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Cliffs of Moher Tour from Dublin with Boat Cruise
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From €89 per person
Most people see the Cliffs of Moher from the clifftop. This tour gives you both perspectives - from above and from the water below. You’ll leave College Green in central Dublin at 10:00, arriving on the west coast in the early afternoon.
Your first stop is the tiny coastal village of Liscannor, where you’ll have about 45 minutes for lunch. The local menus lean into seasonal produce - expect seafood, chowders, soups, and sandwiches alongside local craft beers if you’re so inclined.
After lunch, it’s a short drive to Doolin, where your guide introduces you to the skippers at the pier. The 60-minute Atlantic cruise takes you out past the base of the cliffs - an entirely different view from the one above, with seagulls and puffins overhead and the full scale of the western edge of Europe visible from the water. The €28 cruise fee is already included in your tour price.
The boats are back at Doolin Pier around 16:00, and the return drive to Dublin takes a scenic route along part of the Wild Atlantic Way and through the limestone Burren. There’s a comfort stop along the way for teas, coffees, and restrooms, with free WiFi and USB ports at every seat.
You’ll be dropped back at College Green around 19:30, leaving plenty of time for dinner in Temple Bar or along Grafton Street.
Meeting point: 33 College Green (at Ulster Bank), Dublin
In Liscannor, your 45 minutes is best spent at Vaughan’s Anchor Inn on the main street - it is the village’s third-generation seafood pub and a Michelin-recommended kitchen. If Vaughan’s is full for a sit-down lunch, Egan’s Bistro on the same street does soup, sandwiches and proper coffee at a quicker pace. Either way, the pier is two minutes on foot from both and worth a look before you get back on the coach.
At Doolin, the cruise departs from the pier at the bottom of the hill, below Fisher Street. The pier is a working one - boats leave when they leave and the sea has a say - so if conditions push back the departure slightly, it is normal. Once you’re on the water, the scale of the cliffs from sea level is genuinely startling. Aill na Searrach (Aileen’s Wave) is visible from below - the big-wave surf spot that professionals travel to ride in winter.
If you have time between the cruise and the coach departure, Doolin itself is three hamlets worth a wander. Gus O’Connor’s pub on Fisher Street has been pouring since 1832. The trad session there doesn’t warm up until around nine, which is too late for a day-tripper, but a pint at the bar with the view to the Aran Islands is a fine way to round off an afternoon on the Atlantic.
The return route through the Burren passes limestone pavement that looks like nothing else in Ireland - pale grey slabs running to the horizon, with orchids in the cracks in May. If your driver-guide mentions a stop, take it. The Burren’s north gateway is Ballyvaughan, where the N67 coastal road runs along Galway Bay with Connemara visible on the far shore and Corkscrew Hill climbing south into the limestone. The comfort stop may be in this area, and if it is, Monk’s Pub at the Ballyvaughan pier is worth knowing about.
Lisdoonvarna sits ten minutes inland from Doolin on the R480, and the return leg from the cliffs sometimes passes through it. It’s a small Burren spa town - four mineral springs, a village pub with weekend sessions, and the September matchmaking festival that has been running since 1857. Outside September it’s quiet, but the road south from here to Doolin is one of the finest scenic drives in Clare.