Six of us will be in County Kerry mid September and are interested in taking one of the Gap of Dunloe tours. Has anyone used any of the tour operators for this? If so, any suggestions. Thanks. slante, Irishnana
I usually recommend Dero's Tours because you can book the complete tour, which includes but to and from the gap, transport into the gap and boats across the lakes: http://www.derostours.com/ Since there are 6 of you, inquire about a bit of a discount.
Try to book directly with Dero's Tours. Many people book through their hotel, B&B or the tourist office. Dero's gives a commission to them. By booking directly and letting them know that you know about the commissions - plus having 6 people - should entitle you to some sort of a discount.
We booked our Gap of Dunloe Tour through Deros Tours, and were very satisfied. A van picked us up at our home base, Earl's Court in Killarney, at 10:30am, dropped us off at the main office in city centre. We picked up our already paid for tickets ( thru e-mail before we left home), got on a small bus and were transported to Kate Kearney's Cottage. There we hired a jaunting cart, to whom we paid 20 Euros apiece, and went thru the Gap (Wonderful!!). Had lunch at the small cafe, midway, and then finished the tour in a boat that took us through three lakes and a river. We were dropped off at Ross Castle, where a van picked us up and took us back to Earl's Court. The Tour cost 27 Euros apiece, there were two of us, and it was well worth the cost to be picked up and delivered at our Guesthouse. We arrived back around 3:30 pm. Hope this is of some help.
My wife and I stayed at the Loch Lein Country Hotel and Paul gave us some helpful advise about the Gap Of Dunloe. He told us to wait until late afternoon or early evening and drive the gap ourselves. We had a Ford Fiesta and took his advice. There is a sign at the start of the gap that says no cars allowed but Paul said to ignore this because it was put up as an attempt to generate income for the horse and buggy rides. Sure enough when we arrived about 6:30 pm we were waved down by a buggy driver telling us we had to ride on his carriage or walk the gap. We ignored him to his dismay and continued on our trip. The gap was beautiful and took us about an hour and a half to see all that we wanted to see. By the way we weren't the only ones driving. There were others driving as well that we had to manuveur around. This was not a problem since you could see them coming from a long ways off as you traveled through the gap. At Pauls advise we also stopped at the pub located at the entrance to the Gap for dinner. They had a trio Irish band (harp, pipe, and fiddle) to entertain. What an evening this was.
You can also drive the gap (suggested for off-season, late in day like Chuch did) the other way, exiting near Kate Kearney's Cottage. It is tricky to find but I have directions in my book. The road is extremely narrow and if you meet oncoming vehicles you will have to be patient as one of you will have to back up to a wide spot in the road to squeeze by each other.
However, the whole experience of the day out with horses, boats and the lakes is very different from driving.