I had a wonderful time in Ireland but unfortunately the tour I was on was doomed from the start. We wanted to go on a slower paced tour so we would have more free time to do our own thing. However, all of the older individuals on our tour got sick. Some with covid, some with stomach bugs, others with colds. I do not think the tour did the right thing by allowing sickly people to continue on the tour. Sniffles are one thing, but someone who is throwing up out the door or who is not able to make it to the bathroom should be removed from the tour. It is a health hazard to be in a packed van with someone who went to the bathroom on themselves. If it were my family that came down with a sickness I would ask vagabond to help me make alternative plans and take me off the tour so that I wouldn’t ruin other peoples trips and so that I knew we were safe and keeping others safe. It was disappointing and scary to say the least. As someone who has had family members with complications that came after catching a small bug, I had to watch a domino effect occur with more and more people getting sick every day that went by. It was so sad, especially because several were elderly.
Other than sick people, we always seemed to be rushed. I thought this was a slower paced tour? Also, because of the delays we experienced with the sick people we did not get a lot of free time. We were rushed or made to feel bad that we didn’t want to stick with the group (sickly group) during free time and meals. People kept telling us we should have been on the more active vagabond tour. That was very rude as we picked this tour FOR THE FREE TIME AND SLOWER PACE so we could tailor the trip to what we wanted. The trip got better as the days went on because we realized we are not going to have a great time until we start taking more action. One lady at the end of the tour thanked my travel companion and myself for making sure we got extra stops and activities that really made her trip extra special.
Overall, this tour was fine. A lot of unfortunate things that happened were not vagabonds fault, but bad luck. But I don’t feel like anyone went the extra mile or helped the non sick people out. I wanted to wait a month or so to write this review to really be able to focus on how I felt about the tour. I wouldn’t choose vagabond again. The left over feelings I have for the tour are: disappointment, apathy, neutral.
If you go on a vagabond tour I suggest you go in and you yourself make the best of it. The guides were all nice and pleasant in their own ways but again I feel like one in particular was really just the bare minimum. Nice but not more than that, just like the tour.
