Best of Ireland

with optional London Extension

Length: 9 - 11 days  
Guaranteed Dates Available
 

Best of Ireland Educational Tour | Galway
 
Map of Best of Ireland Educational Tour
 
Best of Ireland Educational Tour | Sheep
 
  • Day 1 Start Tour
  • Day 2 Hello Dublin
    Meet your Tour Director and check into hotel
    Dublin free time
  • Day 3 Dublin Landmarks
    Dublin Guided Sightseeing Tour 
    Phoenix ParkSt. Patrick’s CathedralTrinity College Book of Kells visit
    Traditional Public House Dinner
    Details: Dublin Guided Sightseeing Tour
    Join a professional licensed tour guide on an adventure to Dublin’s finest attractions. Pass the residence of Ireland’s president, Mary MacAleese, along your journey through Phoenix Park. Within Europe’s grandest enclosed park, encounter 1,760 undeveloped acres scattered with cricket pitches, grazing cows, and red deer. Stop to eye a stone phoenix rising from flames atop the Corinthian-style Phoenix Column. Tour the roads along the River Liffey to 12th-century St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the largest of its kind in all Ireland. Get a glimpse of the neighboring park where St. Patrick (who brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century) baptized converts. Continue on to Trinity College, the stone-clad sprawling campus where Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett studied. Stop by the Long Room in the Old Library for a zoom-view of the illuminated edition of four Gospels, the Book of Kells. The original manuscript was penned in Latin around AD 800 by four Irish Monks who used multicolored ink from plants and bugs. Take some time to study the brilliant latticework of curvy Celtic symbols woven with animal figures that enlivens the script.
  • Day 4 Dublin--Galway
    Travel to Galway
    Knowth Excursion
  • Day 5 Galway Landmarks
    Galway City Walk 
    Spanish ArchQuay StreetSt. Nicholas’ ChurchEyre Square
    Kylemore Abbey visit
    Details: Galway City Walk
    Meet and greet the bayside city likened to San Francisco on a friendly foot tour led by your Tour Director. Discover a traditional Gaelic culture turned trendy with college students, artists and writers in the midst of a buzzing Bohemian culture of 50,000 people. The journey begins at the Spanish Arch (actually a pair of stone arches speckled with greenery) constructed to guard the quays where Spanish merchants docked their boats. Stroll along residential Quay Street into bustling High Street, a micro shopping mecca lined with all kinds of shops, coffeehouses and outside eateries. Venture outside the buzz and discover a one-of-a-kind pyramid-shaped spire atop Ireland’s second largest medieval parish house, St. Nicholas Church. Meander through Eyre Square’s Kennedy Memorial Park, a green oasis where locals gather to lounge, socialize and attend musical performances. Bordering the lush grounds, find the 17th-century Brown Doorway, a real entryway transported in 1900 from its original location at the Brown Mansion. Another highlight is the original set of cannons from the Crimean War, and the bubbling fountain adorned with a steel sculpture of a traditional broad-masted ship (hooker).
    Details: Connemara excursion
    Venture outside city limits in search of Ireland’s mystical nature. Visit the surreal town of Connemara where ancient Irish is softly spoken. Sense her haunting nature as you survey the jagged coastline of rocky beaches, twisting roads, rippled bogs and windswept heather. Next stop, Kylemore Abbey. Tucked inside a hidden valley along the lush banks of Lough Corrib Lake, it’s like a vision from a fairytale dream. Outside you’ll discover the look, feel and scent of a real Victorian garden. Inside, you’ll find a larger-than-life residence run by an order of Benedictine nuns, and one of the most prestigious international schools in Europe. The infamous prose Yeats wrote while gazing at the river says it all, “peace comes dropping slow”.
  • Day 6 Galway--Killarney
    Travel to Killarney via Cliffs of Moher & Limerick
  • Day 7 Ring of Kerry
    Details: Ring of Kerry excursion
    Get a true feeling for Ireland’s emerald beauty on an excursion around the Iveragh Peninsula on the panoramic coastal route, Ring of Kerry. Along the 112 miles of breathtaking views, you’ll spy 360 degrees of the vast Atlantic Ocean, the Lakes of Killarney, the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks (Ireland’s tallest mountains), and every shade of green known to the Emerald Isle.
    Details: Visit sheep farm (mid-April to October)
    Mountain sheep have dotted the hills around Killarney for ages. Come face-to-face with these fluffy landmarks at a traditional Irish sheep farm.
  • Day 8 Killarney--Dublin
    Optional  Irish folklore evening   $60
    Details: Travel to Dublin via Blarney Castle
    On your journey to Dublin, stop for a visit to Blarney Castle, the medieval stone structure built on solid limestone around 1466. (The slivers of windows served as a defense, enabling Lord Blarney and his men to shoot arrows at invaders while staying protected from within.) Climb the spiral staircases to the top of the castle to kiss the Blarney stone. Legend promises that if you lean backwards and kiss the stone upside-down, you’ll be granted the “gift of the gab” (the privilege of babbling questionable commentary for seven years). Before you leave, wander the path to Rock Close to ponder the druidic circle of mystical stones. Enter Lord Blarney’s dungeon if you dare...
    Details: Blarney Castle visit
    Stop for a visit to Blarney Castle, the medieval stone structure built on solid limestone around 1466. (The slivers of windows served as a defense, enabling Lord Blarney and his men to shoot arrows at invaders while staying protected from within.) Climb the spiral staircases to the top of the castle to kiss the Blarney stone. Legend promises that if you lean backwards and kiss the stone upside-down, you’ll be granted the “gift of the gab” (the privilege of babbling questionable commentary for seven years). Before you leave, wander the path to Rock Close to ponder the druidic circle of mystical stones. Enter Lord Blarney’s dungeon if you dare...
  • Day 9 End Tour

