Day 1 | Airport pick up, EPIC, and Guinness Storehouse
- On arrival at Dublin Airport reclaim your baggage and enter the Arrivals Hall. Here, you will meet your Irish tour guide. There will be three group transfers this morning between 0700 am and 1200 noon. Board your luxury air-conditioned mini-coach and make the short transfer to your Hotel in the heart of Dublin City, where you can relax and unwind after your flight.
- 15:00 Check-in time. The hotel reception will store your luggage prior to Check-in.
- This afternoon, after all, introductions have been made, you will depart on a tour of Dublin City, Ireland’s capital city. Visit EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum. Voted, recently, as “Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction”, this museum tour tells the story behind the millions of people who fled, or was forced from, Ireland over the past three centuries. Located in Dublin’s Docklands.
- No visit to Dublin would be complete without a visit to Guinness Storehouse. With an address at the world-famous St. James’s Gate. Here you will tour the world-renowned brewery and enjoy a perfect complimentary pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar — located at the top of a glass tower that commands spectacular views of Dublin City.
- Evening free to relax and unwind at your leisure. Overnight in our hotel.
Day 2 | Dublin to Galway
- This morning after breakfast, you will depart for Galway City!
- Traveling west your route today will take you through Ballinasloe & Athlone, which is the center of Ireland. You will visit c. A medieval monastery on the banks of the River Shannon, founded by St. Ciaran in the 6th century. Clonmacnoise lay at a crossroads of medieval Ireland linking all parts of the island. Sacked time and again by the Vikings, it nevertheless flourished for over 600 years.
- We will continue west on our journey to Galway City, known as the “City of the Tribes”, which is located right on the famous Wild Atlantic Way. Here you can take a ramble down Quay Street with its many great pubs including “The Quays” and “Ti Neachtain” — a townhouse that belonged to “Humanity Dick”, an 18th-century MP who promoted laws against cruelty to animals.
- Here we will have a walking tour of Galway City, where your guide will tell you about how Galway became the city of the tribes and all about Mayor Lynch and show you Lynch’s Castle, and enlighten you on how Galway became famous with a piece of international jewelry called the Claddagh Ring.
- Have an afternoon relaxing and shopping and listening to Irish music in many of the little Irish pubs. Tonight we stay in Galway.
Day 3 | Tour of Connemara and Cong
- Today is a Tour of Connemara.
- This morning after breakfast, you will tour the sights of wild Connemara, famous for its bogs, mountains, and rugged coastline. You will have free time in Clifden. Known as the capital of Connemara. It was founded in 1812 by the High Sheriff of Galway to create a “pocket of respectability” within the lawlessness of the area.
- You will visit Kylemore Abbey. A historic building nestled at the base of Duchruach Mountain, on the northern shore of Lough Pollacappul — in the heart of the Connemara Mountains. It is regarded as one of Ireland’s most romantic buildings.
- Your return route to Galway City will take you through Ireland’s only Fjord and to the village of Leanne with the rugged 12 Bens of Connemara and the Maumturks mountain range all to be seen on the journey. We also pass through the village of Cong, pay a visit to Cong Abbey and the Monk’s Fishing House, and grab a quick coffee before we head back to Galway. If we have time we might have a quick peek of Ashford Castle.
- Lough Nafooey is awesome !!!!
- Tonight we will stay for our second night in Galway City and indulge in some live Irish music in Taffe’s pub or check out trad on the prom a live Irish dancing show.
Day 4 | Cliffs of Moher and Wild Atlantic Way
- Your journey will take you down the Wild Atlantic Way on the west coast of Clare via the famous Galway Bay, Dunguaire Castle, and the fishing village of Kinvarra. You will see The Burren, 250 square kilometers of the limestone plateau, to us Irish known as An Boireann, which is Gaelic for rocky ground—an apt name for this vast limestone plateau. Cromwell’s surveyor, Officer Ludlow, back in the 1640s, described it as “a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury”. But still a landscape of great beauty, and also the only place in Ireland where you will find a Mediterranean flower growing called the Gentia.
- On the Wild Atlantic Way, you will travel to the Cliffs of Moher. Braced against the ocean, on the coast of County Clare. Here you will stand on the dramatic 702ft (214m) high and 9 miles (14km) long cliffs, a Wild Atlantic Way signature discovery point, to gaze out on the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. Further south in County Limerick, take time to stroll the main street of the beautiful thatched village of Adare before traveling on to dingle town via the absolutely magnificent Conor pass !
- Tonight you will stay overnight on the Dingle peninsula.
Day 5 | Dingle to Killarney
- This morning after breakfast, you will depart for Killarney National Park. Your hotel is situated right at the door of Killarney National Park.
- First, we head west and we drive on what is my favorite Irish drive, slea head drive on the Dingle peninsula! Stunning! We can stop to see the vehicle hits and even pet some Irish lambs,
- We visit the gallarus oratory a 6th-century Irish church, and probably one of the first built in Ireland.
- There is also a chance to go horse riding in ventry harbor!
- Before we return to dingle town for lunch some of the best fish and chips in the world!
- We then make our way to Killarney and where we can either have a jaunting car ride of the gap of Dungloe or the Killarney national park and Donaghues Ross Castle.
- Tonight we stay on the banks of the lakes of Killarney!
Day 6 | Ring of Kerry and the Wild Atlantic Way
- Today is the Ring of Kerry, one of the most famous coastal drives in the world with its spectacular natural beauty. We will travel through the town of Killorglin, made famous by the puck fair, Ireland’s unofficial High King. Crowned every year on the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of August, where they take a goat and stick a crown on it. We’ll get a quick photo of King Puck.
- We can do an optional stop at a working Irish farm, and watch a real Irish farmer work his collie sheepdogs as they gather his sheep on the mountainside.
- Then we travel to Coomakista viewpoint, for panoramic views and photos of the wild west of Ireland. Stop off at Derrynane house, once home to the great Daniel O’Connell of 1829 Catholic emancipation Ireland. We visit his home, or if you would prefer, you can go for a stroll on a beautiful beach, and dip your toes if you want.
- After this, we’ll travel to Sneem, where you can grab some lunch at the riverside cafe, and a pint of Guinness, and sing the song about the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door as you sit on the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.
- So from here we travel over the mountains of Kerry, through the black Valley of 1847, and to the ladies’ view, made famous when Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting came to view the lakes of Killarney..
- Then just before returning to Killarney, we stop off to get some fantastic photos of the Torc waterfall, one of the best in all of Ireland!
- We spend our second night in Killarney town where you can enjoy a night of Irish dancing and music at the award-winning Irish show called Celtic Steps, a journey of emigration told through the eyes of Irish culture!
Day 7 | Killarney to Cork and Blarney Castle
- Leaving Kilarney, we head over the Cork and Kerry mountains and to the McCarthy Stronghold of Blarney Castle, where we will kiss the Blarney stone and get the gift of the gab, the magical gift bequeathed to the Irish people.
- After Blarney, we head for Cork City. With a panoramic drive through Cork City, Ireland’s second-largest city.
- After grabbing some lunch, in one of the many little pubs, we make our way to the rock of Cashel, once home to one of the most powerful Irish kings, Brian Boru.
- Also said to the be where St. Patrick plucked the shamrock to explain the holy trinity to the Irish People. After this, we make our way to Dublin City and say our Irish farewells after a great seven days.