Ireland and Britain

9 DAYS
Dublin 2 • Killarney 2 • London 3

Basic Inclusions

Accommodations

Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.

Meals

All breakfasts. All dinners.

Transportation

Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.

Guide

Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.

Travel Protection

Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.

Tour Summary

Itinerary Includes

Unlimited public transportation

Days 1-2: Arrival Dublin

Arrival transfer

Day 3: Dublin

Half-day city sightseeing in Dublin: Local Guide, Visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Visit to Trinity College to view The Book of Kells

Day 4: Dublin - Killarney

Visit to the monastic ruins of the Rock of Cashel, notably the Hall of the Vicars Choral and its museum of artifacts, Visit to Blarney Castle to view the Blarney Stone, Visit to the Blarney Woollen Mills

Day 5: Killarney

Ring of Kerry Coach Tour: Visit to the Bog Village

Day 6: Killarney - London

Flight Shannon-London, Arrival transfer

Optional Ride on the London Eye

Day 7: London

London City Sightseeing: Local guide

Optional Excursion to Windsor Castle

West End Theatre Performance

Day 8: London

Excursion to Hampton Court Palace

Optional Jack the Ripper guided walking tour

Day 9: Departure

Departure transfer

UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE

 
25 E-Z

CITY-CENTER HOTELS

Stay right in the heart of it. Why settle for staying outside of the city? Wake up in the city. Explore. Have dinner in the city. Explore. Return to the hotel at your convenience.

Check out our typical hotels

3-AND-4 STAR HOTELS

We’ve scoured each city for the finest hotels for our groups. Comfortable, conveniently located, clean and safe. That’s what we do.

HOTEL CHOICE

We give you options - but the choice is yours.

25 E-Z

AMAZING FOOD

Student tour dinners don’t have to stink! Enjoy authentic, high-quality food, and lots of it. Three-course meals that you will want to post on social media.

Check out what our food is like

25 E-Z

INDUSTRY BEST TOUR DIRECTORS

Passports contracts only the finest, A+ Tour Directors in the industry. With decades of experience, our team is second-to-none in terms of experience and professionalism. Read more about our amazing Tour Directors.

24-HOUR SERVICE

Your Tour Director will meet you at the airport and stay with you every step of the way until your return flight. They are your own personal travel expert.

25 E-Z

INCLUDED FLIGHTS

We work with the airlines so you don’t have to.

BEST AVAILABLE ROUTINGS

We look for the best possible routings for your group with a minimal number of legs and ideal layovers. We try to get you in early - but not too early - to maximize your time overseas.

 

MORE INCLUSIONS

UNLIMITED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INCLUDED

You don’t want to have to worry about getting metro tickets when you’re pressed for time. We provide pre-loaded travel cards so that you can hit the ground running.

INCLUDED OVERSEAS MEDICAL COVERAGE

Passports provides and pays for a post-departure travel protection plan that helps protect you while on your trip with coverage for trip interruption, trip delay, baggage loss, theft or delay, emergency medical expenses, evacuation and more.

ALL TIPS INCLUDED OPTION

Tour Directors receive tips at the end of the tour. Including the tip in the up-front tour cost saves your group from carrying around extra money overseas or being surprised with an extra expense at the end of the tour. This is just another way that Passports is honest and up-front about all expenses. You can choose to include the tip ahead of time - or not to. Passports gives you the option.

NO ON TOUR UPSELL

Ever been pressured on tour to purchase an excursion? Or been shuttled into one workshop after another? Not with Passports.

VALUE VALUE VALUE

Dollar-for-dollar Passports is the best value you can get. Our tours are packed with included activities for a price that you can't beat with any other company.

HUMAN-FIRST POLICIES

FANATICAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT

We are here to be your partner. We support our group leaders 100%. Through thick and thin, we will work with you to make your travel program an annual success.

BEST REFUND POLICY IN THE INDUSTRY

Passports refunds 75% until 30 days prior to departure as our default policy. Early cancellations have fixed, low cancellation penalties. We would love for you to compare our cancellation policy to our competitors. Passports acts as the best partner we can, for every traveler, on every tour. That’s our promise.

SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT

Our Tour Advisors are amazing people who work with the group leaders during the pre-sale, enrollment, pre-departure, on-tour and post-tour periods. They check in when the group is overseas. They are the point of contact throughout the entire process to assist in all phases of the tour. This is more important than you would think unless you’ve been with another company and changed hands several times in the course of the tour. The point is: trust and accountability are critical in our relationship with a group leader.

NO HIDDEN CHARGES

No adult fee. With Passports, adults pay the same as students. Oftentimes adults will opt for a double room as they can’t room with students, and there is a charge for the double room. But there is no charge simply for being an adult.

No hidden airline fees. No hidden tripwire fees. With Passports, what you see is what you get.

Detailed Itinerary

Days 1-2: Arrival

"Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen; we're now first in line for departure." A meal and a movie later the sky is orange off the left side, and it's Ireland that looms below.

You land in Dublin. Begorra!

Settle in, relax and get ready to discover a fascinating city, the hometown of many distinguished writers such as William Butler Yeats, Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), and Samuel Beckett

Meals included: Dinner
Overnight: Dublin

Day 3: Dublin City Sightseeing

A city tour highlights landmarks such as Dublin Castle, Ha'penny Bridge, Christ Church Cathedral, Georgian squares and the Dublin Spire, built to celebrate the new millennium and hailed as the world's tallest sculpture at nearly 400 feet. Of course, you'll see the General Post Office on O'Connell Street, which became the headquarters of the rebels in the Easter Uprising of 1916. From its steps, Patrick Pearse announced the establishment of a republic. See how the building still bears scars from the fighting.

Local Guide

A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Dublin, will accompany you today.

Visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral

Visit Ireland's largest church, founded in 1191 near the well where, according to tradition, St. Patrick baptized converts. See the grave of Jonathan Swift, Dean of the Cathedral and author of Gulliver's Travels, who was laid to rest in 1745.

Visit to Trinity College to view The Book of Kells

At the prestigious Protestant college established by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, you will view the Old Library and its best known treasure, the medieval Book of Kells.

Free Time in Dublin

The afternoon is unscheduled.

Consider a visit to the poignant Kilmainham Gaol Museum, where visitors are informed about the Easter Rising and the suffering of political prisoners once housed and executed there.

Take advantage of the free admission policy at the Archaeology and History branch of the National Museum of Ireland to view an extensive collection that ranges from 7000 BC to the late medieval period. Priceless items include the Tara Brooch, the Cross of Cong and Celtic artifacts made of gold, silver and glassware.

Save time for a stroll along Grafton Street, a pedestrian-only shopping street that meanders between grand townhouses from College Green, near Trinity College, to Stephen's Green. According to a popular song " Grafton Street is a wonderland." Check it out!

Plan a visit to the Dublin Writers Museum to get better acquainted with Irish literature and writers connected with Dublin.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Dublin

Day 4: Cashel, Blarney, Killarney

Drive through emerald hills to Cashel, in County Tipperary.

Visit St. Patrick's Rock, an outcrop rising from the Tipperary plain which once was the seat of the kings of Munster. St. Patrick is believed to have come here in AD 450 to christen King Aenghus.

The Rock of Cashel is topped by the most interesting monastic ruins in Ireland. They include a 12th-century Round Tower, a High Cross, the Romanesque Cormac's Chapel (1134), the 13th-century Cathedral, the 15th-century Castle, and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral, which serves as the Visitors Entrance and houses a small museum of artifacts found on the site.

Modern attractions include an audio-visual show and exhibitions.

Proceed to Blarney, a village in the south of Ireland.

Not to be missed, of course, is Caisleán na Blarnan, a medieval fortress with an impressive keep. According to tradition, or a tad of blarney, the gift of eloquence is granted there by kissing the Blarney Stone.

Pay a visit to the Blarney Woollen Mills, a restored factory complex built in 1823 for spinning and weaving wool. It's now the world's largest store with an inventory of Irish-made goods. If it's made in Ireland, food or fashion, it's there!

