Celtic Tours Golf

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi and welcome to the new and improved the Michelson
Travel Podcast.
I will be speaking with moreguests and more travelers and
will bring you great insightsand, I hope, to inspire your
sense of curiosity.
As you may or may not know, myconcierge of podcast travel has
retired, or so he thinks.

(00:22):
Jay Lawrence has decided toactively travel more, so he will
be one of my many guests as weexplore this great world we live
in, along with rediscoveringAmerica.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey, this is E Michelson, and I am here again
with Diana from Celtic Tours.
Hi, diana, happy New Year.
We're in a new year, Time toget traveling again.
I know we've talked quite a bitabout Ireland, but there's
something that Ireland andScotland has that we have not
really chatted about.

(00:55):
Yeah, and that's Golf Golf.
A lot of people here in Floridalove golf.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh, absolutely so tell me more about Ireland and
golf, so Kelta Tours is anexpert when it comes to golfing
in Ireland.
We have so many courses that weput together for our clients,
choosing different itineraries,tailoring their experiences,
going to all different forces,so they can experience

(01:21):
everything, and not just inIreland, also in Scotland.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Okay, so I have clients that want to go to
Ireland and they want to golf,true, true.
Do they need to bring theirclubs?
Are clubs supplied?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
for them.
I would recommend alwaysbringing your clubs, because
clubs are very personal.
You know, it's very personaland they're used to them, and if
they want to golf their bestrounds, I would definitely
recommend bringing their owngolf clubs.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
So now does Celtic Tour set up the tee times for
them?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yes, yes, basically what we'll do is we'll put a
whole itinerary together forthem, so we can split this out
in many different ways ForIreland.
We can do the southern links,we can do the northern links or
the north-southeast links, sothere are all different kinds of
courses.
We have probably about 25courses in Ireland that we book
for, 25 courses that you bookfor yeah, that we actually book

(02:13):
for including one of the mostpopular, which is the Trump
International in Doonbeg.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
That's one of the most popular courses.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
It is absolutely yeah .

Speaker 3 (02:23):
And that's actually on the west side.
Most of the courses are on thewest side of the island.
So you'll see, if you go to ourwebsite, celtictourscom, you'll
see, under Ireland involves allof the courses that actually.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Okay, so CelticTourscom and you can go
right there, there's a golf linkthat you can see.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, you can go to Ireland.
You's a golf link that you cansee.
Yeah, you can go to Ireland.
You'll go to destinations, goto Ireland and you'll go to
golfing, which is towards thebottom of the page, and you'll
be able to actually see all ofthe courses that we have to
offer there.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Now is it year-round, Because Ireland does have some
nasty weather.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
It does have nasty weather.
Well, it's an island, you neverknow Ireland North.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, it's an island.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
You never know, so you might.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, exactly, so you never know what the weather's
going to be, but they do golfmostly year-round.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
They do year-round.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Well, the typical temperature in Ireland is
anywhere between 40 to about 65,70 degrees.
Oh that's not bad.
So no, it's not bad at all.
They very, very rarely get snow, except in more up north, so
you can actually have some greatgolf in the southern links all
year long.
Now are you a golfer?
I am not a golfer.
My husband's a great golfer.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
But I am not a golfer .

Speaker 2 (03:37):
So now you have all these beautiful golf courses on
Ireland.
And how long in advance shouldsomeone say make these
reservations and do they pickand choose which courses they
want to go to?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Sure, we can put an itinerary together for them if
they'd like.
So let's say, for example, theycome into Dublin and they want
to go ahead and do a course inKildare, which is close to
Dublin, and then they can kindof move and go anywhere they
want.
So we can go ahead and put acomplete itinerary together for
them.
Or if they have courses thatthey want to experience, that

(04:09):
they're familiar with, we canput those together for them as
well.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
So they can either listen to your advice, force it
If they want to do their own.
They would just say these arethe courses I want to go to and
you can put those together Teatimes, everything.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Tea times, hotels, transportation, we can do it all
for them If they want to stayin just one location and just do
back-to-back in that one area.
For example, if they want tostay in the southern part in
Killarney, we have like fourdifferent golf courses in that
area that they can do Four inKillarney only.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, just in that area.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, in that southern part or in Pularny,
only Now.
I do recommend that everybodycontacts their travel advisors
because they can kind ofhandhold them and help them get
to what they want to do, whichis fabulous, right, and I'm
going to say they should do thisin advance, like they don't
want to call tomorrow and thenbe there the next day, correct?

