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Private Day Trip from Dublin to Wicklow & Glendalough
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From €305 per person
Just an hour south of Dublin, Wicklow earns its “Garden County” nickname the moment you leave the motorway behind. This private, fully customisable day trip gives you a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle, hotel pickup, Wi-Fi, bottled water, and your own English-speaking driver - so you can focus on the views rather than the logistics.
You’ll start at Powerscourt Gardens, one of the most celebrated estates in Europe, where sweeping terraced lawns and tranquil lakes sit below the cone of Sugarloaf Mountain. From there the route winds up into the Wicklow Mountains proper - broad valleys, forested hillsides, and the kind of open road that makes you glad you’re not on a bus. The day ends at Glendalough, the 6th-century monastic settlement tucked between two lakes. Stone churches, a round tower, and quiet woodland trails - it’s one of those places that stays with you.
The tour runs about 6 hours in total, and you can extend your time directly through the app if you want to linger.
At Powerscourt, go straight to the terraces. Enniskerry is where the tour starts, and the gardens at Powerscourt earn their reputation - National Geographic ranked them third in the world, behind Versailles and Kew. The house itself is a shell (it burned in 1974, the week after a long restoration finished) and is now shops and a café. Don’t linger there. Walk through and get onto the terraced gardens with the Sugar Loaf Mountain behind them - that’s the view. Allow two hours to do the terraces, the Triton Lake, and the walled garden properly. If you’re here before ten, the morning light comes over the shoulder of the Sugarloaf and hits the Italian terraces at an angle that justifies being out of bed.
At Glendalough, walk from the Visitor Centre to the Upper Lake. The flat Green Road walk runs from the visitor centre along the Lower Lake, past the round tower, through the woods, and out to the Upper Lake - about 3 km return, an hour, and it passes nine of the major monastic ruins. If you do nothing else at Glendalough except this walk, you’ll leave with a genuine sense of what the place is. The round tower is 30 metres of mica-slate and granite; the doorway is three and a half metres above the ground, which tells you exactly what 10th-century monks thought was coming up the valley.
Coach parties peak at midday. Glendalough is one of the most visited heritage sites in the country. Your private pickup means you can arrive earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon - before half ten or after four, the valley belongs to you. If you have any flexibility in the day’s timing, use it here.
Eat in Laragh, not at the Visitor Centre. The actual village at Glendalough is Laragh, 1.5 km east, where the mountain roads meet. Trinity Mountain Bothy in Laragh does soup, sandwiches, and proper coffee for walkers - it’s a better stop than the visitor centre café, quieter, and run by people who live in the valley. Lynham’s pub, also in Laragh, does food until late by Wicklow standards if you want something more substantial.
The Poulanass Waterfall is a worthwhile 40-minute detour. From the Upper Lake car park, a short trail through oak woodland leads to a 30-metre waterfall. It’s 1.5 km return and easy underfoot. Worth it if the six hours gives you any room to wander.