Proceed westward through Killarney National Park and its many lakes to the cheerful town of Killarney. The 3,414-foot peak of Carrauntoohil dominates the view to the west, surrounded by heather-covered hills.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Killarney

Day 5: Ring of Kerry Coach Tour

The Ring of Kerry, a scenic route around the Iveragh Peninsula that you will discover today, presents a breathtaking overview of Ireland's geography, including purple mountains, quaint villages, seascapes, bogs, and narrow passes overlooking the sea. View the stark Skellig Michael island off the tip of the peninsula: medieval monks and Luke Skywalker sought refuge there.

A visit is included to Bog Village, a replica of an early 18th-century community typical of southwestern Ireland with its small thatched houses. Learn how peat harvested from bogs was used as domestic fuel.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Killarney

Day 6: Flight to London, Optional London Eye

Travel to Shannon, a new town located in county Clare, established on January 1, 1982. Intended as a town to house the workers of the newly-built Shannon Airport, it quickly gained in population for the closeness it was to other towns, such as Ennis and Limerick.

Board your London-bound flight.

Settle into your hotel, then venture into your surroundings. Red, double-decker buses groan along the "wrong" side of the road, escorted by innumerable black taxicabs with engines that sound like sewing machines.

Optional Ride on the London Eye

Enjoy a ride on one of the world's top ten Ferris wheels, magnificently situated by the River Thames, across from the Houses of Parliament. As it slowly revolves, this "Millennium Wheel" offers unique views of the capital city.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: London

Day 7: London City Sightseeing, Optional Excursion to Windsor, West End Theatre

Enjoy a tour of the sights and sounds of the British capital. See such sights as St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Kensington, and Trafalgar Square.

Local guide

A certified local guide will accompany your group today.

Free time in London

The afternoon is unscheduled.

Consider a visit to the Tower of London to view Traitors' Gate, the Bloody Tower, the Block (where two of Henry VIII's ill-fated wives lost their heads), the White Tower and the Crown Jewels. If you choose to follow one of the Beefeaters, you'll also be able to visit the Royal Chapel.

Optional Excursion to Windsor Castle

Head to the town of Windsor, the location of royal residences for almost one thousand years, ever since William the Conqueror settled there in 1070.

A visit to Windsor Castle includes the State Apartments, Queen Mary's Dolls' House (a palace-within-a-palace with functioning lights, running water and Lilliputian-size books written by famous authors of the 1920s) and St. George's Chapel, one of the country's finest churches in the typically English style known as Perpendicular Gothic.

West End Theatre Performance

Attend a performance at a West End venue. In London you can find anything you're looking for, from classical drama to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Perhaps a good tear-jerker?

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: London

Day 8: Excursion to Hampton Court Palace, Optional Jack the Ripper Walking Tour, Optional Medieval Banquet

Visit the magnificent Tudor palace set in an idyllic park laid on the bank of the Thames. You'll hear how it became a favorite retreat of King Henry VIII. Feel four hundred years of royal history resonate as you see highlights such as the Great Hall, the exquisite ceiling of the Chapel Royal, and the Tudor kitchens. Hampton Court Gardens are also historical treasures with their flower beds, fountains, and ornamental bushes. See how long it takes you to get through the famous multicursal hedge maze!

Free time in London

The afternoon is unscheduled.

You may want to visit to Tower Bridge, the very symbol of London with its twin Victorian Gothic towers. This bridge was inaugurated in 1894 when the bascules of its movable span - regarded as cutting-edge technology at that time - were raised several times each day. Nowadays, when they are raised, advance notice is posted on Twitter! The visit includes the historic Engines Rooms and a walk across the modern see-through glass-floor of the Upper Walkways, suspended 138 feet above the River Thames! /p>

Optional Jack the Ripper guided walking tour

Experience thrills and chills on a guided walking tour of London "In the Footsteps of Jack the Ripper."

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: London

Day 9: Departure

With images of your journey still vivid in your mind, race the sun westward aboard your wide-bodied jet. Write down what you remember best. You'll be home before you know it, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.

Meals included: Breakfast
 

CUSTOM TOURS

All tours can be customized to your particular needs.
Or start from scratch - we will build your dream tour!

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Ring Of Kerry

Ring of Kerry

London, England

London, England

London Eye

London Eye

Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

Going Places Blog

Social Feed

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS OUR #1 PRIORITY

 

 GET A TOUR QUOTE TODAY

OR CALL (800) 332-7277