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4-Day Blarney Castle, Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher & Connemara
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From €1321 per person
If you want to see Ireland’s southern and western coasts properly, this four-day rail tour is a solid way to do it. Travelling by rail and coach from Dublin Heuston Station, you’ll cover some of Ireland’s most celebrated spots - Cork, Cobh, Blarney Castle, the Ring of Kerry, Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Moher, Galway Bay, and Connemara - with three nights’ accommodation and full Irish breakfasts included each morning.
You’ll have qualified driver-guides on the coach legs and a host on the trains, plus an information pack to keep things in context as you go.
Meeting point: Check in at least 20 minutes before the 6:40am departure. Look for the Railtours Ireland yellow check-in stand near the Customer Service Desk at Heuston Station - the representative will be in a bright yellow jacket.
At Blarney - Blarney castle is the real draw, but give yourself time beyond the queue for the Stone. The Rock Close behind the castle is a Victorian rock garden full of standing stones, a wishing well, the Witch’s Kitchen and the Wishing Steps - walk them backwards and make a wish, according to the 19th-century marketing that got baked into local tradition. It’s manicured and a bit theatrical, but it’s quieter than the castle queue and takes forty minutes to do properly. If you’re arriving on a summer day, the queue for the Stone builds from mid-morning; the castle opens at 9am and arriving close to opening time saves real time.
At Bunratty - Bunratty Castle is the best-restored tower house in Ireland, and the Folk Park around it is a genuine surprise if you write it off as theme-park territory. The thirty-acre site holds real buildings - cottages, a forge, a school, a recreated 19th-century street - all moved stone-by-stone from sites around Clare and Limerick that were about to be lost. Allow more time than you think you need. The adjacent Durty Nelly’s pub, which claims to have been serving the castle garrison since 1620, is at its most enjoyable before 7pm when the dinner crowd arrives. For lunch, MacCloskey’s in the vaulted cellar of Bunratty House Mews is the serious option; Gallagher’s thatched cottage on the main road is the local one.
In Galway - the tour covers Galway Bay and Connemara, but if you have free time in the city, the medieval core around Shop Street and Quay Street is walkable in thirty minutes. Tigh Coili runs a genuine trad session from 9:30pm most nights - not for tourists, for musicians, which is the distinction that makes it worth staying late for. Ard Bia at Nimmo on Quay Street is the food room that locals recommend. The Galway City Loop walk (Eyre Square down to the Claddagh and back via the laneways) gives you the medieval bones of the place in about ninety minutes.
On the Ring of Kerry - coaches do this road clockwise. The towns of Sneem and Waterville are the natural lunch stops along the ocean-facing stretch. The Skellig Islands sit offshore in the south-west; they’re not on this tour’s itinerary, but the rock formation on the horizon at the right moment is unmistakable. Watch for it from the Waterville side.