Ireland Trip Notes

If you are giving any thought at all to going to Ireland with us, get your passport now. There’s a huge backlog so you want to get your passport paperwork into the system as soon as you can. It’s about $65 and you can take care of it at your local post office. Download the appropriate passport forms online and then get some passport pictures taken at most any Kodak type store. You cannot use your birth certificate or any other form of ID. You must have a valid passport to come on the tour. Please go to http://www.travel.state.gov/passport for more information. All folks coming on the tour must have a passport regardless of age. With the backup of passport requests please be sure to get your passport request in soon. Once you get your passport its good for 10 years so it's worth doing.

Kids On The Tour: Families are welcome. The cost for additional kids in a double (i.e., two adults plus two kids) is $100 cheaper than the standard double price. So, if the price for an adult double is $1600, the price for two kids and two adults in the same room would be $1600 x 2 + $1500 x 2 for a total of $6200 for all four. Anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. If a parent is not present, the legal guardian must have paperwork proving they have legal guardianship of the minor. And remember, everyone must have a passport regardless of age.

Remember, this is a very long flight (about 9 hours) and a lot of travel with long days and late nights. Very small children get tired and worn out pretty quickly. Please be considerate of the folks on this tour. We are all going to be in a tour bus together for extended periods of time. Plus most of the sites are a lot of walking and climbing about. We know that lots of our fans have kids, but given the amount of ground the tour covers and the amount of running and staying up late we will be doing, this might not be the best type of trip for small children. However, we have it from the tour company that their kids were in pubs pretty late with no issues. So, having your kids under 18 into the pubs in Ireland will likely not be a problem (even the little ones).

If you’re one of our many talented friends who plays a musical instrument, we would encourage you to bring it on the tour. We will be doing some bar play/session/jamming in Kilarney and we’d love to have you come and play with us. Plus, you never know when a musical opportunity might pop up (its very possible that music could break out at the Cozy Thatch). So, don’t be shy and pack your instrument. For guitars that cannot be carried on the plane, we recommend that you get an SKB Flight Case ($70-100) and remember to detune your stings a good bit before shipping it as luggage. We’ve transported instruments all over the world and there’s no better insurance than a good case.

The temperature in Ireland does not usually get below 40 degree or over 80 degrees. We’re going there in January so expect temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Due to its temperate climate, Ireland will in fact be quite green while we are there. In fact, there are an abundance of palm trees all over Ireland as the temperature never gets below freezing.

Ireland is on the Euro for purposes of currency exchange; using your credit card wherever possible is the best plan, but most of the smaller places we go will only accept cash. The good news is that the ATMs in Ireland worked just fine the last time we were there. All currency conversion is taken place automatically when using Credit or Debit cards

Although you may not always be able to understand the locals, they definitely are speaking English in most cases. Accents vary widely, but the Irish are a friendly bunch of people and we had a great time hanging out with the locals at various stops on previous tours.

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