. But when they were open they blew in the face of the passengers in the last seat. I personally don’t consider this being “taken in style”. Do you?
2. We were supposed to enjoy a panoramic view of Cork while our guide points out highlights. We did not have a tour guide. After we were driving for 20 minutes or so I finally asked where we were. Not at any time prior to that did he speak about anything we were passing. At that point I knew something was up. When we stopped I asked about this. Our driver admittedly stated he was not a guide and would try the best he can. He was called the night before to take us. He pointed out nothing stated in your description of the tour. Even if he would have said anything those of us stuck in the back couldn’t hear him.
3. We were dropped off in Cork for a few minutes, but really had no understanding as to why. We didn’t have time for lunch. He dropped us off in front of Carrolls gift shop.

I want a refund for this tour. You should have contacted us the day before saying you don’t have a driver. We could have chosen to go, but the company decided to stick us in a taxi with someone who has no knowledge of history or interesting points. Or maybe we could have been added to another tour? But no - we sat uncomfortably for hours. It’s really despicable.

Pretty terrible really! You are taken to a "restaurant" which is actually a community centre where you have a limited choice of overcooked, expensive food. A large detour passing through a small town which means an hour in traffic jams. Cliffs of Mother are of course marvellous, but do yourself a favour and hire a car and do it yourself!

I had a terrible experience choosing this provider for a daily tour to Blarney Castle/Cork.
The tour guide Sean was a totally incompetent, on the bus he was not giving useful information but just talking about his personal life story. When we arrived in Cashel Rock he just let the group by the entrance and disappear, without giving an explanation about what the site we were visiting! Moreover he gave us appointment by the bus at 11:45 but the bus was leaving at 11:25 and I had to arrange me for a way to come back to Dublin! Thanks to a council employee and the women at the info point that helped me, that also told that Paddywagon Tours gave a lot of problems and often let tourists on the street!

This review is a beware of Paddywagon tours. I booked 15 tickets with them and had to cancel two tickets due to illness 2 months before the tour. They said they would issue a refund no problem. We are going on 3 months and no refund. I have emailed and called several times and been told they are having problems with their credit card company. Things happen and cancellation can occur due to illness or weather. If a company will not honor their cancellation policy BEWARE!!!

We were nervous about choosing PaddyWagon after reading the bad reviews here on trustpilot. After the trip from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher, we have only good experiences. The driver Edaurdo was helpful,witty and a good story teller. We can only warmly recommend this company.

I was so excited to go on their cliffs of moher and Galway tour.. but it turned out to be a great disappointment and a horror show. And i'll tell you in great detail why:
They leave their tourists at the destination (they do this very often and laugh about it). Even if a tourist's bag is in the tour bus they wont hesistate to leave you, they dont care if you get stranded in cliffs of moher or die. They dont bother to call you before leaving even when they take your contact details. They are lazy and unorganised.

They don't provide a proper itinerary and show the bus leaving timings on an a4 cartridge paper like in kindergarten. They have the means to whatsapp and email but they are quite privileged to work hard.

On 14th July 2024 they left me and my friend at cliffs of moher which was the last stop of the tour. Me from India and my friend (a student from Salvador).
Their website states they leave cliffs of moher at 4pm but that day they left at 3:40pm. They dont take in account if someone might be hurt on the tour or lost, they just simply (pardon me repeating) leave you.

They might try to gaslight me, but the truth is me and my friend saw the bus leaving in front of us while we watched in disbelief. It was raining on that day so we couldn't catch it by running after it.

Right after this, we called up their desk and the lady was not even making any attempts to help us, she kept repeating like a robot "i am sorry I cannot do anything about this".

I had to catch my flight the next day, and after listening to my dilemma the desk person's behavior (guess what?) remained as apathetic as can be.
I managed to get my bag with the sole help of my friends. Otherwise these people don't care what happens to you.

They are fake polite, dont be fooled by their polite demeaner. They don't like foreigners especially who are on the slightly darker skin side.

