This is a full 12.5-hour private day trip from Dublin, taking you west to the Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall, and Galway city. Your guide collects you from your hotel, handles all the logistics, and brings each stop to life with local knowledge. All admissions are included.
The route follows the Wild Atlantic Way at a relaxed pace, with a flexible itinerary - if you want to swap out a stop or add somewhere you’ve had your eye on, the guide will work with you on that.
What’s Included
Hotel pick-up and drop-off
Private transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle
All admissions
What’s Not Included
Meals
Drinks and beverages
Itinerary
Cliffs of Moher - Towering 214 metres above the Atlantic Ocean, the Cliffs of Moher are a UNESCO Global Geopark and one of Ireland’s most visited natural landmarks. Stroll the cliffside trails, feel the ocean wind, and explore the award-winning Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, which covers the geology, wildlife, and cultural history of the site (180 min)
Barack Obama Plaza, Moneygall - A stop at the ancestral village of the 44th US President, with an interactive visitor centre about Obama’s Irish heritage and his 2011 homecoming visit. Good food options here too - a solid pit stop (30 min)
The Burren - A unique karst limestone landscape that looks like nowhere else in Ireland. Burren National Park has walking trails through wildflower-covered terrain, ancient Megalithic tombs, and ring forts. One of the more quietly remarkable places on the route (30 min)
Galway City - Time to explore Galway’s cobblestone lanes, medieval streets, artisan shops, and lively pubs. The city sits right on the Wild Atlantic Way and has a creative energy that’s hard to find anywhere else in Ireland (180 min)
Good to Know
Pick-up from your hotel
Service animals allowed
Suitable for all fitness levels
Private tour
Local Tips
The Moneygall stop is short - make it count. The visitor centre at Barack Obama Plaza tells the story of Falmouth Kearney, who left this village in 1850, and his great-great-great-grandson who came back as US President in May 2011. It’s a genuinely affecting place if you take five minutes to read rather than photograph. The village of Moneygall itself - where Obama pulled a pint in Hayes’ Bar on 23 May 2011 - is a few kilometres from the motorway plaza. The village is quieter and more honest than the service-station stop; worth the diversion if your guide is flexible.
In Galway, turn left off Shop Street. You have three hours in one of Ireland’s best cities - that’s enough to get genuinely lost. The medieval quarter rewards wandering over planning. Ard Bia at Nimmo on Quay Street is a reliable lunch spot, and Tigh Coili runs trad sessions from around 9:30pm (you’ll likely be gone by then, but it tells you the city has more layers than a half-day shows). If you’re there on a Friday, the Saturday food market at St George’s is closed, but the city’s cafés and bakeries are all open - Gourmet Tart Company on Shop Street does coffee and hand pies.
The Burren rewards slow walkers. Thirty minutes is enough to see the limestone pavement but not enough to understand it. If your guide offers a longer stop here, take it. The wildflowers growing in the cracks - gentians, mountain avens, orchids - are the whole point of the place. Ballyvaughan, on the bay at the northern edge of the Burren, is the village the locals use as a base for it - Monk’s Pub at the pier does a chowder worth stopping for, and Corkscrew Hill just south of the village was built as famine relief work in the 1840s.
The Cliffs of Moher are best early or late. With three hours there, you have time to walk the cliff path north toward O’Brien’s Tower rather than just standing at the main viewing platform. The path thins out fifty metres from the car park, and the views get better the further you go. If the tour passes through Liscannor on the coast road - the village eight kilometres south of the visitor centre - that’s the back-door start of the Hag’s Head cliff walk, the quiet southern half of the same cliffs with no turnstile and fewer people.
Doolin is the trad music village closest to the Cliffs. If the itinerary includes any time on the Wild Atlantic Way between the Cliffs and Galway, Doolin is three kilometres north of the visitor centre. Gus O’Connor’s pub on Fisher Street has been running trad sessions since 1832, and the ferry pier sends boats to the Aran Islands - twenty minutes to Inis Oírr. You won’t have time to do it on this day trip, but it’s worth knowing if you ever come back with a night to spare.
Nearby on IrelandMe
Moneygall - A village of 300 that hosted a sitting US president. Barack Obama pulled a pint in Hayes’ Bar on 23 May 2011, 161 years after his ancestor Falmouth Kearney emigrated from here. The pub still serves.
Galway - A medieval city that does not quite believe it is a city. Trad sessions most nights, the Aran Islands 40 minutes west, and a creative energy that takes a long weekend to properly absorb.
Liscannor - The working pier village eight kilometres south of the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, where the back-door Hag’s Head cliff walk begins. Vaughan’s Anchor Inn has been seafood-led since 1979, and the cliffs from this end have no car park and no queue.
Doolin - Three kilometres north of the Cliffs visitor centre on the Wild Atlantic Way. Gus O’Connor’s, founded 1832, runs trad sessions most nights, and the pier takes the ferry to the Aran Islands. Homestead Cottage earned a Michelin star within seven months of opening.
Ballyvaughan - Where the Burren meets the bay. Monk’s Pub at the harbour pier does the chowder the coast is known for, and every road south from the village climbs into the limestone within two minutes. O’Loclainn’s whiskey bar has been run by the same family for seven generations.
