Just remember that in Ireland a queen is called a king. A king is called a super king. A double is actually a double. Sometimes if you ask for a queen you get a double. Best to ask for the measurements. Then there are no mistakes. 

I, like most on the forum, prefer to do the driving myself. As the proprietor of a Celtic shop, I have had the opportunity to experience a few mini-tours with different tour companies.

I was generally pleased with the CIE tours. That being said, there are other companies that I prefer over CIE because they don't do the Disney version of Ireland. I prefer to stay away from all of teh big tour bus stopping points and get in touch with the more true flavour of Ireland. CIE is a good choice if you don't mind large groups. Some of my other tour companies have smaller groups and because of that the smaller size of the buses allows them to go places the bigger tour bus cannot.

Of these smaller group tours, I am really partial to Vagabond. They offer two different types of tours. Vagabond tours are for the people who want a more active...think kayaking...mountain hiking...based group tour. Driftwood is for those who want scenery, culture, music, history. Either choice takes you off the beaten track and into Ireland's heart. Their 11-day Driftwood tour covers a lot of ground, including teh Ring of Kerry, Beara peninsula and Dingle peninsula, but still seems relaxed and unhurried. THe maximum people on the tours is 16.

Inroads Ireland and Lynott Tours also offer smaller group tours. A very unique tour is offered by Wild West Irish Tours. Their 8-day tour takes you to Maugherow peninsula, the Sliabh Liag cliffs, Strandhill, Carrowmore Tombs, Croagh Padraig, the small island of Innismurray, into Yeats Country and so much more.  Wild West Irish also has two special tours designed for The GAthering 2013.

As the researcher for a group of four, you're probably juggling a lot of requests. My advice is to not fall into the #1 trap of choosing a tour because of the number of sites it checks off your list. More things mean, more time on the bus and less time at the places you really want to visit. It's so hard to balance when planning for other people though.

Many of the companies Cowboy Craic mentioned try to focus on experience over sites... so they offer a very different service from the standard tour.

I took one short rail tour. I enjoyed it. On the short tour we didn't have a tour guide during the rail portion of the tour. Our guide met us at the station and we headed to the bus from there. It was great mixing it up between the two modes of transportation. If you go that route, find out how much you'll have to carry luggage, as on your rail days, you might have to haul it more than once... all the more reason to pack light.

There's a feeling of freedom that comes from the train trip... it doesn't make sense that something tied to rails would feel more free, but that's how it was for me... maybe it was just the bigger, nicer bathroom on the train vs the bus.

There is ONE estate in East Belfast where the two sides of a very old coin will never settle. There is a dispute over a democratic decision by the council not to fly the UK flag every day and 20 or 30 of the population of Belfast see this as an excuse to throw rocks at each other. If the worlds press who only showed up because of Hillary Clintons visit would just crawl back under their regular stones then businesses would be back to normal in no time.

No Tourist has been involved nor would any Tourist be wandering round a East Belfast low rent area in the first place.  The Black Cab tour is mainly West Belfast and the Falls Rd which whilst i wouldn't recomend walking yourseves is a whole lot safer than the last time I was along there.

Oh I agree!  I know all about Atlanta...And I grew up in Birmingham, AL which is not the same anymore.  You simply DO NOT go downtown at night in Bham unless you have a specific place to go and you are with a group.  But I only have impressions from what I read, so I thought I should ask.  Thanks for setting me straight on that one. 

So I have another (new) question...WHY don't ya'll use washrags to bathe with???  I mean, how in the world do you bathe without one???  We first ran in to this phenomenon when we went to South America.  Went to a general store and bought a couple of kitchen rags which worked quite well!  But I understand that if I want a rag to bathe with I had better bring my own?????