Paddywagon Tours Reviews 98

Just completed a tour to giants causeway from Belfast with the fabulous driver Kieron. Very informative and amusing. We are a group of 5 and all thoroughly enjoyed this half day trip.

We did a 14-day private tour for a group of 9. The total cost was considerable. We booked 6+ months in advance to secure a spot. We were unable to change the number of days following the initial quote - plans change that far in advance. With proper notice, this should be acceptable! This was very irritating.
However, what was more frustrating was the lack of transparency on their fees. On the last day, we were told we had to pay an additional 250 Euro for one of the days as it was "longer than expected and required more in fees." This is after we had already paid more than $15k over 14 days and received no information on the number of hours or distance we could use the driver/bus. We also lost half a day in bus breakdowns - both flat tire and dead battery in one morning. They offered a 80 Euro credit in compensation - nowhere near enough! It is shear nickel and diming the customer and really not necessary with communication from the front office.
Having said all this, Ray Kelly, Patrick, Alex and James were all very nice, helpful and more than willing to help in any way. We were very pleased with the drivers.
In short, BE AWARE - they don't communicate well and will try to extort additional fees for no reason!

Disappointing experience with Paddywagon. While the destination was great, the service was non-existent. I was left behind in Kilkenny because I was slightly late for the bus. I understand the importance of a schedule, but the guide didn't even bother to call or text me to check if I was okay. Leaving a customer stranded in a different city without any communication is unprofessional and unsafe. Had to pay for my own transport back to Dublin. Think twice before booking if you expect any basic level of care

I went on the Cliffs of Moher tour and the Giant's Causeway tour and I enjoyed both. There were kind of a lot of pit stops (especially with the Cliffs trip) as well as one or 2 stops by castles, with each trip, that I wasn't completely interested in (and also just kind of added to the trip lengths), but the history and information about rural/urban Irish areas and Ireland, in general, provided by the tour guides, as well as their Irish humor and customer support enhanced the grand ;) experience, on top of seeing the UNESCO sites

Driver Kevin was a lot of fun and very knowledgeable about the history of the ring and Kerry, and seemed genuinely passionate about the region. Great value and a lot of valuable information and recommendations to be handed off as to things to do in various parts of Ireland. 5stars.

We had the cliff of moher tour with Michael, he was great! Friendly, knowledgeable and funny, highly recommended

First tour I’ve ever taken, seasoned traveler but new to tourism Paddywagon was great, had a great driver, thorough with instructions and enough time to take in all the sites well recommended

Patrick was incredibly knowledgeable and was an outstanding tour guide. As an Irish descendant from Australia now living in the US, I found myself deeply moved at times listening to his stories. The black taxi tour in Belfast was not only fascinating but also thought-provoking, offering so much insight into the city’s history.

THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE
First guide (departure from Limerick)
I don’t remember his name, only that he was originally from Ukraine. He acted as if he was doing us a favor by driving us around: unmotivated, bored, and never saying a single useful word about where we were going or what we were doing.

First stop (extra charge)
The first stop required an extra €16. If you didn’t pay, you were left wandering aimlessly around Killarney. A nice little town, but really nothing special to see.

Bus change without notice
Without any explanation, we were forced to change buses, wasting at least 40–45 minutes trying to figure out who should go to the Ring of Kerry and who to the Dingle Peninsula. The guides answered rudely and made no effort to speak clear or understandable English.

Museum-village (another extra)
Again, another place with an entrance fee. If you didn’t want to pay, you had to wait in the parking lot like an animal. I tried to ask questions and get some explanation, but this time the guides COMPLETELY IGNORED ME, just chatting with each other in the most rude and arrogant way.

