The Emerald Isle
9 DAYS
Dublin 2 • Killarney 2 • Limerick 1 • Galway 2
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: Home - 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 - Limerick
Visit to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park
Tour director-led walking tour in Limerick
Optional Bunratty Castle Medieval Banquet: Medieval Banquet at Bunratty Castle
Day 7: Limerick - Galway
Sightseeing stop at the Cliffs of Moher, Scenic drive across the Burren Plateau
Tour director-led walking tour in Galway
Day 8: Galway
Optional Excursion to the Aran Islands: Local guide and minivan, Sightseeing stop on the island of Inishmore, Visit to the Dun Aengus prehistoric fort
Day 9: Galway - Home
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
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.
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
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.
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 in Dublin
"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
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.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Dublin, will accompany you today.
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.
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.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Consider a visit to a museum such as the National Museum (whose precious Celtic artifacts include St. Patrick's Bell and the Tara Brooch), the Dublin Writers' Museum, or the National Gallery (with a collection of paintings featuring works by Jack Yeats).
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!
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.
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.
Overnight: Killarney
Day 6: Bunratty, Limerick, Limerick Walking Tour, Optional Bunratty Castle Medieval Banquet
Travel to the village of Bunratty, set on the Ratty River, near its confluence with the wide estuary of the Shannon River.
Enjoy a visit to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. This formidable castle has been restored to its original 16th-century beauty, Tudor furnishings and all. Bunratty Folk Park is a meticulous re-creation of rural life in Ireland at the turn of the century. Taste butter being churned or purchase some woven handicraft.
Your journey continues to Limerick, the setting for Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt's 1996 memoir. This is also the country's fourth-largest city, with an eventful history that mirrors the country's tumultuous past.
A walking tour with your tour director will introduce landmarks such as St. Mary's Cathedral (founded in 1168 by Donal Mor O'Brien, King of Munster) and, across the river, the Treaty Stone, on which the 1691 Treaty of Limerick is said to have been signed.
This evening, enjoy a feast with lords and ladies while entertainers and jesters dance and sing, and maidens deliver platters to a banquet hall graced with the presence of the Earl of Thomond, lord of the castle.
Overnight: Limerick
Day 7: Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Galway Walking Tour
Only a short drive from Limerick, the Cliffs of Moher stand ready to stun you into silence.
View some of the most spectacular cliffs in all of Europe, with sheer drops of over 600 feet.
Ride on the Mid West portion of Western Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way, crossing the vast limestone plateau of the Burren National Park, known for its unusual combination of Alpine and Mediterranean flora. Pass by Corcomroe Abbey, whose ruins, almost indistinguishable from the stones of the plateau, inspired W. B. Yeats' verse play The Dreaming of the Bones.
Proceed to a lively university city which got its name, Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe, when it was but a "Fort at the mouth of the Gaillimh."
Follow your tour director on a walking tour. Highlights include Eyre Square, the focal point of the modern city, the 16th-century Lynch's Castle (now housing the Allied Bank of Ireland), St. Nicholas' Church, and the Bowling Green district with the house of Nora Barnacle, the muse and wife of James Joyce. Continue to the Spanish Arch (a reminder of the city's trading links with Spain) for a stroll along the quays of the River Corrib.
Overnight: Galway
Day 8: Galway, Optional Excursion to the Aran Islands
Plan your free time or consider an optional excursion.
Take a seat aboard a minivan for a tour led by a driver/guide well acquainted with the history of the Aran Islands and the way of life of its inhabitants.
Windswept, yet never touched by frost, Inishmore, like the other Aran Islands, is a paradise for wildflowers, with hundreds of varieties. These islands are also renowned for their crafts, in particular the famous Aran knitwear. You may want to begin your explorations at the Aran Heritage Centre, Ionad Arann, located near the port of Kilronan. A tour of the center will present two millennia of this Celtic island's history, language and traditions.
View Dún Aonghasa, the island's finest prehistoric monument, located nearly four miles from the village of Kilronan. This semi-circular stone fort is located in a spectacular setting at the edge of a cliff, some sixty feet above sea level.
Archaeological research has found evidence of human settlements dating back to 1500 BC. Bronze Age artifacts found on the site are exhibited in Dublin's National Museum of Ireland.
Overnight: Galway
Day 9: Shannon, Departure
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.
Images of the Irish countryside are still vivid as you race the sun home aboard your jet airplane. Arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.
CUSTOM TOURS
All tours can be customized to your particular needs.
Or start from scratch - we will build your dream tour!
Dublin City Sightseeing
The Rock of Cashel
Blarney Castle and Stone
Ring of Kerry Coach Tour
Tour director-led walking tour in Limerick
Cliffs of Moher
Galway Walking Tour
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