  • Or
  • Day 9 Start Extension to London
    Fly to London
    London City Walk 
    Thames RiverTrafalgar SquareNational Gallery Visit Piccadilly CircusCovent GardenLeicester SquareSoho
    Details: London City Walk
    Step outside your hotel, for a stroll through the streets of the heart of the English-speaking world. In this city of nearly seven million, you'll see everything from 12th-century fortifications to modern skyscrapers, formal parks to punk rockers. Your Tour Director will lead you to some of the most famous sites. Walk along the Thames River. Cross Trafalgar Square. See bustling Piccadilly Circus. Pass trendy shops and cafés in Bohemian Soho on your way to Covent Garden, a 13th-century fruit and vegetable garden transformed into a maze of narrow streets and pedestrian walkways burgeoning with street performers, open-air markets and boutiques.
    Details: National Gallery Visit
    Located in an impressive domed building right in Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery houses a rich collection of over 2,000 works of art dating from the mid 13th century to 1900. Explore the beautiful marble hallways to see famous paintings and learn about the work it takes to preserve and care for these masterpieces.
    Details: Fish & chips dinner
    Nothing’s more British than fish and chips—there are eight fish and chip shops (“chippies”) for every McDonald’s in the country. Head to an authentic pub with your Tour Director for a taste of this national food, generally served with malt vinegar.
  • Day 10 London Landmarks
    London Guided Sightseeing Tour 
    Buckingham PalaceBig BenHouses of ParliamentWestminster AbbeyTower BridgeHyde ParkSt. Paul’s Cathedral
    Details: London Guided Sightseeing Tour
    Join a licensed local guide for an in-depth look at London, from the royal haunt of Buckingham Palace (the official London residence of Queen Elizabeth II) to the slightly more democratic Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park, where anyone can pull up a soapbox and orate to his heart’s content. You’ll see the changing of the guard (season permitting), the clock tower of Big Ben with its 14-ton bell, and Westminster Abbey, where almost every English king and queen since William the Conqueror has been crowned. After a stop at the Houses of Parliament, continue on to the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, the masterpiece of London architect Christopher Wren.
  • Day 11 End Tour
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    Tour Includes:
    • Round-trip airfare
    • 7 overnight stays (9 with extension) in hotels with private bathrooms
    • Full European breakfast daily
    • Dinner daily
    • Full-time services of a professional Tour Director
    • Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
    • Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
    • Flight from Dublin to London on extension
    • Tour Diary™
    • Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided