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Society of IRT Clients: ‘We Love the Belmond Grand Hibernian!’

By Owen C. Hardy

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Belmond Grand Hibernian Train Manager Wolfgang Eipeldauer and crew member Mark O’Doherty pose outside Ireland’s first luxury train.  Mark prepares to serve drinks to passengers returning from a “shore excursion.” IRT Photo by Eleanor Flagler Hardy

Soon after we returned from the “maiden voyage” of Ireland’s Belmond Grand Hibernian, the reviews began arriving.

“The Belmond Grand Hibernian Railway Tour was an outstanding experience,” wrote one IRT guest on Rachel Hardy’s Virtuoso “review page.” “It was luxury rail travel with a broad sampling of the history and heart of Ireland.”  (Click here for more reviews.)

“Just wonderful!” wrote another of the IRT trip — our first-ever charter of an entire train.

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Marus Vera prepares to “launch” her raptor during a falconry outing at Ireland’s gorgeous Ashford Castle, one of the favorite stops on the Belmond Grand Hibernian tour. IRT Photo by Eleanor Flagler Hardy

“This was my seventh trip with the Society of International Railway Travelers,” wrote yet another, extolling IRT’s insistence on excellence.

Summing up, a veteran traveler wrote: “I would heartily recommend the trip to anyone interested in Ireland or train travel or both.”

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Our guide at Ashford Castle was a retired schoolteacher, and wonderful storyteller. In the background, IRT Society tour guest Julia Cordukes looks on. IRT Photo by Eleanor Flagler Hardy

These reactions — coupled with our own experience — prompt us to offer the same journey, at the same time of year, in 2017: Aug. 29-Sept. 4, 2017.

We’re happy to book you on any Belmond Grand Hibernian trip next year — there are 22 departures of the 7-day tour from April through October, 2017.

But we think you’ll especially like our group tour. Why? Let one of the Belmond Grand Hibernian crew members explain:

Finally, this, from a long-time Society of IRT traveler:

“When they called it the ‘Grand’ Hibernian, they really knew what they were doing. It was a grand trip.”

To see a photo album of the trip, please click here.  And if you want to talk with one of us who has been on board, please call us: 800-478-4881 or 502-897-1725.

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Society of IRT President Eleanor Flagler Hardy poses with Belmond Grand Hibernian staff at Dublin’s Heuston Station just before the luxury train’s first-ever trip. IRT Photo by Owen Hardy