Ireland is small. The days out are not.
Which coach actually stops at the Cliffs long enough to walk them. What the Guinness ticket costs before the queue starts. Whether Glendalough or Kilkenny is the better use of a Wednesday. Reviews of every tour you can book on this island.
- 01The Dublin one
Guinness Storehouse Entry TicketTimed entry to the Storehouse, seven floors up to the glass bar. Book the slot, skip the pavement queue.from $34 - 02The long day west
Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and GalwayDublin to the Cliffs and back inside a day, with the Burren and Galway city on the way home.from $90 - 03The mountain day
Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains & Glendalough Day Tour from DublinOver the Sally Gap to Glendalough, then Kilkenny. The best half of Leinster in one loop.from $48 - 04The day up north
Dublin to Belfast Black Cab, Dunluce Castle and Giant’s CausewayBlack cab through Belfast, then the basalt columns at the Causeway. Long, and worth the alarm.from $96
Nobody stays in Dublin all week. Pick the day you leave it.
The coach day trip is Ireland's signature product, and four routes carry most of the traffic. What each costs to board, and what you actually see for the hours in the seat.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · The Original Award Winning Wild Wicklow Tour incl. Glendalough
West to the CliffsTwo hundred metres of Clare falling into the Atlantic.
South to GlendaloughA monastic valley in the Wicklow hills, an hour from the quays.
North to the CausewayForty thousand basalt columns, with Belfast on the way.
Out to ConnemaraKylemore Abbey, the Twelve Bens and the bog road beyond Galway.
All 798 Irish day trips →
Six towns, and the best day you can have out of each.
A capital that walks in an afternoon, a Galway harbour that never quite goes quiet, lakes under Kerry sandstone, a Cork estuary, a peninsula at the far western edge and a medieval city on the Nore.
Dublin is a walking city with three tickets worth pre-booking.
Everything in Dublin →
The centre runs from Kilmainham to Trinity in about forty minutes on foot, which is why so few tours here need a bus. Spend the money on entry slots and a guide who knows which door to knock on.
Guinness, Kells, or the city pass
The Storehouse and the Book of Kells both run on timed slots and both sell out in summer. The multi-attraction pass only pays if you are doing three or more in the same two days.
Small museums that are actually good
EPIC on the docks tells the emigration story properly, and the Little Museum on Stephen's Green does the city in a townhouse, in an hour, with a guide who talks the whole way round.
Eating your way off the Temple Bar strip
Through the covered market, a cheesemonger, a butcher's counter and two pubs that were serving long before the tourists. Dinner is not required afterwards.
The tours most travellers to Ireland actually book.
Every Irish tour we have reviewed →What each one costs, how long it takes out of your week, and why it keeps coming top.
1
Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and Galway
Review of Dublin’s Cliffs of Moher and Galway day tour, with Wild Atlantic Way scenery, guided stops, Wi-Fi, timing, and value tips.
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
The whole west coast is one road, and most of it is best seen from the water.
Twenty-five hundred kilometres from Donegal down to Kinsale, with the Cliffs of Moher halfway. The boats out of Doolin and Galway get you under the cliff face; the ferries to Inisheer and the Blaskets get you off the mainland entirely.
What a day out in Ireland actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. The cheapest third of this list costs less than two rounds in a Dublin pub.
City walks, entry tickets, distillery tastings and the short runs up the coast.
The full-day coach standards: Moher, Glendalough, the Ring of Kerry, the Causeway.
Private drivers, small-group island days and the one splurge a week can carry.
Irish drinking is a guided activity now, and it is better for it.
Four working distilleries inside the M50, a Storehouse that pours at the top, and pub crawls led by musicians rather than promoters. Book the tasting for the afternoon and the session for after dark.
Four Irish bookings that will not wait for you to arrive.
Most of this country can be sorted the night before over a pint. These four run on entry slots, boat licences and Atlantic weather, none of which care what day you land.
- 01Guinness Storehouse Entry TicketEntry is a timed slot with a cap on each one, and summer afternoons go weeks ahead. Turn up without one and you are queueing on Market Street.
- 02Dublin Book of Kells, Castle and Molly Malone Statue Guided TourTrinity releases the manuscript and Long Room in half-hour slots. The early ones are the only quiet ones, and they are the first to fill.
- 03Ring of Kerry and Skellig Ring Private TourLanding on Skellig Michael runs roughly May to September under a fixed licence with a hard daily cap, and the swell cancels it without notice.
- 04Galway to Inisheer Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher and Boat TripThe ferries run to a printed timetable that shrinks out of season, and the last boat back from Inisheer is not a suggestion.
It rains here. Have the indoor day already booked.
Ireland gets rain on roughly half the days of the year and almost none of them are a write-off. The whole indoor economy — distilleries, small museums, the covered markets, a session in a back bar — was built by people waiting for it to pass.
Three things this island does that nowhere else can.
Cliffs and old books exist everywhere. A five-kilometre wall of Clare shale, a room of two hundred thousand of them, and a session that starts because somebody in the corner felt like it do not.
The Cliffs of Moher
Eight kilometres of shale and sandstone standing two hundred metres out of the Atlantic, with O'Brien's Tower at the high point and puffins on the ledges from April. The walk south towards Hag's Head loses the crowd within twenty minutes. Wind closes the cliff path more often than rain does, and the visitor centre is dug into the hill so you see nothing until you are on the edge.
- 1Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and Galway★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 23,331 reviews
- 2Cliffs of Moher, Burren & Galway City Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 18,888 reviews
- 3Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Wild Atlantic Way, Galway Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 12,924 reviews
The Book of Kells
A ninth-century gospel book, four volumes, two of them on show and a page turned every few weeks. The queue is for the Long Room upstairs as much as the manuscript: sixty-five metres of oak shelving holding two hundred thousand of the library's oldest books, with a harp at the end that ended up on the coins.
- 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 trad session
Not a concert. A handful of players in the corner of a bar, a tune started by whoever knows it, everyone else joining in on the second time round. Galway and Dingle keep the most honest ones going; Dublin runs the polished versions with a guide who explains what a bodhrán is doing to the rhythm.
- 1Generation Pub Crawl★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,457 reviews
- 2Traditional Irish Musical Pub Crawl★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,787 reviews
- 3Dublin Literary Pub Crawl★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,607 reviews
Dublin, the Wicklow hills, Cork, Kerry, Dingle, the Cliffs: the loop most people drive first.
Blarney
Killarney
DingleBy place — the towns tours actually leave from
By kind of day — coach, boat, castle or bar stool
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Turtle Bunbury’s Dublin: A Self-Guided Audio Tour from a Celebrated Author
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Cliffs of Moher and The Burren Private Tour from Dublin
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Connemara/Galway: Inis Meáin Return Ferry Transfer
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Cycling Westport & the Great Western green way. Mayo. Self-guided
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Skip-the-line St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Dublin City Tour
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