THE MOST ABSURD AND UNACCEPTABLE PART
They took us to a beautiful viewpoint (the same picture they use as the cover of their tour). They only said “Take some photos and then we leave,” without giving us a clear time limit.
After only 5–7 minutes of taking pictures, we suddenly saw the bus — only 50 meters away — starting to leave with ALL OUR BELONGINGS inside (money, documents, bags). We and other group members had to run desperately to chase it.
The guide stopped but, instead of opening the doors, he showed us his phone as if we were late, with a SMUG little smile on his face. It honestly looked like he was enjoying it.
I started shouting, because he insisted that we would now have to take a public bus. HOW COULD I POSSIBLY DO THAT IF YOU ARE DRIVING AWAY WITH MY MONEY AND DOCUMENTS?
In the end, he let us back on, but make no mistake: if not, this company would have faced a POLICE REPORT FOR THEFT. The bus was literally 50 meters from us — he could have easily honked the horn or waved to let us know.
Every serious tour in Ireland leaves a piece of paper with the departure time, because they know not everyone fully understands spoken Irish-English.

For the rest of the trip, the guide kept MOCKING and HUMILIATING us in front of the other passengers.

Other pointless stops
Several useless stops, only to take a couple of rushed photos.

Final stop (waterfall & bathroom)
We were given only 20 minutes, with the warning: “If you’re not all back, I will leave.” Just to walk down and back to the bus took around 10 minutes, leaving us only 15 minutes total. The waterfall was a 5-minute walk each way, so there was no time left to use the bathroom (which had a line anyway).

THE MAIN GUIDE WAS MICHEL: ARROGANT, RUDE, AND HIGHLY UNPROFESSIONAL.

At the end, we returned to Killarney, where once again we had to change bus and guide to get back to Limerick.

I had already read many negative reviews about this tour, but unfortunately there are no competitors. I can now confirm: STAY ABSOLUTELY AWAY FROM THIS TOUR (PADDYWAGON – the green buses).
The places like the Ring of Kerry are stunning, but find another way to see them.

Important note: in the booking confirmation email, it actually says that “smiling photo reviews are appreciated” and that if you do it you may win €100 a month. That explains why so many positive reviews can’t be trusted.

Worst tour. The guide was rude.

The driver chain smoked cigarettes
We were not told about the added costs
No choice as to where we ate lunch (it was expensive and not good)
Feel like we got scammed

They are not time panctual, tour wasnt organised properly, way too many insects on the bus, the ac wasnt even working properly and its way too overhyped.

have no doubt that I am not the first to write to you regarding the mishaps (and I am being kind with that word) that happened on this trip. I will bullet point them and expand as necessary.
Please know that the driver, Neil and Guide, Noah are wonderful people and we enjoyed meeting them.
1. Driver was not familiar with the route from Cork to The Cliffs.
2. Delays in arriving at destination
3. Guide busy giving directions to driver
4. Mechanical issue with bus from Cork to The Cliffs. Bus could not come out of low gear.
5. Very Late arrival at Cliffs and not because of mechanical or traffic.
6. Air Conditioning not working on bus.

So, I can go on with other Bullet points but the ones I have listed are enough to justify my saying this trip was an absolute disaster for us.

Guide had to continually give driver directions as he was clearly not familiar with the route to The Cliffs and therefore the guide was not able to pay as much attention to the paying passengers.

It was terrible that the delays in arriving at the Cliffs due to mechanical issue and driver not confident with the route meant we had so little time there. We were already very late before the mechanical issue and that was stated by your dispatcher to the driver. He was not pleased ever before the first issue. We ended up having one hour and 20 minutes total at the main highlight of the trip. We only got to do the right side of the cliffs and that’s it. We had Planned on doing the left side along with “The Experience” event inside the visitor center. Alas, this was not to be as your “Slot” at the cliffs did not allow you to stay for the normal time period. We were so disappointed with that. It just felt like the day was ruined.

We board the bus at the Cliffs and the bus was at least 27 to 29 degrees. I asked the driver to put on the AC but it didn’t work. We sat on the bus at The Cliffs for 30 minutes while the guide was on the phone with dispatch and someone by the name of Paul. All to no avail I might add. Another driver from your company came on board to try and get it to work but again, to no avail. Eventually, we just left the cliffs in sweltering heat on the bus and was brought to your restaurant for lunch. Once again, we were late so we were given 35 minutes to get off the bus, into the restaurant, order the food and eat it as fast as possible in order to get back on the bus in time.
We left and headed for Bunratty Castle once again in sweltering heat on bus. Perspiration rolling down from my back with the heat on the bus. So much so, the guide ordered the driver to stop at the next small town just to let us all off the bus to get some air.
That was appreciated as we were all so uncomfortable it became unhealthy.
We stayed off the bus for 15 minutes or so but again we had to endure absolute torturous heat while we traveled to Bunratty Castle. Because we once again were so late getting there, we got 35 minutes to spend there which may as well have been cancelled.

