private tour company/individuals for British Isles cruise

We will be in Cobh, St. Peters port, Holyhead, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock, Invergordon, Portree and Edinburgh. Any suggestions for private tour companies or individuals would be greatly appreciated.:)

Fab 4 in Liverpool and butlers in Cobh...

We will be in Cobh, St. Peters port, Holyhead, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock, Invergordon, Portree and Edinburgh. Any suggestions for private tour companies or individuals would be greatly appreciated.:)

We're using Tour Dublin in Dublin, Tours by Locals in Edinburgh and Liverpool, and Black Cab tours in Belfast. Our cruise isn't until August 2017, but I've been impressed with the response and follow-up with all of them. I have used Tour Dublin several times for personalized tours when I was in Dublin on holiday and highly recommend them.

Here are the companies we are using for our upcoming cruise as well as other companies that were responsive to us. If anyone knows of companies for Liverpool or LeHavre please let me know.

Cork: AboutCorkTaxiTours offers tours at I think 380Euro for 8 hours in both Cork and Dublin. They also do shorter tours pro rata. So far they have been fantastic and very responsive. You an tailor the tour how you want it. In addition, I saw if you are looking for the big bus thing butlers, ecoach and Paddywagon offer reasonably priced tours like I think it is about 50 euros per person for Blarney and Kinsdale.

Dublin: We are using abut cork again but there is also another company AboutDublinTaxiTours that was like 50 Euros an hour. Also for big bus tours Paddywagons' offers a tour to Dublin and countryside.

Belfast: We booked with belfastcitytours, which is offering us a half day tour. Derry Blue is another company that seemed good. There is also a cab company called value cabs or value taxis that offers tours at a price of about 25 euros an hour.

Greenock: We are using Interclyde taxis which is the company that is the only licensed taxi for the pier at a rate of 30 pounds an hour. You can book online through an app or through email or they will also have a line at the pier

Intergoten: We are using Scotland taxi tours which is 40 pounds an hour and is also the taxi company that is at the pier. In addition i found some other companies like Around LochNess taxi tours that seemed good. Alot of other companies were much more expensive - Scotland and AroundLochNess taxi tours were the most reasonably priced and had good reviews online.

Liverpool: We found it hard to find a private tour here - most were around 500 pounds for the day. We will probably use busy bus at 49pounds per person for a bus tour to North Wales. There are also alot of Beatles tours.

Edinburgh: We are doing it on our own as well as hop on hop off bus as I am told that taxis cost 25 euros to the pier from city. I came across edinburgh's black cab taxi who gives transfers of 20 euros each way plus 85 euro for tour for 2 hours or 185 for 4 hours. He was very responsive and if we end up going on a tour we will try to book with him.

LeHavre: Again another port where it is hard to find a tour. We may do radio taxi at 60 euros each way or else book a cruise ship tour. We already have done Normandy and Paris. We took Normandy tour before on cruise ship and it was good seeing all of the major sites though it was like $200 US a person.

We will be on the British Isles cruise in August. I would like to know if it is necessary to buy on line tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus in Dublin and Edinburgh. Also the Edinburgh Castle.

Thanks

We will be in Cobh, St. Peters port, Holyhead, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock, Invergordon, Portree and Edinburgh. Any suggestions for private tour companies or individuals would be greatly appreciated.:)

You will find different companies at different ports.

Odyssey is great for Belfast.

For Liverpool, we did a wonderful tour of North Wales with busy bus

http://www.busybus.co.uk/north-wales-adventure

For St. Peters, you can easily DIY or take the neat bike tour right at the dock.

For Cobh https://www.paddywagontours.com/BLARNEYCOBH-Day-Tour-From-CORK

For Dublin, we did the HoHo bus

For Scotland, I think we did the ship's excursion.

We will be in Cobh, St. Peters port, Holyhead, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock, Invergordon, Portree and Edinburgh. Any suggestions for private tour companies or individuals would be greatly appreciated.:)

Just home from Caribbean Princess British Isles cruise. Did not do any ship tours. 10 in our group. We all pre-bought a Scotland Explorer's Pass which allowed entrance to most of the castles. We bought the 7 day pass which is good for any 7 days over a 14 day period. Works perfectly for this itinerary.

Guernsey (St. Peter Port): Tender in/short port time. We walked around and went to the Underground Military Musem (6GBP). Very interesting. Ann Henry does do a popular guided walking tour if you are interested in that.

Cobh (Cork): ECoach/Butler Blarney/KinsaleTour. 49 euros. Big bus, full day. Very enjoyable though. Got to Blarney Castle early and got ahead of most of the crowds. The trek up the stairs to kiss the Blarney Stone is not for the mobility challenged. Lovely castle grounds to walk around. Drove around Cork. Beautiful Kinsale for lunch. Drove through Cobh on way back to ship.

Dublin: free ship shuttle into town. Red (there is also similar Green and CitySights options) Hop On Hop Off bus 15GBP. Pre-booked (online) limited timed entrance tickets to Kilmaiham Gaol. Walked around town.

Belfast: booked a private van for 8 (6 pax makes for more comfort) for all day. 420GBP with Alister Cheyne at City and Causeway Tours. David was our guide and driver. Spectacular day! Highly recommend. http://www.cityandcausewaytours.com

Greenock (Glasgow): booked private 16 pax van (9 pax min to book van) .750GBP with Stravaigin Tours. Derek was our driver and guide. Spectacular day. Highly recommend.

Invergorden (Inverness): again booked as above with Stravaigin Tours. 850GBP. Kevin was our guide. Spectacular day. Highly recommend. http://www.stravaigintours.com

Edinburgh: shared a taxi for 25GBP into town, dropped off right in front of castle gate. Spent a few hours at castle, walked down Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace and spent couple hours there. Taxi back to ship.

Hope this helps!

joan

We booked Nigel Lucas for the Antrim trip - Giant's Causeway - and had a lovely pre-cruise conversation, but on the day of the cruise, another person showed up. He said Nigel had to do something else. Unfortunately, the car was a black cab and there were 4 of us and the cab fit 3 passengers in the back safely with seatbelts, and 1 passenger in a jump seat or up front with the driver inches from the front windshield and neither with a seatbelt. The driver was nice but we felt quite unsafe. Luckily nothing happened, but I would take care if booking with Mr. Lucas. Looking back, I don't see where he clarified what our vehicle would be - my mistake. Never assume. Get everything spelled out clearly. For all the private tours we've booked, there are only two that were a mistake - this one (and the mistake was not the tour but the vehicle) and one from Vigo to Compostela when we got a driver who didn't speak much English and didn't warn us that we couldn't take our small daypacks into the Cathedral. We could have left them in the van but because they were small, we figured it would be OK.

Have a wonderful trip.

Beth

St Peter Port, Guernsey

Here is a link to all the accredited guides in Guernsey, if you click on the individuals name, it will provide contact details and sometimes a little further information.

http://guernseyguidedtours.com/guides