Tours & experiences
The days worth booking ahead: guided day trips, boat trips, food experiences and the great drives with someone else at the wheel.
Guided or self-guided? Read our comparison
The day trips we point people to
Glendalough, County Wicklow
Day trips from Dublin
Kilkenny, Wicklow and Glendalough Sheepdog Trials from Dublin (Wild Rover Tours)
If you have one day to get out of Dublin, this is the day we would spend. The coach leaves the city for Kilkenny first, with a guided walk through the medieval streets and free time around the castle grounds. Then it is up into the Wicklow Mountains, past the Wicklow Gap, to Glendalough and its 6th century monastic settlement between the two lakes. The finish is a working sheep farm, where border collies move a flock on whistle commands. Ten hours, free cancellation, from US$49.15 a head, rated 4.9 from more than 8,700 reviews, and the farm stop is the part people write home about.
Best for: First-time visitors with one spare day in Dublin. It is a full ten hours with an early start, and the walking takes in old town streets and uneven monastic ground, so it is not the pick for a slow morning or for limited mobility.
The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare
Cliffs & coastal tours
Dublin to Cliffs of Moher, including Wild Atlantic Way and Galway (Wild Rover Tours)
The Cliffs of Moher are the one sight nearly every first trip to Ireland is built around, and this is the day trip we point people to. It runs about thirteen hours from Dublin, out along the Wild Atlantic Way to the cliffs, then into Galway for a couple of hours on the cobbled streets before the run home. It leaves from College Green in the city centre. The numbers are hard to argue with: from US$88.21 a head, rated 4.9 from nearly 24,900 reviews, the largest count of any cliffs tour on Viator, with free cancellation up to a day ahead.
Best for: Anyone whose trip is built around the cliffs and who would rather not hire a car. It is a long coach day of about thirteen hours, so travellers who like to set their own pace may prefer to drive the coast themselves.
Blarney Castle, County Cork
Castles & heritage
Blarney, Rock of Cashel and Cahir Castle Full-Day Tour (Irish Day Tours)
Three of the great Munster strongholds in one long day, with the admissions already in the price (from about US$91 a head, depending on the date). The Rock of Cashel first, the old seat of the kings of Munster: I have stood on that rock looking over the Tipperary plain, and it earns its reputation. Then Cahir Castle, one of the largest and best kept medieval fortresses in the country. Then Blarney, where you can climb the narrow stairs and kiss the stone, or skip the queue and take the gardens instead, all sixty acres of them. Blarney is great for the scones, and the gardens are the part I would not skip. The coach is a luxury one with Wi-Fi, the day runs about twelve hours from Dublin, rated 4.6 from just over 2,000 reviews.
Best for: Castle-first travellers who want Cashel, Cahir and Blarney in a single day with admissions handled. It does not call into Cork city, so it suits a castles day rather than a city day.
Inis Oírr (Inisheer), the Aran Islands
Wild Atlantic Way tours
Galway to Aran Islands (Inisheer), Doolin and Cliffs of Moher Day Tour (Galway Tour Company)
Most people see the Cliffs of Moher from the top. This day out from Galway shows them from the water as well. A coach through the Burren to Doolin, then the express ferry to Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands, with its castle ruin, sunken church and shipwreck. The ferry then runs beneath the cliffs before you finish with an hour at the top and the visitor centre, entry included. It leaves Eyre Square at nine, runs ten and a half hours, from US$91.65 a head, and holds a 4.9 rating from just over 2,000 reviews.
Best for: Travellers already based in Galway who want the islands and the cliffs in one day. The ferry crossing can be lively in bad weather, and the tour is not wheelchair accessible.
The Giant's Causeway, County Antrim
Northern Ireland tours
Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway, Dark Hedges and Belfast (Finn McCools Tours)
The north in a day, without hiring a car or working out the border crossing, because there is not one to work out. The coach leaves Parnell Square at a quarter to seven and heads up the coast: a photo stop at Dunluce Castle, an hour and a half on the stones of the Giant's Causeway, twenty minutes under the Dark Hedges, and an hour in Belfast to finish. It carries Viator's Badge of Excellence, a 4.9 rating from nearly 5,900 reviews, from US$91.65 a head, and free cancellation to the day before.
Best for: A first run at the Causeway coast without driving. It starts at a quarter to seven in the morning and runs twelve and a half hours, and the operator does not recommend it for small children.
The Irish Whiskey Museum, Dublin
Food & drink experiences
Irish Whiskey Museum Tour with 3 or 4 Tastings
On Grafton Street, in the middle of everything, and done in an hour: this is the whiskey stop we suggest when time is tight. The Irish Whiskey Museum tells the whole story of the water of life, the rise, the fall and the revival, and finishes with a guided tasting of three or four Irish whiskeys. Groups are kept small, no more than ten, so you can actually hear the guide and ask questions. It is rated 4.9 from more than 3,200 reviews, and at under thirty dollars it is an easy add to a Dublin day.
Best for: Whiskey-curious visitors with an hour to spare in the city centre. It is a museum tasting across several brands rather than a working distillery tour, and the tasting itself is for over-18s only.
The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare
Cliffs & coastal tours
Cliffs of Moher Day Tour from Dublin, including the Wild Atlantic Way (Paddywagon Tours)
If you only take one big day trip from Dublin, this is the one most visitors ask us about. Paddywagon leaves the city early and crosses the country to the Cliffs of Moher, with stops in Kinvara and the Burren along the way and proper time at the cliffs themselves. The green bus is easy to spot, the driver keeps up a running commentary, and you are back in Dublin by evening. It holds a 4.5 rating from more than 1,300 Viator reviews, which is a fair reflection of a long but well run day.
Best for: Visitors based in Dublin who want the cliffs without hiring a car, and who are content with a long day on the coach: the run crosses the country and back. Anyone who would rather set their own pace on the coast road is better driving it themselves.
The Giant's Causeway, County Antrim
Northern Ireland tours
Giant's Causeway Day Tour from Dublin (Paddywagon Tours)
This is a proper full day north. The bus leaves Suffolk Street at seven in the morning and takes in the Dark Hedges, the Glens of Antrim, an hour and a half at the Giant's Causeway and an hour inside Dunluce Castle, whose entry fee is included, before an hour in Belfast and the run home by half eight. It is a lot of road, but the Causeway is the one sight in the north that nobody regrets the journey for. Travellers rate it 4.5 from close to a thousand reviews on Viator.
Best for: First-time visitors who want the Causeway, the Dark Hedges and Dunluce Castle in one day from Dublin. It starts at seven in the morning and runs about twelve hours, and the Belfast stop is one hour, a taster rather than a proper visit to the city.
Ladies View, on the Ring of Kerry
Wild Atlantic Way tours
Ring of Kerry Day Tour from Cork, including Killarney National Park (Paddywagon Tours)
Staying in Cork and short on days, this is how you see Kerry without hiring a car. The coach leaves Bridge Street in the morning, runs through Killarney and Killorglin, and follows the Ring of Kerry past Waterville and Sneem, with a stop at Torc Waterfall on the way back through the national park. Reviewers single out the driver guides by name again and again, which tells its own story. It is rated 4.5 from 760 reviews on Viator, and at under seventy dollars it is honestly priced for an eleven hour day.
Best for: Visitors staying in Cork who want the Ring of Kerry without hiring a car. It runs about eleven hours, much of it on winding coast and mountain roads, so it suits travellers happy to watch Kerry go by from a coach window.
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