You can cross Ireland before lunch. The Cliffs still take all day.
Which Cliffs of Moher coach actually stops in the Burren. What the Book of Kells costs once you skip the queue. Whether Glendalough beats the Ring of Kerry when you have one free day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Ireland.
The Cliffs of Moherfrom $32
Glendaloughfrom $34
The Ring of Kerryfrom $44
The distilleriesfrom $22The Cliffs, a pint at St James’s Gate, Glendalough, the Causeway coast.
The four bookings a first Irish trip tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The long west dayDublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and GalwayThirteen hours out of Dublin for the Atlantic edge, the Burren limestone and an hour loose in Galway city.
02The one everybody doesGuinness Storehouse Entry TicketSeven floors above the old brewery at St James’s Gate, ending with a pint poured at the top. Take a morning slot and the queue is somebody else’s problem.- 03The mountains an hour southKilkenny, Wicklow Mountains & Glendalough Day Tour from DublinA monastic valley, a round tower and Lough Tay, with Kilkenny on the way back. Ten hours, and you are back in Dublin for dinner.
04The day northDublin to Belfast Black Cab, Dunluce Castle and Giant’s CausewayAcross the border for the basalt columns at the Causeway, Dunluce on its headland and the beech tunnel at the Dark Hedges. The coast road is the best part.
Most of what you came to Ireland for is three hours from Dublin.
Four kinds of long day, all of them leaving a city kerb before eight. What it costs to get on board each one, and which coast it puts you on.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · Cliffs of Moher, Burren & Galway City Day Tour
The Atlantic edgeTwo hundred metres of cliff, the Burren, and Galway before dark.
The Wicklow valleysA round tower, two dark lakes and a sheepdog field, back by six.
The Kerry ringA hundred miles of pass, lake and coast road, driven for you.
The Causeway coastBasalt columns, Dunluce Castle and the road north out of Dublin.
All 46 day trips out of Dublin →
Dublin first, then west until the road runs out.
Six towns worth unpacking in, and the day out each one is really for. The distances are short here. The roads are not fast.
The Cliffs, the brewery, the Causeway: what everybody books anyway.
Every Irish tour we have reviewed →Most popular first, and what each one is actually like once you are on the coach.
1
Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and Galway
See the Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Wild Atlantic Way, and Galway on a 13-hour Dublin day tour with Wi-Fi and guide-led sightseeing.
From · $90
Read our review →
2
Cliffs of Moher, Burren & Galway City Day Tour
from $89
3
Guinness Storehouse Entry Ticket
from $34
4
Dublin to Belfast Black Cab, Dunluce Castle and Giant’s Causeway
from $96
5
Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains & Glendalough Day Tour from Dublin
from $48
6
Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough & Kilkenny Tour
from $45
7
Irish Rock ‘N’ Roll Museum Experience Dublin
from $26
8
Dublin Highlights and Hidden Gems Guided Walking Tour
from $29
Dublin: two days on foot, and a coach out on the third.
Everything in Dublin →
Trinity and the Book of Kells before the coaches arrive, Georgian doors on the walk down to the brewery, and a session in the Liberties once the light goes. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Book of Kells, or just the Long Room
The manuscript sits under glass with two pages showing, and the room everybody photographs is up the stairs behind it. Fast-track tickets exist because the queue on College Green is real.
Seven floors, one pint at the top
The old fermentation plant at St James’s Gate, rebuilt as a museum around a century of advertising. The bar on the roof is the payoff, which is the argument for an early slot.
Bow St, Teeling, or both
Jameson pours a comparative tasting in the old Bow St warehouse. Teeling actually distils, ten minutes away in the Liberties. Both finish with a glass and neither wants you to hurry.
Galway is a small city with a very long coast attached.
The Latin Quarter takes an evening. What the city is really for is the road out of it: the bogs and quartzite hills of Connemara to the north, the Burren and the Cliffs to the south, and the Aran ferry from Rossaveal.
Every day out from Galway →
Ireland’s other national museum is a bar.
