About Us

Global Village Tours

We are an independent adventure travel company based in Ireland, established by Dan Murphy and Dave McCarthy. Here is us and a cat. We specialise in taking you on unique adventures to some of the world’s most unusual and ‘out there’ destinations. We have over 20 group tours each year to Cuba, Colombia, Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Chernobyl and North Korea. We quite literally go off the beaten track, a term now thrown around by the bigger travel companies, but only one that a company like ours will deliver. Fun and adventure with a group of like-minded travellers is what we want you to experience on any of our tours and being budget friendly is central to what we do. 

As a full-service tour planner, we work out all the details of your tour – this first and foremost means an interesting, unusual and definitely enjoyable  itinerary, that you won’t get with our bigger competitors. Planned for you – all your accommodation, transport (private AC tour bus on our group tours), internal flights, the best activities & sights, visa assistance where required as well as taking you to great places to eat – avoiding like the plague, all tourist traps along the way. Each of our tours has a local and English speaking expert guide that will show you around like no one else can, including the inside of few bars!  Accommodation is usually local hotels and hostels, with the odd luxury night thrown in along the way, depending on the tour. When it comes to food, we take you to amazing traditional restaurants that tourists do not find by themselves. All of this keeps our prices down and gives you the best possible cultural experience. 

We do use the word adventure tour from time to time, however we are referring more to the experience you will have on our tours rather than anything too physical. Swimming and some light hiking is usually as heavy as it gets here! Some of our tours do have optional extras, such as scuba diving for example – but in general, our tours are relaxed and at a pace that is easy to enjoy. We pride ourselves on putting an emphasis on ‘craic’ and enjoying the social side of traveling – you can expect to meet plenty of like-minded people on our tours and most likely make friends for life.

Global Village Tours was started in 2013 out of a love for travel and our ethos is to give our customers an extraordinary experience, at an ordinary price. You can expect a personable booking process with us and are always just an e-mail or phone call away throughout the booking process. Currently we handle all payments through bank transfer, generally our customers prefer not to add their once in a lifetime Somaliland, Papua New Guinea or North Korea tour to a shopping cart! 

What to expect 

  • Our customers are typically young professionals from 27+ to adventure seeking 45+
  • Many of our travellers are solo female as well as solo males and/or couples, friends etc. Some our people right here 
  • Group tours are typically quite small, usually up to 12 per group 
  • The atmosphere is social and relaxed, prepare to leave your work like behind for a few days. If you are travelling to the destinations we visit, there will be like-minded people along with you
  • You are hitting the road, usually travelling light and often not spending more than 2 days in one location. Tours are not really physically demanding but we do try and get in as much as possible on each tour 
  • All our guides are experts on each location that we visit, whether that means of the beaten path swimming spots or restaurants frequented by locals 
  • Experiencing authentic culture in each country is what our customers want, that means high quality guest houses, home stays and quirky hotels
  • We will guide you on everything from international flights to visas 
  • Generally speaking, the tour cost will cover guides, all ground transport on the itinerary, admission to most attractions, breakfast and some additional meals
  • International flights are not included in our prices (internal flights are, if relevant to itinerary) you can typically get cheaper flights yourself and we will advise on this
  • Tours commence in the first city of each itinerary we will usually meet at a city centre hotel or at the airport where relevant 

Meticulous Planning

Each of our tours are meticulously arranged. Visas, handpicked accommodation, private group transport, and our expert guides that know your destination like of the back of their hand. Authentic traditional restaurants, cool bars and an array of quirky off the beaten path sights that ‘normal’ tourists do not get to visit. All you need to do is mark anywhere from 5-20+ days off work, and arrive at the city where your tour gets started to meet up with the group.

Customisable Tours, Solo or Group 

As well as our scheduled group tours, we provide customised tours to many of our destinations. This means you can choose your own dates, if you would prefer to travel solo or if you wish to plan a tour for a social, corporate or educational group. Send us a message on the contact form if you would like to ask about arranging a tour on our own dates