← All Dublin tours via Viator · From €2195 · 168 hours 
7-Day Great Atlantic Adventure Small-Group Tour of Ireland from Dublin
160 traveller reviews Booked securely via Viator
Check availability & prices →
From €2195 per person
More than 1,100 km of Ireland’s Atlantic coastline, seven days, and a maximum of 15 people in your group. This is part of the Active Small Group Irish Tours series, so you’re not just watching the scenery go by from a window - you’ll be kayaking in Dingle Bay, cycling through coastal landscapes, hiking the Cliffs of Moher, and making a proper ascent of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, the mountain that Irish pilgrims have been climbing for over 1,500 years.
The route heads southwest from Dublin along the Wild Atlantic Way, covering the stretch from Kinsale in County Cork all the way up to Westport in County Mayo. Along the way: Blarney Castle in Cork, a traditional sheepdog demonstration (which is genuinely one of those things that stops feeling like a tourist activity about three minutes in), and six nights in locally selected guesthouses and boutique hotels that the team have chosen carefully rather than picked from a booking platform.
The daily driving averages around 2.5 hours, which leaves plenty of time in each location. Breakfast is included each morning, and an air-conditioned mini coach and qualified Irish tour guide are with you throughout.
Croagh Patrick is a real mountain, not a gentle hill. The ascent from Murrisk takes most people between two and three hours return, and the upper section is steep loose scree. You don’t need to be a serious hiker, but you do need proper footwear - trail runners or walking boots, not trainers. The view from the summit on a clear day across Clew Bay and the islands is one of the finest in Ireland.
Kayaking in Dingle Bay is the kind of thing people talk about for years. The bay is sheltered enough for beginners but big enough to feel genuinely wild. You’re on the water with the Dingle Peninsula and the Blasket Islands on the horizon. If conditions allow, your guides will take you close to areas where bottlenose dolphins are a regular presence in the bay.
The sheepdog demonstration will change your feelings about border collies. It sounds like it might be a bit of filler in the itinerary. It isn’t. Watching a skilled sheepdog and handler work together on a hillside is something genuinely absorbing - the communication between animal and person is remarkable and the farmers who do these demonstrations are happy to talk about the work in real depth.
Kinsale is worth exploring properly. The town in County Cork that starts the route south is one of Ireland’s finest - compact, beautifully maintained, with a serious food reputation and a harbour that rewards an early morning walk. If you have time before the tour formally starts, a night in Kinsale is a very good idea.
The guesthouses are one of the best things about this tour. Chain hotels are predictable. The locally selected guesthouses on this route are where you find out what a county actually tastes like - the breakfasts are cooked with local produce, the owners know every good walk and every decent pub within 20 km, and the conversations you have over dinner tend to stay with you. Don’t be in a rush to get back to your room.