All of Ireland Tour
Day 1 Dublin
Highlights
· Trinity College
· The Book of Kells
· Temple Bar
· Guinness Storehouse
With an abundance of 5 star hotels, great shopping, mighty bars and some of the country’s most sophisticated restaurants, Dublin is fast becoming the premier city destination in Europe. Wander the maze of cobbled streets in Temple Bar, have a ‘pint of plain’ in the Guinness storehouse, marvel at the world famous Book of Kells or lose yourself in the history of Kilmainham.
Day 2 Wicklow
Highlights
· Powerscourt House & gardens
· Wicklow driving tour
· Glendalough monastic settlement
Snugly tucked underneath bustling Dublin, Wicklow performs its role as green retreat to delightful perfection. Vanish over the towering gaps and enter a magical world of babbling brooks and wooded thickets, of affable villages and languid taverns. Time trickles by here, the land being parcelled out between ancient Christian sites and courtly period houses.
Day 3 Waterford & Kilkenny
Kilkenny Highlights
· Kilkenny Castle
· Medieval Kilkenny City
Kilkenny City is Ireland’s most authentic medieval town; Kilkenny Castle, St. Canice’s Cathedral and the Black Abbey have being residing here since the thirteenth century. Remarkably these ancient structures rest seamlessly with hip bars, chic restaurants and fashionable boutiques. Pull up a high chair, grasp your pint and make lifelong friends with the soon to be familiar locals.
Waterford Highlights
· Waterford Crystal
· Waterford City
The Vikings first visited here in 852AD and tourists have being coming ever since. Reginald’s Tower dominates the skyline, gazing over the bustling River Suir and the narrow medieval lanes of the Viking’s triangle. Waterford Crystal, the awesome gem in Waterford’s wonderful crown, is a magical world of precious glass blowers and elegant engravers.
Day 4 Cork
Highlights
· Blarney Castle
· Cobh Heritage Centre
· Cork City
Cork City is over 800 years old and is an artistic city home to the Cork Opera House and numerous galleries and theatres. Snug bars hosting impromptu traditional music sessions neighbour chic restaurants serving Atlantic catch and racks of Kerry lamb. Wild and epic landscape pours in every direction across the county from the capital. Plant a smacker on the Blarney Stone and gain the ‘gift of the gab’ to enable you to compete with the sharp wit of the Corkonians.
Day 5-6 Kerry
Highlights
· The Ring of Kerry
· Staigue Fort
· Killarney National Park
· Muckross House & Gardens
· Killarney’s Traditional Music Pubs
· Dingle Peninsula
The Kingdom of Kerry is a land of chattering dolphins, beautiful women called Rose and oh by the way the King is a goat! Indeed this is a Kingdom with a difference! Windswept and wild, rugged and romantic – this is the mythical Ireland of dreams.
Day 7 Clare
Highlights
· Bunratty Castle & Folk Park
· The Cliffs of Moher
· The Burren
· Doolin
Clare is perfect desolation, the indescribable Burren flings it’s jagged limestone rocks from the plunging Cliffs of Moher as far as the eye can see. Hidden amongst this craggy desert are a bundle of prehistoric monuments, blankets of wildflowers and delightful villages like Corofin, Ballyvaughan and the secret Mecca of Irish traditional music – Doolin.
Day 8-9 Galway
Highlights
· Galway City
· Galway Crystal
· Kylemore Abbey
· Galway Music & Theatre Venues
· Aran Islands
Weathered mountains, sheep studded hills, bogs and remote villages; all jaggedly sewn together by stonewalls and pounded by the mighty Atlantic forms the spellbinding beauty of Galway. Carved out of this tremendous landscape is legendary Galway City itself. Bohemian, funky and laid-back – revellers drink, sing and dance themselves around the curved, cobblestone lanes of this city steeped in history.
Day 10 Mayo
Highlights
· Clew Bay
· Croagh Patrick Mountain
· Westport Heritage Town
· Knock Shrine
· National Living Museum
· Ceide Fields
Mayo is Galway’s quiet relation, whilst travelling through it you sense that you are forging new ground. Misty mountains, silent lakes, deserted beaches and desolate bogs all combine to create a mythical, magical land. Mayo leaves behind the stresses and demands of the modern world.
Day 11 – 12 Donegal
Highlights
· Rosnowlagh/Bundoran Surfing
· Slieve Leaque Highest Sea cliffs in Europe
· Glenveagh National Park
· Gaeltacht Irish speaking area
· Bloody foreland
· Grianan Ailigh
· Malin Head
Perched precariously on the outer tips, Donegal has a powerful sense of the final Irish frontier. Indeed, whilst buffeted and pummelled by the mighty elements on the outer reaches of Malin Head you experience an epic end-of-earth feeling. Donegal is a sheer beauty of gnarled promontories, desolate beaches and meandering streams.
Day 13 Derry/Antrim
Highlights
· Walled City of Derry
· Mount Sandel (oldest Village in Europe)
· Carrick a Rede Rope Bridge
· North Antrim Coast
Antrim is a treasure trove of scenic beauty, its peculiar black basalt and chalk white landscape is pocketed by magnificent castles slumbering in deep, forested glens. It is also possesses in the Giant’s Causeway of one of the most curious and remarkable geological sites in the world. Belfast is the pounding heart of the county, rejuvenated and confident, she’s sparkling once again.
Day 14 Louth
The ‘wee’ county is a precious nugget, wedged proudly between Leinster and Ulster. Cloaked with delightful gems such as Mellifont Abbey, the High Crosses of Monasterboice and the superb King John’s Castle at Carlingford; encased in sublime scenery and dotted with intimate, little manor villages; the ancient kingdom of Oriel punches far above its weight.
Highlights
· Monasterboice monastic site
· Carlingford
· Cooley Peninsula
· Drogheda
Day 15 Meath
Highlights
· Brù na Bóinne Visitor Centre
· Megalithic Tombs of Newgrange
· Boyne Valley
Meath is Ireland’s most enduring link to its mighty past as an island of saints and scholars; its amazing relics stand defiant, ignoring the ravages of time and invading armies. Brú Na Bóinne is one of the most extraordinary sites in the world, the jewel in its crown is the mind blowing Newgrange. All of these gems lie under the epic shadows of the Hills of Slane and Tara, the sacred dwellings of St. Patrick and the gods.
Day 16 Departure