Guided tours for seniors in Ireland

Tailored to seniors from the start

One of the first things Catriona mentioned when I asked about senior travellers was how much the tailoring on a private tour changes things for this age group specifically.

"It's obviously good because everything can be tailored for them. That's what makes it better on the private tours - at least they have more control over things that they want to see and visits, and you can make it more friendly for the older group than if they were on a shared tour."

The pace kept coming up throughout our conversation. "The private tours are always done at a relaxed pace," Catriona said. "The physical rating doesn't need to be high. I consider it an easy level for everyone. People can still take in the beautiful landscapes and everything they want to see - they can do the Ring of Kerry and get out for small walks. They're not missing out on anything, because everybody is included in what we can offer."

She was also clear that the goal on a private tour is never to split people off from each other. "You're not saying, 'you stay back here and watch from afar while everybody else goes ahead.' That is not how it works at all. It's quite a regular occurrence and there's no problem being able to deal with whatever needs people have. Once they let me know from the start, we'll always have everything set up so that everybody is included."

Attractions themselves have become much more visitor-friendly across the board in recent years. Catriona mentioned Muckross House, Kylemore Abbey, the Cliffs of Moher, Rock of Cashel, the Giant's Causeway and the Skellig Island boat trips as places where options exist to suit different needs. "Ireland is so good and there are so many accessible sites available these days. Things are a lot better. Nobody gets left out. Everybody gets to see the whole experience of everything that they want to visit."

Discovering family roots in Ireland / Genealogy

For a lot of seniors coming from America, Ireland isn't just a holiday. It's the place their grandparents or great-grandparents left, and they want to find something of that. Catriona said genealogy comes up constantly in her private tour enquiries.

"There are quite a lot of them that are coming over now - and genealogy is a big focus. They may not have a lot to go on, they'll do the research - they might want to see a church, or a house, a dwelling that somebody lived at going back a long time. If they have other ideas, absolutely we'll incorporate that. I'll make it happen for them."

What she described was how often the research evolves even after a tour is already booked. "People book a tour with me and two months down the line they're going, 'I was actually thinking about this - I saw this place and I was wondering, would there be any way of doing that?' And of course. That's having those options. That's what people who do the private tours prefer - to have that freedom and flexibility to change their mind."

Sometimes it comes from an unexpected conversation at home before the trip even starts. "This happens," Catriona said. "People have ideas and they're like, 'would you believe - I was actually talking to my grandmother and she said they used to live there.' If they find they have family ties in Westport for example, absolutely - no problem. I want it to be personalised. If we can give them that lovely experience, that they go away and look at those memories for the rest of their time - you've done a good job."

I asked if she could incorporate family visits or unplanned stops along the way, and she said it's very much part of how private tours work. "Free up the day, take an attraction out if needed. I'll make it happen. Whatever comes up, we'll work around it."

Ireland is genuinely well set up for this kind of trip - between the records at the National Archives, local parish records, and the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin, there is more to trace a family history here than in many other countries. If genealogy is part of the reason for the trip, it's worth letting Catriona know from the first enquiry so she can build time around it properly.

Their first and only time

Something Catriona said during our conversation that really stayed with me was this.

"I have a lot of grandparents and parents coming - this will be their first and possibly their only time coming to Ireland. When people tell you this will be the only time that we will get to Ireland to discover this - and see our family roots, you obviously want to give them the best of what they experience, if it is the one and only time coming."

"A lot of people are coming over and they want to absorb the local Irish culture," she continued, "but at the same time, see where the grandparents would have lived at one point. And just to try and, for a moment in time, experience what they had - and what it was like for them growing up before they moved to America. So it all matters."

I got talking with Catriona about how we in Ireland probably take for granted what it means for someone to come here for the first time, and especially if it will be the only time - after a lifetime of hearing about it. She put it very simply: "One day we will be that person asking that question to somebody else."

There's something in that worth sitting with when you're planning a trip like this for a parent or grandparent. It changes what you want the trip to be.

The attractions seniors actually want to see

Catriona was clear that she'd never point to one specific itinerary for senior travellers - it really depends on the group, how long they have, and what they want to do. But when I shared some of our in-house booking data on top attractions (more on that below), she wasn't surprised by what she saw at all.

"Everyone wants to see the cliffs in some shape or form. The Cliffs of Moher and Kylemore would always weigh heavily on my itineraries for people - they're just the key ones that people like to see. I would say they're on 99% of my tours."

The Cliffs of Moher also came with something I hadn't actually thought about before. Most people picture walking the cliff path, but there is a boat cruise that gives you a completely different view of them from the water below.

"You're getting a totally different perspective looking at it from the water. You're not actually getting to see the beauty of the cliffs itself until you're in the water. I've had so many people that when they've done that, and they've been delighted that they've done it that way. Don't get me wrong - I've also had people who've done both the cliffs by walking and the cruise on the same day."

She mentioned jaunting car rides in Killarney as another option that features well for seniors - a way to take in Killarney National Park without it being on foot. "There are plenty of options to keep everybody included, and nobody has to feel like the tour has been built around one person. Everybody still gets the same experience."

On Dublin, and the Guinness Storehouse in particular, Catriona had something interesting to say. "On the private side, a lot of people just don't want to be stuck in a city. They want to come to Ireland and see Ireland for what it has to offer, not the city centre. And some seniors are not drinkers, so they don't even want to do the Guinness Storehouse. I can see how that wouldn't be top of the list on the private tours."

She added that many people on private tours use Dublin simply as a practical base - flying in and out, maybe one night at the end. "They want all the scenic stops they can get along the way. They want to see the landscape and the Irish culture."

You can check out the data we chatted about above in our article on shared vs private tours in numbers.

Larger groups and the pricing question

Cost is often the reason people end up on a shared tour rather than a private one, and that's a fair consideration. But there's a point where the pricing starts to shift in a meaningful way.

Our data shows that for groups of 11 or more people, private tour prices start to become genuinely comparable with what you'd pay on a shared tour package. When you factor in that some of those groups will have chosen a higher-end package, the comparison with shared pricing becomes even closer than the headline numbers suggest.

"Family members where all of a sudden it's the mum, dad, the brother, sister, the kids, the grandparents - all making a trip of it. And the more that they have, absolutely it makes it that everybody can come and enjoy it for a reasonable price."

Catriona also described how the size of private tour groups has grown noticeably over the past few years. "Go back three years and you had a lot of twos and fours. But I can see the increase on the higher numbers for the private tours - because they've got the luxury, the freedom, the flexibility. They can customise it, change hotels to suit them, and we're having more people, so it's priced in a budget that they can actually afford."

"I have family tours of 18 and 21 people now. I also have a lot of middle ground - 8, 12, 13, 16, different years. Friends, family. And they're all getting the same experience but they're with their own people, and they still have the flexibility to change the tour to suit the grandparents, suit the kids, suit the parents. Everybody gets something that works for them."

That 11-person threshold is worth keeping in mind if you're putting together a family reunion trip or a group of friends. It doesn't take a huge number to make a private tour a realistic option on budget - and for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, that can change the whole conversation.