Meals Included:  None

Today is your overnight transatlantic flight from your home airport to  Dublin, Ireland.  You must be in Dublin for the start of the tour on the morning of September 17, 2024.

Once the airline is able to provide us with a group flight price, we will communicate this for you to choose as an Add On to the tour price.  You are free to book your own flights as well.  The tour ends on the morning of September 29, 2024, and your departing flight will be leaving this day 

Any pre or post tour accommodations are not included in the tour price. 

Meals Included: Welcome Dinner

Following arrival at Dublin Airport, you will be met by your driver/guide and escorted to your awaiting motor coach.

This morning, you will enjoy a tour of Dublin – Ireland’s capital city on the banks of the River Liffey. You will see the Georgian Squares with their 18th Century houses, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College, Phoenix Park (the biggest town park in Europe), statue-filled O’Connell Street, and the fashionable Grafton Street. You will also visit EPIC – The Irish Emigration Museum which tells the story of the many Irish who emigrated over the centuries and how they helped to change the world. This afternoon you will check into your hotel for a two-night stay. This evening you will regroup with your fellow travelers and enjoy a welcome dinner in your hotel. 

Overnight: The Camden Court Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast

This morning you travel to Trinity College where you will visit the Long Room which houses 200,000 of Trinity College’s oldest books and is considered to be one of the world’s most beautiful libraries. You will view a 9th-century Latin manuscript of the four Gospels written on vellum (prepared calfskin), known as the Book of Kells, one of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures and the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. You will also visit Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, an architectural and historical site that has been at the heart of Dublin’s history for over 800 years. No visit to Dublin would be complete without a visit to the Guinness Brewery founded in 1759 by Arthur Guinness. Here you will enjoy a self-guided tour that concludes with a leisurely pint of Guinness in the 360-degree rooftop bar while enjoying some spectacular views of Dublin City. The remainder of the day is free to soak up the atmosphere of this vibrant city, experience the history and appreciate the blend of past and present with modern-day shops housed in century-old buildings. 

Overnight: The Camden Court Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast & Dinner

This morning you depart Dublin and travel south to County Wicklow known as The Garden of Ireland. Your first visit this morning will be to Powerscourt House and Gardens. This Palladian Mansion built in 1730 was badly damaged by fire in 1974. It was re-roofed in 1996 and opened to the public. The gardens at Powerscourt were first laid when the house was built in 1730 and a century later the 6th Viscount Powerscourt instructed his architect, Daniel Robertson, to draw up new schemes for the gardens. From here, you continue to Glendalough (Valley of Two Lakes) where you travel back in time while enjoying a guided tour of this early 7th-century monastic settlement. Your tour continues through the beautiful Vale of Avoca to Waterford for an overnight stay. This evening you will enjoy dinner in your hotel.

 Overnight: Dooley’s Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning you will visit the House of Waterford Crystal and see highly skilled local craftsmen demonstrate crystal blowing and cutting in a new state-of-the-art visitor center. Departing Waterford, you travel along the southern coastline to Blarney where you will visit Blarney Castle and Gardens. The castle was built in 1446 and today you will have an opportunity to climb the spiral stairs to the top of the castle and kiss the famous Blarney Stone said to bestow the gift of eloquence on those who dare. As you make your way through the castle grounds, you can also visit the Castle Gardens and Rock Close.

From here you continue to Beauty’s home Killarney for a two-night stay. This evening you will enjoy dinner in your hotel.

Overnight: The Killarney Plaza Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast

Today you will enjoy the unspoiled beauty of the Dingle Peninsula, once cited as the most beautiful place on earth by National Geographic. You will stop at the Brian de Staic studio in Dingle which specializes in Celtic jewelry, handcrafted and engraved with ancient Celtic symbols and the letters of the Ogham alphabet, an ancient Irish form of writing. As you continue around Slea Head, you will get some breathtaking views of the Atlantic coastline and see some beehive huts (early monastic settlements) dating back over a thousand years. Your tour will take you to the most westerly point of Ireland where you can view the Blasket Islands.

You will also see the locations for such films as Ryan’s Daughter and Far and Away which starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and the more recently filmed Star Wars – The Last Jedi. You will have some free time in Dingle for lunch before returning to Killarney.

Overnight: The Killarney Plaza Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning, you bid farewell to Killarney and travel to Tralee, capital town of County Kerry and famous for The Rose of Tralee Festival. You continue to Tarbert where you board the Shannon Ferry, which crosses the Shannon Estuary to Killimer.

From here you take the coast road to the majestic Cliffs of Moher which rise to a height of 600 ft over the Atlantic Ocean. Following some free time to view the cliffs, your tour winds its way through the lunar type landscape of the Burren which takes its name from the Irish word ‘bhoireann’ meaning, ‘a stony place’ or ‘a rocky place’, which is a good description for this 350 sq. kilometers limestone plateau. The rough, intriguing, and attractive landscape was formed 320 million years ago under a tropical sea. You continue along the shores of Galway Bay to Galway City for a two-night stay. This evening you will enjoy dinner in your hotel.

Overnight: The Salthill Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast

Today you will take a break from the hustle and bustle of the mainland and travel to Rossaveal where you will board a ferry to Inishmore – the largest of the three Aran Islands and one of the highlights of the Wild Atlantic Way. The island is steeped in history and resembles an outdoor museum with over 50 different monuments of Christian, pre-Christian, and Celtic mythological heritage.

You will take a minibus tour of the island which will include a stop at the world-renowned fort of Dun Aonghasa which stands over a dramatic 300-foot cliff that spans the entire western part of the island. You will have time to walk to Dun Aonghasa and enjoy the spectacular views before boarding the ferry for your return journey to Galway. 

Overnight: The Salthill Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning you bid farewell to Galway City and travel through the famous Gaelic-speaking area of Connemara made up of mountains, lake lands and boglands. Because of its wild and rugged beauty, it has been the location for many films. The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O Hara and in more recent times The Field starring Richard Harris. You will visit Kylemore Abbey, built in 1866 and from 1920 to 2008 was home to the Benedictine Nuns.

You will visit the Abbey’s Victorian Walled Garden which is completely enclosed by a brick and limestone wall and the beautiful Gothic Church built by Mitchell Henry in memory of his wife who died four years after the castle was constructed. Your tour then winds its way through the scenic Doolough Valley taking in a stretch of road known as the famine walk and follows in the footsteps of the many people who left their home in search of food during the great famine. You will visit Glen Keen Farm and enjoy some freshly baked scones followed by a sheep herding demonstration.

From here you continue by the foothills of Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s Holy Mountain to Westport for a two-night stay. This evening you will enjoy dinner in your hotel. 

Overnight: The Clew Bay Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Afternoon Tea

This morning you travel to Mulranny and cross the Michael Davitt Bridge to Achill, Ireland’s largest offshore island and recently featured in the award-winning film Banshee of Inisherin. As your tour follows the coastline you will get some breathtaking views on the island’s spectacular Atlantic Drive. You will visit the deserted village at Slievemore which consists of 80 – 100 stone cottages (booley homes) on the southern slopes of Slievemore Mountain. On returning to Westport, you will visit 18th Century Westport House for a guided tour and before departing you will enjoy a sumptuous Victorian Afternoon Tea in the gorgeous formal Drawing Room. The remainder of the evening is free to enjoy this picturesque town of Westport. 

Overnight: The Clew Bay Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning you depart Westport and head for Donegal. You will stop at Turlough Park House and visit the award-winning Museum of Country Life. This museum provides an insight into the lives of the people living in rural Ireland from the 1850’s to the 1950’s. Learn about the traditional trades, crafts, fashion and religion and explore Ireland’s agricultural and maritime past. From here you continue to Drumcliffe in County Sligo where St. Colmcille founded a monastery in the 6th Century.

It is also the final resting place of one of Ireland’s great poets William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939). His grave is marked by a simple headstone with the inscription, “cast a cold eye on life, on death, horseman pass by.” Your next stop is Belleek, most famous for the fine Parian China produced here at Belleek Pottery, the oldest in Ireland. The China is valued by collectors from all over the world. Following a guided tour you continue to Donegal for an overnight stay in the luxurious Lough Eske Castle. This evening you will enjoy dinner in the castle’s Cedars Restaurant.

Overnight: Lough Eske Castle

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning you travel to Derry City on the banks of the River Foyle. Derry City was founded in 546 AD and still retains its 17C walls. You will see the new Derry Peace Bridge over the River Foyle. This 235-meter-long pedestrian bridge opened in 2011 and bridges a 400-year-old physical and political gap between two sides of a once-divided community. You continue to Limavady where you begin the Antrim Coast Road Drive. Of course, no visit to Northern Ireland would be complete without a visit to the Giant’s Causeway – a remarkable basaltic formation made of approximately 37,000 columns and ranked as one of the natural wonders of the world. Your tour continues along the Antrim Coast Road with spectacular views of the northern coastline to Belfast for an overnight stay. This evening you will enjoy dinner in your hotel.

Overnight: The Titanic Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning you will enjoy a tour of Belfast City. You will see the City Hall – one of the finest Classical Renaissance buildings in Europe, the Linen Hall Library which has been lending books for over 200 years, and the Grand Opera House often described as the most beautiful Victorian theater in the world. You will drive by the many murals that Belfast has become famous for. They depict the history and political views of both traditions and are a way of marking territory. You will also visit Titanic Belfast, a new state-of-the-art visitor center that tells the stories of the ill-fated RMS Titanic, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic.

This afternoon you travel to Dublin for an overnight stay. Tonight, you will enjoy a farewell dinner in your hotel. 

Overnight: The D Hotel 

Meals Included: Breakfast

After breakfast, you will travel to Dublin Airport for your flight home with fond memories, newly acquired accents, and many stories to relate to friends and family.