Speaker 3 (05:16):
No, yeah, and your question.
Back to your question how longand how far should they do it
ahead of time?
It's pretty much anywherebetween six months to a year,
you know, because the tea timestend to book up, right?
So what we're going to do iswe're going to go out and find
the tea times first for them, tomake sure that we get the tea
times for the courses that theywant, and then we'll build the
package around that, right?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
So yeah, and then I'm going to assume the summertime
is a little bit more crowded, ohof course, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
And let's say, the missus wants to go as well.
Of course, who doesn't want togo to Ireland, right?
So the guys don't get to haveall the fun.
If the missus doesn't golf,then we can go ahead and
actually do tours for her aswell.
Oh, so we could get a chauffeurfor her and take her.
So let's say they're in Dublin,like her husband's going to go
golf.
We can actually do hop-on,hop-offs in Dublin for her.

(06:04):
We can do some of our tourslike the Guinness Storehouse,
the brewery, we can do the EpicMuseum for her.
We can put all of these tourstogether for her and then she
doesn't have to worry aboutanything, we've got a pampering
day.
We could do that as well, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Some of the resorts.
Actually the International andDoombag is a resort where they
have a spa.
So some of these places areactually have their own spas.
So while the hubby's out doingaround the gulf.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
The wife can be inside getting a nice massage
and facial and just relaxing andenjoying the day.
I like that I like that a lot.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, you know, because Celtic Tours goes more
than just to Ireland.
You also have Scotland on theitineraries.
Now Scotland, of course, isvery famous for St Andrews Yep,
Now how would we do that?

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Can we do both?
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, you can definitelyincorporate Ireland and Scotland
.
We actually have tours that wedo for Ireland and Scotland as
well.
But if they wanted to do let'ssay they wanted to do five days
in Ireland and turn around anddo five days in Scotland, we can
do that for them.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
So if you do back-to-back, yeah sure.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Now St Andrews.
They have a total of 10different golf courses.
Seven of them are in the StAndrews Links, which is the old
area.
The old courses, and so theyhave seven different links there
, and then they have three newerlinks.
So for those who don't know alot about St Andrews, it is
actually the oldest golf courseon the planet.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
On the planet, on the planet.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
I knew it was an old one.
It was actually established.
The old course was actuallyestablished in 1400.
Well, wasn't golf establishedby the Scots?
Yep, it was.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
So the old course is obviously the oldest course on
the planet.
And then, of course, they haveseveral different courses.
They have the new course thatwas actually established in 1895
.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
That's a new one.
That's a new one, yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
And then they have the Jubilee course, which was
1897.
And then they have some newercourses the Castle course, which
was in 2008.
So, yeah, they have quite a fewcourses.
These are all 18-hole golfcourses, 18-hole golf courses in
St Andrews and then rightoutside of St Andrews itself in

(08:16):
the town, in Fairmont, they havetwo courses and then they have
another course called the Duke'scourse, also in that area.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now I've been told that getting into St Andrews is
pretty tough, and so we wouldhave to leave it to Celtic
tourists to make sure we getthose tea times Correct Now most
of the courses on St Andrews wecan go ahead and take care of
for you the only course that isvery difficult to get onto is

(08:41):
the old course, the oldest one.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
It is considered a lottery system and you typically
have to do it ahead of time.
Right, there are a couple otherways to get in.
If you happen to be there, youknow you can just show up and
hope somebody doesn't show upfor their tea time and maybe
you'll just slide right in.
But it is a lottery system andthe lottery system.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Now, does Kilt of Tours work with that lottery
system?
We would not.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Unfortunately, we do not.
This is something that has tobe done.
Personally, the old course isthe only course that actually
has it requires a handicap.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
So they have to be good at what they do Exactly,
and the handicap for men is 24.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
The handicap for women is 36.
So they definitely have to begood at what they do.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
They have to be able to do it, yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Now you can go and visit the old course and just
walk the old course.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
So if you wanted to see it, you can go and you know,
do they have a clubhouse therethat they can have a pint?

