17 Jul 2025
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.
Pics are of us on the side of the road in order to get some relief from the heat on the bus.