Elite Tours is not a tour company. It is a privately hosted experience of Ireland, built on more than fifty years of relationships across the country, and led personally by Ray himself.
For many visitors, a trip to Ireland is one of the most meaningful journeys of their lives, a connection to ancestry, a long-held dream, a trip planned for years. Yet so often, the experience falls short. Rushed itineraries. Group buses. The Guinness Storehouse. Volume over meaning.
Elite Tours was built to be the alternative. Founded by Raphael Mulally, Ray, on decades of experience and a deep pride in the country, every journey is shaped by a single belief: clients deserve more than a tour. They deserve to feel completely looked after, understood, and genuinely connected to Ireland itself.
We are not a big operation. We don't want to be. We are a small, carefully run company that delivers an exceptional level of personal service, because that is the only way we know how to work, and the only way Ireland is properly understood.
The Ireland most people never see. Done properly.
Founder, host & the Irish connection
The product is not the route, the hotels, or the itinerary. It is Ray's perspective, his relationships, his storytelling, and his instinct, built across more than fifty years on these roads.
Ray knows everyone. Shop owners, local guides, the publican who'll open for a private after-hours visit, the cousin still on the family land. He is, to use his own word, a chameleon: equally at home pouring whiskey in a Donegal bar and seating clients at a long Dublin lunch. Clients are not processed; they are personally hosted, from the first conversation to the last goodbye.
Every Bespoke is designed by Ray himself. He still drives. He still tells the stories. He still sings, when the moment calls for it. No Ray, no Elite Tours. That has been the deal from the beginning, and it is what makes this company impossible to copy.
The DNA
Signature Moments
Some moments will never appear on an itinerary. They are not listed, not planned in advance, and not shared publicly, these are the ones we live for.
Most people do Ireland wrong. We take you the right way.
| Instead of this | We offer this |
|---|---|
| Group tours that move people around in coaches | A privately hosted journey, end-to-end, designed around you |
| Drivers who get you from A to B | An Irish host who tells the stories, opens the doors, and stays with you the whole way |
| The Guinness Storehouse and the gift-shop circuit | EPIC Museum, Sean's Bar, the after-hours visits — the Ireland most travellers never see |
| Cold, corporate luxury — five-star and sterilised | Five-star where it counts, paired with the right village pub at the end of the day |
| Fixed itineraries, set in stone | Built from a conversation, designed from scratch every time, adaptable in real time |
| Volume over meaning | Meaning above everything |
Decades of partnerships with the bodies that vouch for Irish hospitality.
Tell us a name, a region, a curiosity, a feeling, we'll write back within a working day.