Speaker 3 (09:36):
or something, exactly , exactly.
But to actually play it, it isdone by a lottery system and I
believe the lottery systemstarts in the summertime.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
I'm not going to give you an exact date.
So they would have to go on theSt Andrews website to get
involved in the lottery if theywanted to.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Correct, but all the other courses in St Andrews, we
can look for them, all the otherones.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, you know I don't play golf.
So I played golf one whole timein my entire life and my whole
excitement was I was able to hitthe ball.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, that was it.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
So I don't think I'd be qualified to be on St Andrews
.
I'm definitely not qualified.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
I tried taking lessons from my husband, but
that just didn't go very well.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, it's fun.
I mean it's a great sport.
People have to realize that alot of people out there want to
play these courses.
You know because they're soused to playing ones in the
United States and some of themare very tough.
How tough are some of thesecourses overseas?

Speaker 3 (10:36):
You know again, st Andrews is probably going to be
the toughest.
You know the old course isprobably going to be the
toughest.
But I think all of the coursesthey have different pars and
different you know Right.
So I think if you're lookingfor a novice, we can definitely
help you with that.
Just let us know.
Say, I'm a great golfer but Iwant to go out there and do some
golfing.
We'll make sure to get you onthe correct course.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Right, because you know if you go to Ireland you're
on St Andrews, one of theircourses.
You can always say I played StAndrews.
You know, it took me five hoursyou know, 27 minutes just to do
one whole right.
Exactly.
You can actually say I playedthe course.
Yeah, exactly exactly.
The celtic tours wouldincorporate all of this into a

(11:18):
package deal for people thatwant to go.
Now, is this a group?
Only that they would have to dowell, to me, no, this is
individual so all of these, yeah, and the reason why they're
individuals?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
because the tea times obviously the tea times are are
booked, you know, for eachperson.
So this is actually anindividual.
Now, if they'd like to go witha group of friends, definitely.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
you know, highly recommend it, Like if they want
a foursome or something.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah, four we can do, four, six, eight we can do
probably up to about 10 to 12people and it's not actually
considered group.
The most difficult thing aboutthat is just getting the tea
times, because you know, if youhave that many people, then
obviously you're not going toall be playing together, right?
But yeah, we can put as manypeople as you'd like to take

(12:00):
with you and put it all togetherfor you and make it a fun time,
fun golfing tour.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and now when it comes to traveling, because I
know Celtic Tourists can dohandle the airfare they handle
the hotels, they handle thetransportation to and from.
You can incorporate all of thisinto the package that you're
supplying for the clients.
Correct, Correct?

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yep, yep, we do it all.
We want to make it as easy aspossible on your clients so we
can put everything together forthem, so we don't have to do
anything.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Now here in the United States I know we have
golf tournaments and things likethat.
They must have these types oftournaments overseas.
Is there any time that youshould not be looking or going
before some of these tournaments?

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Well, obviously, the tournament at St Andrews would
not be the prime time to go.
I'm assuming that's in thesummer.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
It is Correct.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
And I don't know the dates exactly because they tend
to fluctuate a little bit andthen they also have in Ireland.
They have the Open this comingyear, or actually this year.
It's already this year, right?
They have the Open.
That's going to be there thisyear, so that's going to be a
prime time as well year, sothat's going to be a prime time
as well.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
You get in the summer , correct, correct, and you say
that golf courses are openyear-round.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah, pretty much yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
So that's a good thing because you know some
people, like my husband's, fromSouth Dakota.
Golf courses really aren't openin South Dakota in the winter,
and I was from upstate New Yorkand the golf courses were not
really open in the winter yeah.
So it's kind of a good thing,you know, and it might be better
for travel, because it won't beso crowded, to take on maybe a

(13:36):
later winter time frame.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, I would highly recommend.
If you're going to travel toIreland, Scotland, any place
like that, you know, I wouldhighly recommend traveling
anytime between September andNovember December time period.
It's Christmas, Things tend toclose down.
A lot of people take off themonth of December in.
Europe.
You know it's very especiallythe last two weeks of December

(14:02):
into the new year.
Usually things are shut down soI don't highly recommend doing
December, but definitely anytime between September and
November is a perfect time to goas well.
As I would probably sayFebruary to you know, february
March, february March yeah, withthe exception of St Patrick's
Day week Right.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Well, you can go for St.
Patty's Day, you know and thenmaybe, you know, have a little
of both.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, exactly, if you're just looking to avoid the
crowds, then go during StPatrick's Day week.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Now, I know last time we spoke we were talking about
you did have St Paddy's Daypackages and things like that
and I know that's probablyalready probably sold out for
this year, but people to planfor next year.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yes, which is?