Me and my friend took another tour bus back to Galway, the driver took 10 euros each and after that we catched a citylink to Dublin. (20 euros each)
They don't provide the driver's contact detail in case you need to coordinate with them in case of such an emergency and they even refuse to provide the bus number, which in my case could have been very helpful while retrieving my bag.

Outside of this horrible encounter, the tour still sucks..
1) Galway at 8am, is nothing but a ghost town, most cafes open late. You'll just end up eating fusion food at some random restaurant or watch some morning birds.
2) they only give 45 mins to grab a lunch, no flexibility, even if the restaurant is overcrowded ( which obviously means one will need to wait till they get their order)
3) I have all the proofs of this incident and call recordings if anyone were to ask me I'll be happy to provide more details.

I'll be far away from recommending these horrific people to anybody. They are a disgrace to humanity.

My husband and I booked a bus tour from Limerick to Dingle. Here's the thing - the whole experience felt super disorganized. First off, there was no itinerary, which meant we had no idea about the two surprise stops in Killarney. Then, at one of these stops, there was a massive communication breakdown. The driver told us (me and my husband) to meet at the Kilarney Coach Park in 45 minutes, but with no details and multiple Coach Parks, it was chaos for tourists like us relying on Google Maps! Needless to say, we totally missed the bus to Dingle. And again, I had to call them back to know where and when to get the bus back to Limerick, because they don't offer an itinerary, and they know they are wrong!

Furious (and frankly, we missed Dingle on a sunny day!), we emailed the company asking for a refund or replacement tickets. But they just kept brushing us off, saying other passengers managed to find the bus. Seriously?! Isn't clear communication and customer service supposed to be a priority for tour companies?

Honestly, based on this whole mess and the bad reviews I've seen online, it feels like they just see tourists as a quick buck and don't care about repeat business. Here I am, living in Ireland for a year, and they treated me like a disposable tourist! I even have the emails to prove I tried to resolve it, but they just kept shutting us down.

We were scheduled to take the Giant’s Causeway day trip from Belfast today but were ridiculously screwed over. We arrived at the pick up spot roughly 9 minutes early just to see the tour bus already pulling off. I ran up to try and flag it down just for it to keep driving. We were then approached by a tour guide, Rachel, who said not to worry, there’s another smaller bus waiting for us down the street. We made our way over to the bus just to find out that it was full, aside from one seat. One out of the four of us waiting to board were able to claim a seat while three of us were left outside. We were reassured that the bus we saw pulling out earlier was going to come back for us shortly, but after 45 minutes it was nowhere to be found. We called the company and were told the bus isn’t actually coming and it was our fault we missed it. When we corrected the reality he had to “call to verify” that our story was correct. Alas, he was told we were telling the truth and then only offered us a refund, not a solution. We had to find our own way to the Causeway despite booking this tour several weeks in advance.

I had a disappointment with the Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel & Cork tour that I participated on 19/05/24.

When we arrived at our first stop, the Rock of Cashel, at 10:40 AM, we were informed that the site was closed due to the visit of the President of Italy, who would be there until 2:00 PM, making it impossible for us to visit. This event and the subsequent closure were clearly announced on the official Rock of Cashel website, indicating that the information was publicly available. It is concerning that Paddy Wagon did not verify this information before selling the tour. As a result, we missed out on a highly anticipated part of the experience. Only 10 minutes were added to the time allocated for the other locations, which was insufficient to compensate for the missed visit. Consequently, we neither visited the Rock of Cashel nor had the benefit of spending additional meaningful time at the other sites.

In addition to this issue, I would like to highlight that although the bus was noticeably new, the WiFi did not work, contrary to what is advertised on Paddy Wagon's website and brochures. Furthermore, the air conditioning was also non-functional, making the journey uncomfortable. Passengers had to manually open and close the overhead air vents in an attempt to make the trip more bearable on a day when the temperature reached 21 degrees Celsius.

