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Private Two-Day Tour: Dublin, Galway & Cliffs of Moher
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From €1075 per person
This is the way to see the west of Ireland if you want comfort, flexibility, and someone else doing the driving. A private chauffeur collects you from your Dublin hotel or airport and takes you on a two-day loop through the country’s heartland and along the Wild Atlantic Way, with stops chosen to give you a genuine taste of Irish history, landscape, and culture.
Day one heads west through the midlands, stopping at Kilbeggan - home to Ireland’s oldest licensed distillery - and Sean’s Bar in Athlone, which holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest pub in the country. The highlight of the morning is Clonmacnoise, a sprawling 6th-century monastic settlement on the banks of the Shannon. Admission to Clonmacnoise is included. From there it’s on to Galway for the evening, where you’re free to explore the city’s famous pubs, restaurants and street performers at your own pace.
Day two follows the coast. The route winds through the otherworldly Burren landscape, past Black Head and along Galway Bay, before arriving at the Cliffs of Moher. Standing 214 metres above the Atlantic, the cliffs are one of those places that genuinely stops you in your tracks. Admission is included. After taking it all in, the chauffeur drives you back to Dublin.
At Kilbeggan, allow ninety minutes rather than a quick photo stop. The Kilbeggan Distillery Experience is not a gift shop with a still in the corner. The pot stills inside are the oldest working stills in the world - licensed since 1757, silent from 1953, restarted on their 250th anniversary in 2007. The full tour ends with a tasting flight. If racing is on at Loughnagore when you pass through, it’s a National Hunt course running Friday and Saturday evenings from May to September - your driver-guide will know.
At Athlone, the stop at Sean’s Bar is right - but the town deserves more than one round. The wattle-and-wicker section behind the glass at the back of the bar is genuinely old; the rest of the building has been rebuilt around it. If your schedule allows, the restaurant Thyme on Custume Place has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand for eight consecutive years - it’s a twenty-minute walk from Sean’s and worth it if you want a proper midlands lunch. The Norman castle across the river is the other thing worth twenty minutes of your day.
At Clonmacnoise, walk the site before you visit the visitor centre. The monastery grounds are a circuit of about 1.5 km - start at the cathedral, read the Cross of the Scriptures, walk to the second round tower, and spend time with the grave slabs in the grass. The site was a 6th-century monastic settlement raided by Vikings at least six times and finally ransacked by the English in 1552. In summer, arrive before ten or after four to avoid the coach crowds. The Shannon runs past the walls, and if you’ve got time, the riverbank walk to the east is worth the extra twenty minutes.
In Galway for the evening, the medieval core is a fifteen-minute walk end to end. Shop Street runs into Quay Street and the laneways go from there. Tigh Coili on Mainguard Street is the best trad session in the city - it runs nightly and the standard is high. For dinner, Ard Bia at Nimmo on Quay Street does a market-led menu that changes regularly. Book ahead for a weekend table. The Crane Bar on Sea Road is the other session option - three floors, locals-first, music most nights.