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6-Day Small Group Full Package Southern Ireland Tour from Dublin
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From €1560 per person
This is a small group tour in the truest sense - maximum 14 guests, travelling together in a luxury Mercedes mini-coach. Your driver-guide is Tony Murphy, and if you read the reviews, the same name keeps coming up. Previous guests are pretty clear: bring a sense of humour.
The six days cover a serious amount of southern Ireland’s best ground. You’ll visit Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains, the Smithwicks Experience in Kilkenny, Cork city, Blarney Castle, Gougane Barra, Cobh, Glengarriff, the Caha Pass, Kenmare, Killarney National Park, Moll’s Gap, Lady’s View, Torc Waterfall, Dingle, Inch Beach, Slea Head Drive, Ring of Kerry highlights, the Cliffs of Moher, and Kilbeggan Distillery for a whiskey tasting.
Five nights’ accommodation is included at a mix of 4-star and boutique hotels in central locations - Kilkenny, Cork, Killarney and Galway. The price is per person sharing; a single supplement applies, so contact the operator for the current rate. Entrance fees to all listed sites are included, and a handful of optional extras can be paid for on the day.
Meeting point: Meet the group in reception at 9am on Sunday morning to start the tour.
Glendalough sets the tone for the whole trip. It’s often the first major stop heading south from Dublin into Wicklow, and it’s a strong one - a monastic settlement in a glacial valley that’s been drawing people for over a thousand years. The round tower and the two lakes are the obvious draws, but the wooded valley walk beyond the upper lake is where you really feel the place. Give it your full attention rather than treating it as the warm-up act. Glendalough rewards anyone who walks further than the car park.
Kilkenny is worth exploring independently in the evening. The tour stops in Kilkenny and the accommodation is centrally located. After the day’s programme, the city is very walkable - the Medieval Mile from the castle to St Canice’s Cathedral is one of the better short urban walks in Ireland, and the city has a serious food and pub culture. Kilkenny doesn’t need much time to make an impression, but an evening there is better than no time at all.
Slea Head Drive on the Dingle Peninsula is weather-dependent. On a clear day it’s one of the most spectacular coastal drives in Europe - the Blasket Islands visible offshore, the Atlantic coming in hard on the rocks, prehistoric stone forts on the headland. On a grey day it’s still beautiful, just quieter. If the weather is mixed, ask Tony whether the visibility is worth it before you commit to the full loop. Either way, Dingle town is worth time whatever the sky is doing.
The optional Celtic Steps show in Killarney is worth the extra €25. It’s listed as optional but it’s a proper Irish dance performance and the venue in Killarney is good. If you’re not doing the Belvedere Show in Dublin separately, this is a solid way to see that style of performance on the trip. Book it through Tony rather than trying to organise it independently.
Cobh is one of the most emotionally layered stops on the route. The town on Cork Harbour is where the Titanic made its last port of call before heading into the Atlantic, and the connection to Irish emigration history runs deep - millions left from this harbour during and after the Famine. The Queenstown Story museum is excellent and the town’s painted terrace houses rising above the water make it one of the most photographed streetscapes in Ireland. Cobh rewards walking and looking, not rushing.