We booked with Lynott for their Irish Melody tour of Ireland July 2007 .
Tour itself:
Though we did see most, but not all of the places on our itinerary, there was certainly not enough time to enjoy them. As I look back on the trip I feel like 70% of it was on the bus! The way the tour is organized, we spent most of our time getting to a place only to be rushed through it so we could get back on the road to the next. I don't feel the tour was properly planned out with travel time considered. For example we spent 2 hours in Dublin after touring the Guinness factory. That included trying to sight see on our own, get lunch and find our way back to the bus. We spent even less time in Galway. Because of all the travel time, by the time we got to a place, most shops, museums, tourist sites were closing. In Killarney, by the time we got there we had to run across town to get the last tour of the castle. Most people in our group did not make it. We took a short tour in Kilkenny and then had to get a very quick lunch then off again. It looked to be a very beautiful place, but we never got to find out. One of the worst planned parts was when we were placed in a different castle than was listed on the itinerary because the original castle was not ever contacted. It took us almost three hours of backtracking out of our way to get there. Plus, because we were so far away from where we were supposed to be, the next day we were on the bus even longer!! If it hadn't been for our wonderful bus driver, who didn't work for Lynott, we would have never even made it to the Cliffs of Moher. He worked overtime to make sure we saw them. We missed everything on the itinerary on day 7. By the way, he said he has had lots of logistical problems with Lynott before us. He wasn't even given an itinerary, we gave him ours.
Lodging:
Most of the places were nice, but a few were below the standard you would expect for the price we paid. The Castle House in Castle gregory was great and the inn keepers quite nice and helpful. Stay away from The Knockavon House in Kilkenny. The linens were theadbare and worn. Beds were not comfortable. Carpeting, drapery, tea cups all worn out and burned in places. No water pressure and no hot water unless you asked the inn keeper to turn it on. She was not nice at all and very pushy. She served breakfast start to finish one at a time to our group which took forever!! Very noisy place. Lynott did not have the proper reservations at the Aran View Guesthouse so we had to split up into two rooms. Again, no hot water. They also did not plan for our early departure so breakfast on the last day was severely lacking. The locations of the housing was not conducive to people without cars. In Westport we had to take taxis into town and back which were not cheap. Doolin had nothing to do and very lacking in restaurants.
Family Trip:
This tour was booked as family tour, but really did not include anything specifically for young people. There were three kids on the tour, two teenagers and one 9 year old. The itinerary billed bicycle riding, horseback riding, golf etc. but we had to figure out how to do those things on our own which took valuable time from the short time we had in each place.
Obviously, I would not book with Lynott again and recommend that you don't either.