Two working distilleries in the Liberties, a brewery that runs seven floors, and a session that starts when somebody at the end of the counter feels like starting it. Book the tasting. The session finds you.
Ireland is not cheap. The good days out mostly are.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs to get on board. A surprising number of the best Irish days come in under the price of dinner in Dublin.
City walks, the brewery, the Book of Kells, distillery tastings and the short hops out of Dublin.
The full-day standards: the Cliffs, the Ring of Kerry, Glendalough and the run north to the Causeway.
Private drivers, small-group runs along the Wild Atlantic Way, and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Rain crosses Ireland from the west in about an hour. Plan around it.
Irish rain is rarely all day and almost never a reason to stay in. It is a reason to have the indoor hour already booked: a distillery in the Liberties, a library that smells of old paper, a glass factory in Waterford. Then back out when it lifts.
A session, a manuscript and forty thousand basalt columns.
Bars and coastlines exist everywhere. A tune started at the end of the counter without anyone announcing it, a ninth-century gospel book still on its shelf, and a headland that cracked into hexagons do not.
The session at the end of the bar
A session is not a gig. Players arrive with cases, take the corner table and start when the previous tune has run its course. There is no set list, and nobody claps until the end of a set rather than the end of a tune. The tourist-facing ones run to a timetable because they have to, but the good ones still leave room for whoever walks in carrying a bodhrán.
- 1Irish Music and Dance Show with Dance Lesson★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 567 reviews
- 2Trad on the Prom Ticket with Irish Music and Dancing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 482 reviews
- 3Dublin Traditional Irish Music Walking Tour with Live Performance★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 253 reviews
The Book of Kells
Four gospels copied and painted onto calfskin around the year 800, probably begun on Iona and finished at Kells. Two volumes sit open under glass at Trinity and the pages are turned on a schedule, so what you see is not what the person ahead of you saw. The Long Room upstairs is the part that stops people talking.
- 1Dublin Book of Kells, Castle and Molly Malone Statue Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,825 reviews
- 2Fast-Track Book of Kells Ticket & Dublin Castle Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,661 reviews
- 3St Patrick’s Cathedral, Book of Kells and Dublin Castle Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 882 reviews
The Giant’s Causeway
Roughly forty thousand basalt columns, most of them hexagonal, left where a lava flow cooled and cracked. It is a long day from Dublin, and the coach almost always adds Dunluce Castle on its headland and the beech tunnel at the Dark Hedges. Go on a clear day. The stones are slick in rain.
- 1Dublin to Belfast Black Cab, Dunluce Castle and Giant’s Causeway★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,954 reviews
- 2Dublin to Dunluce Castle, Giant’s Causeway, Dark Hedges & Belfast★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,781 reviews
- 3Dublin to Belfast Titanic, Dunluce Castle & Giant’s Causeway Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,729 reviews
The four that are sold out by the time you land.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed entry slots and ferry timetables that take no interest in when your flight gets in.
- 01Dublin Book of Kells, Castle and Molly Malone Statue Guided TourTrinity sells timed entry and the morning slots go first. The standing queue on College Green is the alternative.
- 02Guinness Storehouse Entry TicketThe busiest paid attraction in the country, on timed admission. Arrive without a slot in July and you are queueing on Crane Street.
- 03Galway to Inisheer Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher and Boat TripThe islands run on a ferry timetable and the last boat back is not negotiable. Rough weather cancels the crossing outright.
- 04Jameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with TastingsTastings run in small groups at fixed times, and Bow St fills its afternoons well ahead through the summer.
Dublin, Kilkenny, Cork, Killarney, Dingle, Galway: the ring most first trips end up doing.
Kilkenny
Killarney
Dingle
GalwayBy town, east to west
By kind of day: coach, cliff, counter or canal
The Irish tours that went up most recently.
Keep going through the new ones →
Aran Island, Cliffs of Moher & Cruise tour from Galway. Guided.
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The Best of Dublin – Highlights and Hidden Corners
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Dublin Bay: Cruise from the City Centre to Dun Laoghaire
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Dublin Explorer Pass: Save up to 50% on 3 to 7 Attractions
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Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral Tour
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