To all our old friends in America, and hopefully some new ones…

This is just a few lines from myself, Martin and all the team here at Fair Isle Tours in Ireland. We are writing to you currently just to reassure you that we are continuing to operate our coach and tour business, albeit at much reduced rate.

Despite what has obviously been a very turbulent year for everyone, we are now looking ahead to the coming months and what they may hold for us. For the benefit of some of you who may not be familiar with Fair Isle Tours, we have been in business for approximately the last twenty-five years.

In recent years we have expanded our business significantly, whereby, we are now offering several tours in Ireland. Briefly, our objective here at Fair Isle Tours is to offer our guests the best possible experience of Ireland. The team and I regard ourselves as incredibly lucky to be able to showcase Ireland to all our visitors.

Some of you may be familiar with the late great Alistair Cooke and his regular broadcasts under the heading a Letter from America. These broadcasts ran from 1936 to 2004, an incredible 68 years, and were designed to keep everyone informed of current events taking place in America. His insight over the last number of years of what has taken place in America, politically, economically and with Covid-19 is sadly missed. So, with due deference to the late Alistair, we now propose to begin our Letter to America.

The object of this will be to keep you informed of what is happening here in Ireland, across all aspects of society. Unlike Alistair Cooke, I doubt I will continue for the next 68 years, but hopefully the link between Fair Isle Tours and America will continue. I would like to point out, this will not be a blog, mainly because I am not sure what a blog is, this is our letter. Thanks to the incredible achievements in science and medicine, we are now seeing the rollout of the Vaccines across the world, which is giving us all great hope for the future.

Over the past year, we here at Fair Isle, have taken the opportunity to prepare for your return. We have kept in contact with our partners, including, hotels, restaurants, attractions etc. In the coming weeks, we will be putting up several tours on our website, www.fairisletours.com. Which we hope you might find exciting.

We will be launching several tours beginning in autumn, under the heading A Feast for The Senses. Most people think of only five senses, taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound. We believe, a lot more exist, including, a sense of humour, sense of hope, sense of belonging, sense of achievement, sense of wonder, sense of place and a sense of wellbeing to name but a few. It is our intention to hopefully satisfy all those senses.

These tours will of course include everything you have come to expect of Ireland, including, top class hotels, fine dining, magnificent scenery, music, poetry and perhaps even some Guinness There may also be some quiz nights, including of course prizes. We would appreciate any suggestions you may have in respect of these tours, or any special requests you may have. These tours will be about a disappearing Ireland and a way of life and will inevitably be nostalgic. I think I am showing my age (66), but I hope this will meet with your approval.

There is so much that we would like to tell you about Ireland. Its history, its culture, its music and its poetry and we would be more than happy to answer any queries you may have. We are also delighted to announce, we are now partnering with the beautiful and historic Lissadell House for the upcoming tourist season (more anon). All our plans are of course subject to change, depending on Covid-19 restrictions. In the event of any bookings made, there are no cancellation fees whatsoever, in respect of the pandemic.

This is our first letter to America and hopefully, the first of many, but for now, we will refer you to our website to view our fleet, our testimonials and credentials. Bye for now. We very much look forward to hearing from you.