There was a preliminary plan to stop at Charleville so we could have a break and get some relief from the heat on the bus but it never happened. We had to just endure stifling heat until we got to Cork.

To say we had a terrible experience with your company would be kind. We chose your company because you promised us a great experience. We had anything but a great experience. We never got to experience the highlight of the trip “The Cliffs Of Moher” We were run through the rest of the stops just for the sake of stopping and we endured insufferable heat exhaustion from being on a bus that had mechanical issues and AC breakdown issues.
Paddywagon denies AC was broken even with clear evidence I produced. Also refused to provide details for contact of Manager. Just an awful company that has no interest in passenger safety or comfort. I will NEVER use Paddywagon tours again.

Our family booked full day trip from Dublin to Cliffs of Moher. This tour was overhyped by paddywagon and their main focus is at breaks , cafe but not the original cliff ls of moher stop. Our driver Dominic was not so friendly and his behaviour is not so professional. He is in rush at every stop. Please double sure before you book paddywagon trip with such not friendly drivers.

We went to Cliffs of Moher on 1 Jun 2025. Driver Brian was so racial towards Indians. Despite the front seats not being reserved, he rudely told my family to take back seats which was very jerky and uncomfortable. The driver Brian was picking up nationalities and expressing hatred which is unacceptable. We will definitely not book with Paddywagon going forward.

We are just coming back from a ‚Small Group Giant's Causeway Tour from Dublin‘ and we seem to have been very unlucky. The organisation was poor and each and everything that should have been organised went wrong.
We were at the hotel at 7:10am, “We only pick up from 5 star hotels”, had checked with the doorman that we were in the right spot and were left waiting in the drizzling rain for about 15min. I then got a grumpy call to ask where we were. Turns out that the bus wasn’t waiting were it should have been but was parked in a small alley near by.
No tickets for the visitor centre at the Giant’s Causeway were organised and we lost another 20 minutes waiting in the bus. The tickets never materialised which meant we couldn’t use the toilets or visit the centre or the National Trust shop and we had to rush our walk.
In Belfast, we had to inform our driver that the taxi driver was actually included in our ticket and we didn’t want to pay twice. He said he has sorted it out but after the taxi drive we spent 20 minutes arguing with the drivers whether the trip had been paid for or not. I ended up talking to the manager of the taxi company on a driver’s phone who wasn’t impressed by Paddywagon either.
We weren’t offered a refund for the Giant’s Causeway ticket or any explanations for the unprofessional and poor organisation.
We booked the Elegant Irish Tour in a ‘luxurious small bus’ and the bus itself was comfortable but the organisation was shockingly insufficient.

Horrible trip from Limerick to ring of Kerry. The bus transfer in Killarney was total chaos, I lost my bag and had to wait 5 hours to get it back in bad conditions. Not recommended it's just waste of mony

Oh my god, save me from this tour! I am trapped on the bus back to Dublin with Paddywagon’s driver Frank, who is railing against Obama and talking up Trump. Maybe dissing Trump too, it’s hard to follow Frank’s rant. Why oh why are you going on and on about politics? Now he’s brought up the Israel/Palestinian conflict and has a big Palestinian flag on his dashboard to boot. Totally inappropriate to be subjecting your customers to this.

We booked with Viator wished we booked with the company but that was fine. Peter was the best guide we could have asked for, very informative and pleasant. He got us around fast and safely. I highly recommend the small group tour we enjoyed it and was very comfortable. The cliffs were amazing. Lunch was good and fast getting us back on the road fast. We stopped for snacks and drinks but also brought a back pack with things. I recommend brings more then needed it got cold at cliffs and wished we brought more jackets.
Highly recommend his tour for small groups ! And Peter was great !!!!

Wicklow mountains tour with Frank. It was a beautiful area and had a wonderful day. Had the chance to take some great pictures of the amazing views Frank the bus driver told us a lot about the area and Irish history. Frank is a great storyteller and bus driver, thanks!