Tour’s end

Each time that we have come to Ireland, the tour has begun and ended at the Park Inn Hotel across the parking lot from the Shannon Airport. We’re greeted as old friends when we arrive, and we like to brag quietly that we’re known in pubs on two continents.

The end of the tour involves a final dinner, delicious as always, and a concert afterwards featuring the guys, but headlined by Andrew Unsmiling, a button box virtuoso, Mark Eye Candy on fiddle, and Brendan Wild Hair on guitar and vocals. It’s an evening of trad jigs, reels, hornpipes, and a few vocals thrown in.

This has been our ninth Ireland tour with the guys, and while some of the tours have been repeats, there have always been enough new features to make it interesting. This has been a very convivial group; no-one in the group that we wouldn’t care to tour with again. Considering the number of repeats, it’s likely. And the concert on the last night is equally so, and the musical talent up front is merrier than ever, so much so that even Andrew is seen to crack a slight smile.

The evening ends and the group does goodbyes, hugs, exchange of travel plans in the next few days. We have everyone’s addresses and email addresses thanks to the pre-tour bios, a distinctive feature of these tours.

Saturday morning breakfast is covered, and passing through the halls are tour members headed for the airport or the bus stop, or the car rental center, some to fly back directly, others to take some extra time. We’ll hit the bus to Limerick, train to Limerick Junction and Dublin, taxi to the Hilton at Dublin Airport, and fly to Chicago.

Flight to Chicago is quite bouncy over the Atlantic and Canada and arrival is delayed due to a wet spring snowstorm in Chicago area that forces cancellation of many flights to the east and southeast, gate congestion, backups on the taxiways, and our plane circles in a bouncy holding pattern over Lake Michigan. Paula is not amused.

The other distinctive feature is the focus on regions: the hotel stays are either 4+4 or 3+5 and the start and end nights. Daytrips and short hops, a relaxed schedule, no bags in the hall every morning at 7 AM, usually enough time in place, and the local contacts, The regional focus permits this. And repeated tours allow you the luxury of going back to explore or experience something that piqued your curiousity before. And as James Keigher points out, the tours allow/encourage/require them and the group to look/see/digest aspects of their home countries that they would not if they lived here.

We are happy to promote and proselytize for Men of Worth. More than once on any tour, we hear people on any of the tours say, “You wouldn’t see this on a (name of tour operator) tour.” Add to that the focus on music by the leaders, group members, and local folks. Add to that the genuine happiness of the hotel staffs to see the group returning. One hotel on one of the tours allows only one tour, MoW, to book a multi-night group. The places know they will get a good return on food, bar, and lodging, as well as careful and protective leaders and a convivial group. All in all, another tour most satisfactory.

Thank you, James, Donnie, Bronagh, Phyllis, and Men of Worth Escorted Vacation Tours.

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