This is one of the most popular day trips you can do from Dublin, and for good reason. In a single day you’ll cover the Cliffs of Moher, the extraordinary landscape of the Burren, stretches of the Wild Atlantic Way, and Galway City - all with Cliffs admission included and a dedicated guide to fill the journey with Irish folklore, music, and history.
The day starts with a brief stop at Barack Obama Plaza, a service station outside Moneygall built in honour of the former US president, whose ancestors came from the village nearby. There’s a Conan O’Brien Air Pump on site too, a quirky local touch worth a photo. From there you head west through County Clare, passing the ancient cities of Limerick and Ennis, and briefly driving under the River Shannon - the widest and longest river in Ireland - before winding through the roads of Clare towards the coast.
At the Cliffs of Moher, you have a full two hours with exclusive Visitor Centre access. The cliffs rise to 214 metres at their highest point and were carved out over 300 million years ago. Look out to sea and you’ll see layers of ancient river beds still visible in the cliff face. Depending on the season, you might spot puffins, porpoises, basking sharks, or even breaching whales in the waters below.
From the cliffs, you travel south along the Wild Atlantic Way through the Burren - a remarkable limestone landscape with 75% of Ireland’s native wildflowers somehow growing side by side. On the way into Galway you’ll pass Dunguaire Castle, a 16th-century tower house on the edge of Kinvara that’s connected to writers from W.B. Yeats to J.M. Synge, with a roadside view from the coach.
Galway itself gets you a stop of 1.5 to 2 hours to explore the streets, try some seafood, and soak up the city’s well-earned reputation as Ireland’s cultural capital.
Meeting point: Outside Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Parnell Square N, Dublin 1. Please be there by 6:45 AM - 5 to 10 minutes before departure. Return drop-off is at the same location, between 7:30 PM and 8:30 PM.
Infants and small children can travel in a pram or stroller, and public transport is available nearby. This tour is not recommended for travellers with spinal injuries, pregnant travellers, or those with poor cardiovascular health. Maximum group size is 53 travellers. Tour operates in English.
The Obama Plaza stop is the service station on the M7, not the village of Moneygall itself. The village, where Obama’s ancestor Falmouth Kearney left in 1850, is a few kilometres further from the motorway. The plaza has its own Obama statue and the Conan O’Brien Air Pump - use the 15 minutes for a snack and a photo, and know that the real village is a quieter and smaller thing just up the road.
At Ennistymon, the Kissing Corner is worth watching from the right-hand window. The coach driver takes a notoriously tight bend through the town - locals know it well, visitors find it startling. The town itself sits on the River Inagh, whose multi-tiered limestone falls (the Cascades) run right through the town centre - you’ll catch a glimpse as the coach passes. If you ever come back independently, Ennistymon is worth a proper stop.
Lisdoonvarna is spa country at the edge of the Burren. As the route passes through, the landscape shifts from Atlantic coast to limestone interior - grey dry-stone walls, sparse grass, the smell of the water changing. Lisdoonvarna is best known outside Ireland for its September Matchmaking Festival, a tradition running since 1857, but the village has four naturally warm mineral springs that gave it a Victorian spa life long before the matchmaking got famous.
In Galway, leave Shop Street immediately and go left. The narrow laneways between Shop Street and Quay Street are where the better food is - Ard Bia at Nimmo on Quay Street is locally-run and worth knowing about. If you want a trad session rather than food, Tigh Coili on Mainguard Street runs serious sessions from around 9:30pm; it’s an Irish-language pub and the music is the real thing, not a performance. With only 90 minutes in the city, aim for one lane, one meal, and one good walk to the Claddagh if the weather allows.