Ireland, from the Cliffs to the last pint.
Which Cliffs of Moher coach stops long enough to walk the headland. Whether the Guinness ticket earns its half-day. What a Ring of Kerry seat costs in July. Every tour in Ireland, reviewed.
Ireland begins at the Cliffs, the Causeway and a cold pint.
Six days carry most Irish itineraries: the Atlantic cliff edge, the coach run west, the black stuff at source, the Kerry loop, the basalt columns up north and the bog roads of Connemara. Here is the best way to book each.
Ireland’s most popular tours.
Every review →These fill their coaches every morning of the season. Here is what each day actually contains, and what it costs.
1
Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and Galway
Dublin to Cliffs of Moher and Galway via Wild Atlantic Way, with 4G Wi-Fi and fast-track entry, plus Burren and optional Galway walk.
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 Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Wild Atlantic Way, Galway Tour
from $94
5
Dublin to Belfast Black Cab, Dunluce Castle and Giant’s Causeway
from $96
6
Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains & Glendalough Day Tour from Dublin
from $48
7
Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough & Kilkenny Tour
from $45
8
Irish Rock ‘N’ Roll Museum Experience Dublin
from $26
Cliffs of Moher: pick the version that suits your day.
All Cliffs of Moher tours →
Almost every Cliffs trip leaves Dublin before eight and gets back after dark. The differences that matter are how long you stand at the edge, whether the Burren and Galway are bolted on, and whether you see the cliffs from the water.
Cliffs, the Burren and Galway City
Across the midlands at dawn, two hours on the cliff path, the limestone pavement of the Burren after lunch and a wander through Galway before the run home.
Inisheer and the cliffs by boat
The islands first, bikes or a pony trap around Inisheer, then the cruise back under the cliff face where the whole 214 metres finally makes sense.
Doolin, the Burren and a cliff walk
Base yourself in Clare instead of driving from Dublin: the coastal walk from Doolin up to O’Brien’s Tower, orchids in the limestone, and a trad session waiting at the end.
Dublin is small, walkable, and gone in three days.
The city fits inside an afternoon and still takes a week to finish. Trinity in the morning, the Liberties and a distillery after lunch, then whichever bar has the fiddle going. The good walking tours and the Storehouse slots go first.
What a day in Ireland actually costs.
Cheapest first. A very good Irish day starts at the price of two pints and a sandwich, and the coach runs west cost less than most people expect.
Walking tours, distillery tastings, entry tickets and city days — most of Dublin sits here.
The full-day coach runs: the Cliffs, Kerry, Connemara, Newgrange, with a guide who knows the road.
Private drivers, island landings and the multi-day loops that cover the whole west coast.
Three things Ireland does that nowhere else does.
Castles and coastline you can find across Europe. A pint poured at the brewery gate, a session that starts when the fiddler feels like it and a hurling ball travelling at 180km/h belong to this island.
The Pint at Source
Guinness has been brewed at St James’s Gate since 1759 on a lease with 8,241 years left to run. The Storehouse walks you up seven floors of barley, hops and cooperage to the glass wall of the Gravity Bar, where the pint is free with the ticket and the city lies out under the Wicklow hills. Slots are timed, and the last two hours of the afternoon go first.
- 1Guinness Storehouse Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 16,863 reviews
- 2Guinness Storehouse Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,629 reviews
- 3Dublin Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,608 reviews
Music With No Stage
A session is not a concert. Players arrive with a fiddle or a bodhrán, take a corner table, and the tunes run for as long as the company holds. Nobody announces anything and nobody claps until a set ends. The guided nights are worth it for one reason: they know which back rooms have the real thing on a Tuesday.
- 1The Irish Dance Party in Dublin★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 918 reviews
- 2Dublin Traditional Irish 3 Course Meal Walking Tour with Local★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 755 reviews
- 3Irish Music and Dance Show with Dance Lesson★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 567 reviews
The Fastest Field Game
Hurling is 3,000 years old, played with an ash stick and a leather sliotar that travels faster than a hockey puck, and the players are amateurs with day jobs. The sessions put a club coach and a helmet on you for an hour or two in Dublin or Kilkenny; you will not be good at it, and that is most of the fun.
- 1Hurling Tours Ireland – Hurling Experience in Kilkenny★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 149 reviews
- 2Experience Gaelic Games in Dublin★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 106 reviews
- 3Hurling Experience in Kavanaghs Bar, Freshford, Kilkenny★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 31 reviews
Galway is where the coast road gets serious.
The city is buskers and oyster bars and a bridge over a green river. Everything west of it — Connemara’s bog and quartzite, Kylemore standing in its own reflection, the ferry piers for the Aran Islands — is the reason most people keep driving.
Kerry keeps the best road in Ireland to itself.
The Ring of Kerry is 179 kilometres of lake, pass and Atlantic that coaches drive anticlockwise so nothing meets head-on. Killarney fills the evenings, the Gap of Dunloe fills a morning, and Skellig Michael sits out there on the horizon for the handful of days a year the swell allows a landing.
- 1Guided Climb of Carrauntoohil with KerryClimbing.iefrom $96
- 2Lakes of Killarney: Boat Cruisefrom $18
- 3NO 1 Ring of Kerry Tour inc Killarney Lakes & National Parkfrom $72
It will rain on you in Ireland. Book the indoor days first.
Two hundred days a year carry rain somewhere on this island, and the Atlantic coast takes the worst of it. None of it cancels a distillery tour, a museum morning, a food walk under awnings or an afternoon in the Long Room at Trinity. Keep one of these in reserve for the day the forecast turns.
Book these before you fly to Ireland.
Most of Ireland can be booked from the hotel the night before. These four cannot: they run on timed tickets, tide tables, landing permits and club evenings that were fixed long before your flight was.
- 01Guinness Storehouse Entry TicketEntry is by timed slot, and the late-afternoon times with the best light over the city go first.
- 02Dublin Book of Kells, Castle and Molly Malone Statue Guided TourTrinity releases timed tickets for the Old Library; walk-up slots are rare between June and August.
- 03Ring of Kerry and Skellig Ring Private TourLanding boats run May to September only, in small numbers, and turn back whenever the Atlantic swell says so.
- 04Galway to Inisheer Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher and Boat TripIsland ferries sail to a tide-and-weather timetable, and the summer day-trip sailings fill weeks ahead.
The Irish loop, reviewed stop by stop.
By region — where are you based?
Dublin608 tours
Galway140 tours
Killarney & Kerry130 tours
Cork93 tours
Dingle62 tours
Wicklow50 tours
Kilkenny25 tours
Donegal19 tours- Every region →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
Irish nights run on tunes, ghosts and a slow pour.
All evening experiences →
The newest Irish tour reviews.
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Waterford Crystal & Kilkenny City Small Group Tour
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Avondale: Beyond the Trees Treetop Walk & Tower Entry Ticket
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Russborough House and Parklands Admission and Tour Ticket
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