Press & Awards

We’re proud to have been honoured with prestigious awards at home and internationally since 2002.

Irish Tourism Industry Awards

We were awarded twice at the 2019 Irish Tourism Industry Awards:

Our 6 Day Driftwood Ancient Ireland Tour took home the award for Best Ireland’s Ancient East Tourism Experience (Under 25,000 visitors).

We were also delighted to see our continued efforts towards sustainability win Best Environmental Tourism Innovation.

Our success in 2019 followed accolades from the Irish Tourism Industry in 2017 and 2015, when we took home the prize for Best Adventure Experience.

National Geographic Traveller Magazine – Top 50 Tours of a Lifetime 2013

Our 8 Day Vagabond Wild Irish Rover Tour was chosen as one of their 50 Tours of a Lifetime by National Geographic Traveler Magazine in 2013.

As Norie Quintos, executive editor of the magazine wrote,

“The tours we selected capture that spirit of exploration,they push the boundaries of mainstream tourism, whether taking travelers to the far corners of the globe, or helping them dive deep into the culture of familiar destinations.”

This is a huge honour for us and we would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to our success over the years: Our customers, our team, our suppliers and also friends of Vagabond who have all made a massive input. And not to mention National Geographic Traveler for considering us.

We are the first Irish company to be chosen as one of the ‘50 tours of a lifetime’, and this just adds to our sense of achievement. We feel like we have won an Oscar…

Irish CX Impact Awards 2018

The CX Awards aim to celebrate outstanding customer service. We were delighted to be presented with the 2018 Entertainment & Leisure Award.

Congratulations to @vagabondireland on winning the CX Impact in Entertainment & Leisure award! #CXAwardsIRL pic.twitter.com/xpH2pB1Iv9

— The Irish CX Impact Awards (@CXAwardsIRL) November 21, 2018

The Green Awards 2018

We were awarded the Green Tourism & Entertainment Award at the Green Awards 2018.

We are committed as a tour operator to providing the most sustainable and environmentally friendly tours of Ireland for our guests, our suppliers and the communities we visit.

Read more about our green initiatives here.

Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award 2019

All of our guests are invited to review their experience using Feefo. This helps us continually improve. But it also furthers our mission, for you to love Ireland as much as we do!

We are proud to have been awarded a Feefo Gold Trusted Award for 2019.

Read our latest reviews and check our rating on Feefo.

TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2018

We are proud of our glowing reviews, five star rating and Certificate of Excellence on TripAdvisor.

A MASSIVE thank you to all our guests who took the time to leave such great reviews!

Recent Press Mentions

‘Don’t know much about Northern Ireland? Explore on a six-day tour’

Los Angeles Times, February 2016.

We were delighted to have an article on our new Driftwood 6 day ‘Northern Island’ tour written by Brian E. Clark on the LA Times website. Click here to read.

‘Five Myths About Group Tours’

USA Today, February 2016.

We are thrilled to get a fantastic write up in USA Today by Everett Potter! The article is about what to expect when you visit Ireland and debunks out of date perceptions. Rob(Vagabond Tours) quoted as a pioneer of Adventure Travel in Ireland. Titled: Five Myths about Ireland, you can read the article here.

‘Explore Athens on your own or go with a group to Northern Ireland’

Chicago Tribune, February 2016.

More on our small group tours of Northern Ireland from the Chicago Tribune. Click here to read the full article

2015 Articles

‘Five Myths About Ireland’

USA Today, March 2015

Everett Potter, debunks the top 5 myths about Ireland. Rob Rankin (owner of Vagabond Tours), is quoted as a pioneer of Adventure Travel in Ireland. Read the full article here.

‘Adventure With Vagabond Tour of Ireland’

Travel Age West, March 2015

Eric Hiss captures the essence of our tour in his artcile in TravelAge West Magazine Read the full article here.

‘Vagabond Explores Ireland Off The Beaten Path’

Travel Pulse, March 2015

From it’s beginnings when Rob and Amy Rankin decided to take a safari journey in South Africa, through to the development of Driftwood tours. James Ruggia in Travel Age West charts the Vagabond journey. Click here to read the full article.

‘The Wild Atlantic Way’: the Longest Coastal Route in the World. Experience it with Vagabond Adventure Tours of Ireland’

Houston Style Magazine, March 2015

Stretching 1,600 along a stunning undulating coastline. Let Vagabond Tours take you on a driving adventure. Click here to read the full article.

‘Discovering Ireland with Vagabond Tours of Ireland’

Everett Potter Travel Report, March 2015

Travel writer Everett Potter thought he knew Ireland “the greatest vistas, the venerable pub that I swore pulled the best pint ever, the most comfortable country house hotel anywhere – I had a pleasant awakening last October”  Read the full article here.

Vagabond: As Seen on TV

Vagabond tours was featured on RTE 1’s highly acclaimed entrepreneurial show, Higher Ground, which follows the progress of, and gives mentoring to, a series of start-up companies around Ireland. Each episode also features a case study of an established business with similarities to the featured start-up enterprise. Vagabond was used as the case study of an established tour-operator, as the film-makers mentor and follow the progress of Paul Harmon, who is setting up an electric bike touring company in Westport. Hopefully Vagabond has been able to pass on a few helpful hints to Paul to assist in getting his business off the ground.

Vagabond the Supermodel

In 2010 Vagabond was contacted by Vodafone (Ireland’s largest mobile phone network) because we had been chosen from their 100,000+ Irish business users to be featured in their new ‘business dreams’ campaign. We (Rob and a Vagatron) were then photographed standing in a river for four hours (Rob even had make-up on), plastered all over the national press, radio, and bus-shelters. We have also been filmed for online advertising and have been included in their direct mailing campaign. The message is that with Vodafone  anyone’s business dream can come true, and our business dream is that our passengers go home loving Ireland as much as we do. We think you will.

More Press Mentions!

Award Winning Tours

Three Time Winner ‘Merit Award’ Failte Ireland Irish Welcome Awards
2006, Rob Rankin

2006, Dave O’Connor
2005, Mark Connolly

Winner ‘Best Customer Focused Company’ Shell LiveWIRE Young Business Awards, 2003

Venturepoint Enterprise Awards Finalist, 2003