OUR FAQ

Essential Ireland Tours is operated by 'Essential Ireland Tours & Travel ltd.'

Our tour-company is 100% owned and operated by our co-founders, Stephen McPhilemy and Patrick Wade. Patrick is an Irish-American entrepeneur and Stephen is 100% Irish born and raised and is Ireland’s leading Tour-Guide.

If you are ready to make a reservation, you can simply click here and pay with your credit or debit card. We offer regular departures on our signature itinerary - the 1 week Essential Ireland, 'Wild Atlantic Way' Tour and have frequent departures for our famous 'True North Tour' and our luxury 'Castles & Classics' tour. Tours start in March, just in time for St. Patricks Day!, and our last tour runs in mid-November, just after our big Halloween festivities and before dear old Ireland begins to hibernate for her mild winter. If you have further questions you’d like to ask before booking please email us at info@essentialirelandtours.com CANCELLATION POLICY (for the full policy and Terms & Conditions, click here) We take a small deposit for every Tour, and this deposit is non refundable. Then we offer a payment plan and one month before the tour departure, the balance must be paid in full.Once this final payment is made, no refunds are possible in the unlikely event of a need to cancel (so please have travel insurance in place). Note: Regarding our ‘Castles and Classics’ tour, the same rules apply except it is a three month cancellation-notice period instead of 1 month.So 3 months before the tour departure date, the tour must be paid for in full and no refund is possible in the unlikely event of a need to cancel. If you have any immediate questions regarding this policy, please send us an email at info@essentialirelandtours.com

We offer 2 types of tour. We have a ‘never-cancel’ guarantee.The first type is a tour that you can just click and book right now on this website. This tour-series has set departure dates. It is a tour for a small group of 16 people who are all diverse members of the general public.The second type of tour is for small groups of travellers who are already connected in a group or family and want to travel together on an ‘Essential Ireland’ Tour without other members of the general public joining. Prices for these tours are dependent on your requirements and numbers on the group, a quote can be attained by emailing info@essentialirelandtours.com

You will meet travellers who are fun-loving professionals, who lead busy lives and who want to unwind and enjoy the best experiences Ireland has to offer in a defined space of time. We appreciate that time is your biggest commodity in life and we guarantee not to waste your time on second-rate attractions and touristy-shopping visits.The attitude of our travellers is they want to see the essential Ireland, thats why they choose to travel with us. Our travellers wish to learn the local history and discuss politics, and just as much they also love to party with locals in some of the best pubs in the world and enjoy food and music experiences they will remember for the rest of their lives.

The majority of our guests are from 25-75. Though we do not have any age policy on tours. All ages are welcome. (note: we do not normally accept under 14’s on our regular departure tours, but we occasionally make exceptions. We can always welcome children on our specially designed tours for private groups and families).

Stephen McPhilemy, our co-founder and Irelands leading Tour-Guide is the 100% Irish expert and Guide on many of our tours. Stephen is very loyal to his mentor and dear friend, American TV travel personally Rick Steves, and led over 250 Ireland tours for Rick and 'Rick Steves Europe Inc' before taking a retirement in the summer of 2024 with the best wishes sand blessings of Rick.

In the event that Stephen cannot guide an Essential Ireland tour (as he may be on the road guiding one of his private tours) , we provide a guide from our hand-picked team of Irish tour-Guide veterans, trained by Stephen and who guide in his unique style - a passionate, intelligent and fun insight into their beloved Ireland. Local experts and local guides: One of the highlights of our tour itineraries are the quality of the local guides and experts we will introduce you to each day. It is imperative that you meet different local characters, male and female, with different Irish accents and fresh outlooks on modern Ireland.

We guarantee that you will.

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Essential Ireland chooses to be a smaller niche tour-operator with emphasis on small groups and a limited number of departures. Generally we choose to organise only between 15-20 tours per year.