Ireland is a day’s drive wide.
The Cliffs of Moher and back before dark, Glendalough by lunchtime, a session that starts when the pub fills. What each day out is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Pints, cliffs, and a round tower.
First trip or fifth, these are the ones that fill up: a pint seven floors above St James’s Gate, the Atlantic edge at Moher, and the monastic valley an hour south of the quays.
From Dublin: Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough & Kilkenny Tour
Guided day trip from Dublin to Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough, then Kilkenny medieval lanes and castle grounds by comfortable coach.
From $45 per person
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The road west ends in cliffs.
Leave the quays before seven, cross the Shannon by mid-morning, and stand two hundred metres above the Atlantic before noon. Doolin for lunch, the Burren’s grey limestone terraces on the way back, Galway if the driver is generous. Thirteen or fourteen hours, and nobody asks for the day back.
One day out of Dublin. Which way?
Nearly every long day out leaves the same quays before eight. West puts you on the Atlantic, south gives you castles and a harbour town, and the mountains start forty minutes down the N11. Pick the direction; everything behind it is priced and reviewed.
West, all day
The Atlantic run
13 hours (approx.) · from $90 · 23,331 reviews
Out through Clare to the cliff walk with the wind behind you, the Burren’s bare limestone on the return, a stop in Doolin or Galway before the long ride home. Thirteen hours door to door. Bring a jumper, eat before you go, take a window seat on the left.
Compare the Cliffs days →
South, castles
The castle road
12 hours (approx.) · from $95 · 2,536 reviews
Cashel’s rock standing up out of the Tipperary plain, Blarney’s tower and the gardens under it, Cork’s covered market if the timing holds. More motorway than the western run, but the stops are the best-kept ruins in the country and the coach fills early.
Castle days, compared →
Mountains by ten
The short escape
10 hours (approx.) · from $48 · 7,897 reviews
Forty minutes past the last suburb the road climbs into bog and heather, and by mid-morning you are standing under Glendalough’s round tower with two lakes behind it. Home for dinner. The gentlest of the big days out, and the one that still works in bad weather.
See the Wicklow days →
The music starts when the room fills.
No session runs to a timetable. A fiddle comes out somewhere around nine, the bodhrán answers it, and by half ten nobody is watching the door. These are the nights worth booking a seat for: crawls with a guide who knows which snug to try, house sessions, and a proper set-dancing floor.
Bow Street, Teeling, St James’s Gate.
Dublin distils and pours more than it lets on. Bow Street runs the comparative tasting in Jameson’s old warehouse, Teeling brought distilling back to the Liberties after two centuries dry, and the brewery on the hill still finishes its tour with the best pint in the city.
Chowder, brown bread, oysters.
The food story here is short and very good: a bowl of seafood chowder with soda bread, Galway oysters when they are in season, farmhouse cheese off a Cork counter. These walks stop where the queue is worth joining, and the afternoon-tea bus does a slow lap of the Georgian squares while you eat.
Stone that came before the cities.
Glendalough’s monks picked a valley with two lakes and a way out of it. The passage tomb at Newgrange was already five hundred years old when the first block went into the Great Pyramid. These are quiet places with long memories, and the tours that go there keep them that way.
Pick a corner and give it a day.
Clare for the cliff walk. Kerry for the mountain pass and the horses. Galway for the boat out to the island forts. Wicklow for a valley you can reach before the coffee goes cold.
What shape is the day?
Walk it, sail it, taste it, or spend an hour in a cathedral with the lights low. Each of these opens a list with prices, running times and what the tour actually covers.
The country starts forty minutes out.
Wicklow’s bog roads begin where the last bus route ends. Kilkenny is ninety minutes on the motorway, Blarney under three hours, and the ferry to Inis Mór leaves Rossaveel twice a day. Not one of them needs an overnight bag.
A first trip, in the right order.
You will not see the country in three days, but you can see the best of it in three directions. Put them in this order and you spend the least time on the road.
Day 1
Two miles of Dublin
The Long Room and the Book of Kells at opening time, Christ Church and the medieval lanes before lunch, then the brewery up the hill and a pint above the rooftops. All of it inside a two-mile walk.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The Moher day
The early coach across the midlands, two hours on the cliff path at Moher, then the Burren’s limestone and a stop in Galway before the run home. Late back, and still the best day of the trip.
Plan the Cliffs day →
Day 3
Mountains and monks
South into Wicklow over the Sally Gap if the road is open, then Glendalough’s two lakes and the round tower. Kilkenny’s castle on the way back if you booked the long version.
Plan the Wicklow day →
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