WHILE bus tours are often seen as a holiday for the more senior traveller, Paul White reports on the advantages they offer young and old, following a week in Ireland.

Standing at the bus depot in Normanton, Leeds, waiting for the bus taking my girlfriend and I on a week-long tour of Ireland, I look around and realise we are easily the youngest couple in the entire building.

At 26, that's not surprising, considering the unfortunate reputation of bus tours in general as something more suited to older people.

Only one other 'young' couple, a canny pair a couple of years older than myself from South Shields, board the bus, saving us from an age gap of around 20 years to the next youngest couple.

But having visited Paris last year on a similar package, I was able to smile to myself, aware that the trip was just what a holiday should be.

Consider these facts: a week away in another country, quality hotels, good food, trips to numerous places of interest, porters at each of the four hotels paid in advance to carry your cases to your rooms.

In fact, all you have to worry about is booking and paying for the trip and making sure you are at the pick-up point on time. The rest is meticulously organised for you.

By the time we've reached Holyhead, in North Wales, it's clear that the majority of the passengers on our 40-strong trip are young at heart, if not of body, and looking forward to a fun week.

Led by our driver, Eric Rillie, a Scotsman now living in Northumberland and a barrel of laughs, as well as an extremely knowledgeable guide with more than a decade of experience in leading trips to the Emerald Isle, that's exactly what we get.

Well, there is the matter of one fellow traveller who complains on a twice-daily basis about everything from only having one teaspoon in his room, to the fact that he hates living in Nottingham, he thinks that baths these days (including the ones in the hotels) are all designed badly, and that he is spending so much time on a bus.

Never mind. Eric quickly turns this into a running joke and it actually serves to lighten the mood.

A two-hour catamaran trip to Dublin is followed by a brief 40-minute ride to the other side of the capital where we check into our first hotel with minimum fuss - Eric reads the room numbers, we collect keys and go to our rooms where we wait for our luggage.

Dinner, bed and full Irish breakfast at the Jury group's Green Isle Hotel on the outskirts of the city are all above the standard you would expect from the three-star establishment where we spent our first night.

And, with our luggage taken from the rooms and loaded on the bus for us, it's off for a quick guided tour of Dublin before a lengthy journey across several counties to Kerry, where we spend two days in Killarney, a beautiful town in Ireland's equivalent to the Lake District and on the Ring of Kerry, which is also a place where stars such as U2's Bono have holiday homes.

A long journey it is, but we are kept entertained and informed by Eric, who appears to have picked up facts about numerous buildings and areas in the middle of nowhere.

The International Hotel where we stay was used by Billy Connolly on his "World Tour of Ireland" and, unlike one of our number, I'm sure even the stars would have nothing to complain about, especially if, like us, you get one of the rooms with a Jacuzzi.

Our first night there is spent at the Laurel Singing Bar, where the crowd are entertained and help entertain in equal parts. I am dragged onto the stage to conduct the crowd in a song, before getting up to do a jig with the resident dance troupe.

The second day is a ride round the Ring of Kerry with a relief driver and some amazing views of the Macgillycuddy Reeks and the Killarney National Park.

This is followed by a boat ride on Lough Leane, the biggest of the park's three lakes, where the views are equally stunning, and then a ride on the horse-drawn jaunting carts through tree-lined pathways.

From Killarney, we set off on a slightly shorter journey to Ennis to stay in the Auburn Lodge Hotel, yet another excellent hotel with massive rooms which seem to stretch on and on.

Here, for a few extra euros, the already good evening meal can be exchanged for an excellent a la carte menu. Although we find ourselves a taxi ride from the town centre, nightly entertainment is on offer in the hotel bar which serves a good pint of Guinness. Coming to think of it, I didn't find a bad pint of Guinness in the whole week.

Our final night was spent at the Killeshin hotel in Portlaoise, not far from Dublin, after another long cross-Ireland journey, before heading back to the capital and back onto the catamaran for the journey home.

All in all the package is well worth every penny, whatever age you are.