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Cliffs of Moher and Galway Private Full Day Tour from Dublin
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From €1020 per person
This private 12-hour tour takes you from your Dublin hotel out to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway city, with hotel pick-up and drop-off included throughout. The whole day is yours - no shared coaches, no waiting for other passengers.
You can choose how you want to travel: with a private English-speaking driver only, or with a driver and a separate official guide (available in English or Spanish). Either way, entrance tickets to the Cliffs of Moher are included. The route takes you through some of Ireland’s most scenic countryside, with the green west coast opening up as you get closer to Clare.
Galway and the Cliffs each get around three hours of your time, with the remainder of the day covering driving and a free-time lunch stop.
This is a private tour. Available in English and Spanish.
The Cliffs are near Doolin - use the extra time on the village. Your three hours at the cliffs gives you more time than most tours allow. Doolin is 10 minutes from the visitor centre, and it’s worth stopping there for lunch or a coffee rather than eating at the centre itself. Gus O’Connor’s pub on Fisher Street has been open since 1832 - the seafood chowder is consistently good and the atmosphere is genuine. If you’re there on a Friday or Saturday, there are sessions running most nights.
The southern cliff walk starts at Liscannor, not the visitor centre. If you have time to stretch your legs, Liscannor is eight kilometres south of the main visitor centre and the starting point for the Hag’s Head cliff path. The walk north from the car park above the village reaches the same cliffs with no turnstile and far fewer people. Vaughan’s Anchor Inn at the pier has been run by the same family since 1979 and the seafood chowder there is worth a stop after a walk.
In Galway, the laneways are the point. Your three hours in Galway is enough time to do the medieval core properly. Start at Eyre Square, head down Shop Street, turn into the laneways - they narrow further than you expect, and the pubs and galleries go on longer than the map suggests. Tigh Coili on Mainguard Street runs trad sessions nightly; even a lunchtime visit gives you a sense of what the city does when it relaxes. For a quick proper lunch, Ard Bia at Nimmo on Quay Street cooks locally-sourced food in a room that overlooks the river.
Ask your driver about the lunch stop timing. The six hours of “travel and free time” gives you flexibility to eat where you want. Between the two main stops, the Burren coastal road through Kinvara and Ballyvaughan passes some of the best scenery in the west - if you’re not eating at the cliffs or in Galway, this stretch is where you’d want to pause. Monk’s Pub at the Ballyvaughan pier is right on the harbour and the chowder there is what west Clare does with a lunch stop.
Pick the guide option if history matters to you. The cliffs and the city both have layers - the Cliffs of Moher are over 300 million years old, and Galway’s medieval walls are still partially visible in the Latin Quarter. A guide who knows the stories makes three hours at each place go differently than three hours with a driver who’ll wait while you explore.