Before My Tour FAQs

Dreaming of a night in a castle? We know that you'll love the selected elegant and historic castle hotels on tour.

The following Driftwood tours overnight in a castle hotel:

We operate a strict no smoking policy on all of our vehicles.

Smoking has been illegal in all enclosed places of work in Ireland since 2003. This includes company vehicles (cars and vans) as well as offices, public houses/bars and restaurants.

Smoking rooms in your hotel may be provided upon request. However, in the great majority of our hotels, smoking is only permitted in designated areas outside.

Yes. All hotel rooms on Vagabond and Driftwood Tours are ensuite with their own separate bathrooms.

We wish we needed air conditioning in our hotel rooms!

However, the weather in Ireland usually isn't hot enough to warrant air conditioning.

In periods of prolonged warm weather, hotels that don’t have air conditioning will normally install fans in the bedrooms.

Find out more about the best time to visit Ireland.

All of our hotels provide hair dryers in your room.

Please note that, in some cases, Irish hotel hair dryers may not be the most powerful models.

You will be staying at small family-run hotels, boutique guesthouses or even an Irish castle! No hotel chains here.

We put great effort into selecting accommodation for both active Vagabond and relaxed Driftwood tours.

We carefully select locally-owned establishments (in some cases for generations). Receive a heartfelt welcome, often from the hoteliers themselves. Each hotel is different and adds its own flavour to your experience.

To see exactly what hotels your tour will stay at, check the Accommodation tab on each tour page.

All of our accommodation providers offer a choice of room types:

• Doubles (one bed)
• Twins (two seperate beds)
• Singles (one bed)

The standard bed size in Ireland equates to a US Queen (60" x 80"). This may vary with hotel or room type.

Triple rooms are less common. Tripes are usually one larger and one smaller bed. They suit families best.

Yes. All luggage/baggage is either in your tour vehicle or in a secure trailer.

On Driftwood Tours, your luggage/baggage travels in your Drifter tour vehicle.

On Vagabond Tours, your luggage/baggage travels in a securely locked and weatherproof trailer.

We operate a strict no smoking policy on all of our vehicles.

Smoking has been illegal in all enclosed places of work in Ireland since 2003. This includes company vehicles (cars and vans) as well as offices, public houses/bars and restaurants.

Smoking rooms in your hotel may be provided upon request. However, in the great majority of our hotels, smoking is only permitted in designated areas outside.

There are no bathrooms or toilet facilities onboard our vehicles.

We make regular stops en route where passengers can avail of bathroom facilities.

Seating on our tour vehicles is not assigned.

We encourage our guests to move seats as the tour progresses - but only if you want!

We do this so that each tour group gets to mingle and chat. And it's only fair that everyone has their chance to sit in the front of the vehicle.

We use unique tour vehicles for both our tour types.

Active Vagabond Cultural Adventure tours use rugged VagaTron 4×4 tour vehicles. These are offroad versions of regular Mercedes mini-coaches. VagaTrons are specially converted to carry 13 passengers. Fun and chunky, with a dollop of go-anywhere attitude, our VagaTrons are surprisingly spacious and comfortable too.