Speaker 2 (14:43):
great.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yes, actually, we've already started putting our 2026
group together for St Patrick's.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Day last year.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
So we're already in the works of Because you only do
one group, we do, we only doone group.
That's not a very large group,it isn't?
We usually stop at about 28people.
We might go to 32 max a month.
Right, we don't like to do twolarger groups.
So, yeah, but we're alreadystarting to put that together

(15:13):
and that'll be on our websitesooner than much later.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now, when people are coming to the golf courses and
they're loaded down with theirgolf clubs and everything you
have transportation for them,knowing that they have these
heavy sets of clubs and thingslike that.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yes, of course.
Now again, we can do this many,many different ways.
If they'd like to go ahead andrent a car and drive, if they
want to be brave and drive overin Ireland or Scotland, they're
welcome to go ahead and do that,which makes it a lot easier.
But we also have, you know,transportation.
We can do a chauffeur for them.
You know transfers.
We can do all of that and takecare of that for them.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Now, how close are the hotel accommodations to the
golf courses?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Very close.
We make sure to keep,especially, I mean, some of them
are resorts, so some of thegolf courses themselves.
They've actually stayed thereat the golf course.
Oh, that makes it easier.
Yeah, so that makes it verynice.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, that would be my personal favorite to stay
right there on the course in theresort, you know if everything
is handy to you Now.
Is there anything else includedin that type?

Speaker 3 (16:10):
of package.
We could include other things.
Typically we don't, becauseafter golf they kind of like
their free time.
They're either tired or fromplaying golf, so they want their
free time.
But we can definitelyincorporate dinners if they'd
like to do dinners and give themrecommendations for dinners,
and we can do all of that forthem.

(16:32):
Our specialists know theproduct inside and out and
they've also experienced ourscotting, so if you were going
to go ahead and book the teatimes or golf for those
particular areas, they knowexactly what they're talking
about.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Right, so they know if you have such and such tea
time and you're coming back atsuch and such a time.
If you want to do a dinnerreservation, they know where you
can make your reservations orthey can do it for you.
Correct, and Celtic Cruiseworks closely with travel
advisors, so the travel advisorcan say help, I need this and we
can work with them as well.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yes, we love our travel advisors.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
That's good to hear.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
That's really good to hear.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
We love our travel advisors.
Yes and again, you know if youdon't know, if you don't know,
you don't know.
So please feel free to give usa call and let us help you
through the process, becausethat's what we're here for.
We're here to make things easyfor you.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
I like that, I like that a lot.
Yeah, now, in closing, is thereanything else that you need to
tell me about the golfingopportunities over in Ireland
and Scotland?
I think, don't you Quite a bit?
Yeah, quite a bit.
And you say most of it is youknow how many?
You said 25 courses.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Did I hear that right ?
Yeah, there's like 20, 25different courses in Ireland
alone that they can actuallycheck out and go to.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
And, of course, the infamous St Andrews.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, and then yeah.
So then you've got yourScotland, and St Andrews is
obviously the most popular, butwe have several other courses
all over.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
And a lot of people that aren't so much into golf
don't realize that St Andrews isa series of golf courses.
Correct, that's correct.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
So they have to realize that it's not one course
.
Yeah, they just see thetournament on TV and think it's
just the one course.
Right that you know Tiger Woodswas on it.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well thank you very much for talking to me today.
And again it's CelticTourscom.
Call your travel advisor andsay you want to get on here and
go golfing in Ireland or inScotland.
And say go to CelticTourscomand they'd be more than happy to
help you.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Thank you, diana for coming and talking to me today.
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
I would like to thank my guests today for sharing
their travel experiences.
If any of these adventuresexcite you, feel free to contact
me.
Z at zmichelson travel dot com.
You can check out my websitezmichelson travel dot com, or
you can call your local traveladvisor and just say you heard

(18:59):
it on Z Michelson Travelspodcast.
Remember, travel really opensup the world to you with food,
culture, exploration andexcitement, and we find out we
truly are all the same.
Travel safe and shoot for thestars, and if you only get to
the moon, at least you made thetrip.
This is Zee Michelson.

(19:21):
Remember.
All my podcasts can be heard onany of your preferred podcast
providers.
And don't forget Z is speltZ-E-E.
Thanks for tuning in and have agreat day.