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7 Day Essential Ireland tour. Galway, Killarney & Dingle
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From €1999 per person
Seven days on Ireland’s west coast, no more than 16 fellow travellers, and a guide who knows every back road, every pub session, and every viewpoint worth stopping for. This is not a coach tour where you’re moved from one photo stop to the next - it’s an immersive journey through the landscapes, music, and culture of the Wild Atlantic Way.
You’ll stay in three towns that each have their own distinct character. Galway, with its buskers, oyster bars, and contagious energy. Dingle, a colourful harbour town where Irish is still the everyday language in the surrounding hills. And Killarney, the gateway to some of the most beautiful lake and mountain scenery in the country. Evenings bring music-filled pubs where you’ll meet locals, hear stories, and maybe even pick up a song or two.
The days are full of what you’d expect from the west of Ireland - the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula. But there are also the moments you won’t plan for: meeting the Irish Wolfhounds, wandering into a spontaneous trad session, watching the light shift over the Atlantic. All breakfasts, entrance fees, and activities are included, so you can just show up and let the west do the rest.
In Galway - find a session on your first evening. After a day of travelling, the best thing you can do is walk five minutes off the hotel street and find Tigh Coili on Mainguard Street, where trad starts around 9:30pm nightly. It’s a small pub, genuinely local, Irish language, and the musicians play because they want to. Get there by nine to get a seat. The Crane Bar on Sea Road is the other option - three floors, real trad, and the front-room crowd is half local, half lost traveller. Spend the evening at Galway and let the city set the tone for the week.
On the Dingle Peninsula - drive the Slea Head loop clockwise. The 47km circuit goes past beehive huts, cliffs, and the Blasket Islands offshore. Your guide will take you through, but the walk up to the famine roads on Mount Brandon is worth knowing about for context - those stone walls running to nowhere were built during the Great Famine of 1845-1852 to give people a shilling’s work. They lead nowhere because they were never meant to. Out of the Blue restaurant in town does seafood with no menu - just what came off the boat that morning. Murphy’s ice cream on the main street, sea-salt flavour, is the other essential. Spend the afternoon at Dingle before the evening session gets going.
In Killarney - get up early for Knockreer. The Ring of Kerry day is busy and excellent, but the quieter Killarney moment is Knockreer Demesne, ten minutes’ walk from the town centre, where you can stand at the lake edge with Carrauntoohil framed across the water and have it almost to yourself before breakfast. The Gap of Dunloe is the other classic - 11km of glacial valley with five lakes, no cars allowed in summer, and a boat back across the lakes from Lord Brandon’s Cottage to Ross Castle. If there’s a Friday Farmers Market on New Market Street while you’re there, pick up a picnic and take it into the park. Spend your evenings at Killarney - Courtney’s Bar on Plunkett Street is where locals send you when they’ve got tired of being asked.
Pace yourself through the Ring of Kerry. The 179km loop is best driven anti-clockwise, against the coach traffic. Your guide knows the timing, but if you find a village or a viewpoint you want to linger at, say so - with 16 people maximum the tour can flex in ways a 53-seat coach cannot.