These issues resulted in a significant detriment to the overall tour experience, and I feel that the tour did not deliver on its promise.

The Paddy Wagon Tours never provided an appropriate compensation or rectification for the inconvenience and disappointment caused. I sent emails and they never replied!!

We were both very happy with the whole trip to Glendalough. Our guide Rory was very nice and seemed like he really enjoyed doing his job! He was also full of knowledge about everything we came across during the bus ride. The sights were so beautiful! Like taken out of a fairy tale. I can only recommend others to take the trip!

For the most part, I enjoyed the tour that I booked which was the overnight to Belfast, Giant's Causeway and Dark Hedges/ Dunluce. I have to attribute this to Frank, our day 2 driver,who was very personable and not only kept us on schedule but managed to arrange for the Black Cab tours that had been missed the day prior due to the marathon.

The issue occurred on the first day of the tour. The driver was surly from the start greeting people with "if you stuck your phones in my face you're not getting on the bus." We made it to the Titanic Experience and then he was dropping us off at accommodations for the night. I had booked the backpackers ticket which meant a mixed dorm in a hostel. The expectation was that at worst there would be multiple females and males sharing bunk beds/individual sleeping pods. When the driver announced we were getting upgraded to hotel rooms, it seemed like a pleasant surprise until he paired me into a room with a stranger (male) that had joined the tour last minute. I expressed concern that we would be in a room alone together and he quibbed,"you'd have been rooming with him anyway." I explained that being in a group dormitory with the accountability of multiple other people in a shared space was a very different dynamic than 1 on 1 in a hotel room but he was only interested in being done with his day and he left.So I ended up staying on my phone chatting with loved ones all night to stay awake and feel safe.

The gravity of the situation seemed to have escaped the Paddywagon driver. Changing the accommodations and not allowing an option to choose a safe alternative sleeping arrangement, creates a potentially unsafe situation where anything could happen and they are putting people at risk. I firmly established boundaries and was fortunate that male assigned to the room was respectful/aware of the discomfort with the situation. It could have turned out very differently, especially if it had been a younger, less experienced/less confident solor female traveler placed in that situation. Like it or not, if a tour company puts a vulnerable person in a 1 on 1 situation in a hotel room with someone that decides to take advantage of the situation/is an opportunistic predatory type individual, that company is responsible for whatever happens behind closed doors.

What do you mean "pride of Ireland" pure nonsense. Nobody asked the rest of Ireland. Also calling it a paddy wagon is wild considering the history of that name

In general trip was good, Ireland is very beautiful country. The driver Paul was also good, polite and not loud. Calm music in the bus. For lunch I recommend a seafood dish, very tasty and filling.
The only thing I didn’t like was the organizational aspect. 80 euros per person is quite a lot of money and everything was really good, but we didn’t get to the Titanic Museum, simply because we didn’t have time. And it's really frustrating because I pay for the tour, but it turns out that I won't get somewhere. This is weird.

We toured from Dublin to the Ring of Kerry on 4/13/24 with Richard O’Brien.We thoroughly enjoyed the day! Richard was very informative,friendly,engaging, helpful and very professional. He even was able to “control” the weather that day and the rain stopped at each stop along the way!! We will highly recommend Richard and Paddywagontours to any and all friends and family who travel to Ireland.

I booked the Cliffs of Moher and Wild Atlantic Way trip from Limerick through Viator. They didn't operate the itinerary advertised, skipping out what should have been the most interesting part. The driver claimed this was because authorities had issued new restrictions on where coaches could turn around. The driver extended the stop in Bunratty, but even with an extended stop it was too short to visit the castle. Arrived back in Limerick 1.5 hours earlier than scheduled due to the omitted parts of the tour. I contacted Paddywagon with feedback and they refused to accept any responsibility for failing to operate the tour as advertised. Gosha, who manages their Viator inbox, has absolutely no customer service skills whatsoever. He replied like he wanted to start an argument with me and even called me the wrong name.