5 Things Travel Advisors Need To Tell Clients About Ireland Land Tours (But Never Do)

Ireland is a perennial favorite destination for guided land tours. Whether for a classic coach experience or ancestral travel, Ireland offers an unbeatable mix of lush, green landscapes, history, and warm hospitality.

In March 2025, CIE Tours invited TMR to experience the Irish Adventure itinerary. The seven-day journey covers the whole island, including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (part of the U.K.).

During the trip, TMR spoke with Murt O’Shea, a veteran tour director with more than three decades of experience leading trips for CIE Tours. O’Shea shared practical, advisor-focused insights based on common issues he encounters on the road. Combined with additional guidance from CIE and TMR’s experience on an Ireland land tour, these tips can help prevent client missteps and enhance the overall travel experience.

Pack Appropriate Clothing (Including Comfortable Shoes)

O’Shea recommended that travel advisors make sure their clients understand what kind of clothing to pack for an Irish vacation. 

“Bring the appropriate clothing,” he told TMR. 

For Ireland, layering is key. Although the summer is the warmest and driest season, the climate is mild compared to most of the U.S. and Canada. Rain is also common in the spring, summer, and fall, and the peak season (July and August) is marked by increased rain, heavy dew, and chances of thunderstorms (via the Irish Meteorological Service).  

CIE Tours offers suggestions for what to pack in its information booklets. This includes a rain coat, a sweater or fleece, and lighter clothing like shorts—a variety of options that can suit the wide spectrum of weather conditions. 

It’s also imperative to bring appropriate footwear. Many of Ireland’s most popular tourist attractions involve walking on rough, unsteady terrain. (For example, the Giant’s Causeway’s famous hexagonal stones, or the path up to Blarney Castle.) For both safety and comfort, travelers should bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes.  

Use the Provided Luggage Tags

“It’s very important for us that travel advisors tell their clients to put on the CIE luggage tags that they’ve been given,” said O’Shea.

CIE Tours sends guests a branded luggage strap and two luggage tags. The tags should be attached to both the personal item (in most cases, the provided CIE Tours backpack) and the checked luggage. 

O’Shea told TMR that guests often arrive without the luggage tags on their bags. But these complimentary travel accessories serve an important purpose: they help distinguish the luggage as belonging to a CIE Tours group, which is important when a hotel has multiple tour buses leaving at the same time.  

“That helps us when we get into busy season… For us to identify our luggage in the morning, we need to have those tags. Those tags are different than the Collette tags, the Insight Vacations tags… The last thing you want is luggage getting mixed up,” said O’Shea. 

Bring Cash for Tips 

O’Shea told TMR that travel advisors need to tell their clients to take out cash for incidental purposes before embarking on a land tour.

“You stop on the side of the road and you have a guy selling pictures or paintings—he doesn’t have a credit card machine… I would normally do a stop at Carragh Lake, after coming out to the Bog Village, and there’s a guy there that sells all sorts of knick-knacks. If you wanted something, you [would] need to have cash.” 

Having cash on hand is also important for tipping, which is recommended on Ireland land tours. Tour guides, servers, and even the coach driver appreciate tips, but they can only accept cash. 

“If you’re tipping it all, you’re better off to tip in cash, right? Because it goes directly to the person that you’re tipping,” said O’Shea. “You tip [with] a credit card, you don’t know where it’s going… they could be losing a lot of money in credit card transactions. So yeah, I think definitely they need to have some cash.”

And remember: If your land tour is visiting Northern Ireland, the currency is pound sterling. Euros are unlikely to be accepted there. 

Ask Shops for a Tax Receipt

Visitors to Ireland from outside of the European Union can take advantage of the Valued Added Tax (VAT) rebate program. 

In Ireland, prices include the VAT, which can be as high as 23%. Non-EU Visitors who spend at least 75 euros can participate in the Retail Export Scheme and get some of that tax back. To qualify, travelers must reside into a country outside of the EU, and must be taking the purchased goods out of Ireland within three months after the month when the purchase was made.

The catch: To participate in the rebate program, travelers need to ask for a tax receipt, which they then need to fill out and submit. The receipt has a long form on it, which requires personal information. Travelers can submit the paperwork right at the airport, and representatives are there from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to offer assistance.

Only some stores participate in the program, and a VAT export voucher is required to process the refund. 

Bring a Converter (Not an Adapter)

There are a lot of travel adapters on the market. In fact, CIE Tours sends a complimentary travel pack to customers ahead of their departures, which includes a handy travel adapter. The issue, however, is that these adapters don’t transform the voltage—and in Ireland, the voltage is 230V versus the 110V used in the U.S. and Canada. 

Travel adapters change the plug, while travel converters change the plug and the voltage. For items like a cell phone charger, a travel adapter is fine since those have an adapter built in (you can tell by the writing on the back; look for “input: 100–240V”). For devices that were designed for 110V only, like a hairdryer purchased in the U.S., you need a converter.

“Bring a converter,” O’Shea suggested. “A woman said to me last year, ‘I have got a curling iron, and I’ve got a straightener, and I have a hair dryer’ and her husband said ‘her hair is like her thing.’” 

Don’t assume your clients will know better. TMR discovered that many on the CIE Tours trip did not understand the difference between the provided adapter and a converter, and several had to buy a converter while on the trip. 

Bonus Tip: Tell Your Clients to Read the Provided Guidebook & Review the Itinerary

In the provided CIE Tours backpack, there is a guidebook with helpful tips for travelers about their upcoming land tour. This includes the aforementioned packing suggestions, as well as information on tipping, what currency to use, and other helpful details.

O’Shea told TMR that, in his experience, guests who don’t read the book often show up unprepared for the land tour—either because they failed to pack something necessary (like a travel converter) or they aren’t prepared for the itinerary.

“The booklet that you get from CIE Tours, make sure you read through that because there’s a lot of helpful hints in that book that will make your vacation a lot simpler if you read through [it],” said O’Shea.

Another issue O’Shea has encountered is a booking agent who had referred to an outdated itinerary, and promised a client a different trip than what was currently being offered. CIE Tours updates its itineraries regularly based on traveler feedback, so it’s important to make sure the land tour you’re selling is the version of that tour currently on offer. Otherwise, a client might be disappointed that a restaurant or experience that they were promised isn’t included in their package.

“Some evening, sit down and just go through the book,” said O’Shea.