Touring Ireland with Brian Stack

Brian Stack has been managing director of the tourism company CIE Tours International since 2007, responsible for both the American and worldwide operations. He recently spoke with Patricia Harty about why a CIE tour is the best way to experience Ireland.

“Let me tell you the deal we have right now,” says Brian Stack in his good-natured brogue. “For $363, you can have six nights in Ireland staying at a choice of over 1,100 bed and breakfasts, a self-drive Hertz car, your full Irish breakfast every day, a private room with bath and shower, and a guide. We have airfare starting incredibly low that would go with that … so I reckon for less than $800 you’d be able to go to Ireland, including your airfare, car, and accommodations.” After twenty years with CIE Tours, Stack is passionate about the opportunities that his company provides for first-time and return visitors to see Ireland at reasonable prices and with minimal stress over planning, which can be a concern when visiting a country with overwhelmingly numerous attractions. CIE has been around for nearly 80 years and is the single largest purchaser of accommodations in Ireland, as well as the largest provider of tourists to Ireland from the U.S.

CIE offers 22 different tours, ranging in price, amount of time visitors have to spend, and in their coverage of the Emerald Isle. “The reason why you would take a coach trip is that most people who are visiting Ireland are going there for the first time, and they’ve actually no idea where they’re going,” says Stack. “When you go on a coach tour, everything is taken care of from the moment you arrive to the moment you depart, and the itinerary is all spelled out for you. You can go knowing that your itinerary and your overnight accommodations are planned and you don’t have to worry about driving around the country because someone else is going to do the driving for you.

“If I was going to go to China tomorrow, I wouldn’t dream of arriving at Shanghai airport and renting a car, and thinking that I am going to be able to find my way around the country, because I wouldn’t have a clue.” A coach tour of Ireland is a much more manageable introduction to the country, and nine out of ten people that CIE brings to Ireland are first-time visitors. On an average one-week CIE tour, travelers save $650 against the same trip with a competing company. “Our tours are all-inclusive, and this is a very important part of this equation, because when you go to your travel agent and you buy a CIE tour, you pay your travel agent, say, two thousand dollars. That will include your airfare to Ireland, your one-week tour of Ireland; that will include all of your breakfasts, all of your dinners, all of the visits to the various attractions in the country, including a Bunratty Castle banquet or an evening at the Abbey Tavern. Our couriers are not allowed to sell you anything. They’re only there to make sure you’re having a good time and that everything is taken care of. Some tours include one courier who serves as both the coach driver and as a guide, while others have two staff members separating the duties. But they all are characters that add to the authentically Irish experience, with an average experience of over 25 years working for CIE.

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Nster.com