Self Drive Tours of Perfect Ireland (14 nights/15 days)

Kerry, Cork, Waterford/Kilkenny, Wicklow/Dublin, Meath/Westmeath, Louth, Antrim, Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Return to Shannon

Pick our Perfect Ireland Self Drive Tour and capture fifteen days of perfection on our most comprehensive Ireland tour across the length and breath of Ireland. From Atlantic wilds to quiet Wicklow glens, buzzing Belfast to intimate Clare, the regal Kingdom of Kerry to the pioneer lands of Mayo, from medieval Kilkenny to bohemian Galway; this superb Ireland tour touches them all and everything in between!

ACCOMMODATION	B&B’S	HOTELS	COMBINATION
Jan - Mar; 05 Apr - 30 Apr; 01 Oct - 13 Dec	€757	€911	On request
01 Apr - 04 Apr; May - 10 Jul; 21 Aug - 30 Sept	€801	€1004	On request
11 Jul - 23 Jul; 09 Aug - 20 Aug	€896	€1100	On request
24 Jul - 08 Aug; 14 Dec - 31 Dec	€985	€1188	On request

Prices per person based on 2 persons sharing with economy size manual car. All accommodations have private bathroom facilities. Note: Driver must hold a current driving licence valid for at least 1 year. You must be between 25 – 75 years old. Younger and older drivers can be accommodated at an extra charge. Please contact us for details.

Package includes accommodation, breakfast each morning, exploring Ireland driving guide, heritage island guide, map of Ireland, car rental with unlimited mileage, insurances, CDW and taxes. Location service charge is excluded.

Day 1 & 2 - Kerry

Highlights

• The Ring of Kerry
• Staigue Fort
• Killarney National Park
• Muckross House & Gardens
• Killarney’s Traditional Music Pubs

The Kingdom of Kerry is a land of chattering dolphins, beautiful women called Rose
and oh by the way the King is a goat! Indeed this is a Kingdom with a difference! Windswept and wild, rugged and romantic – this is the mythical Ireland of dreams.

Day 3 - Cork

Highlights

• Blarney Castle
• Cobh Heritage Centre
• Cork City
• The Old Midleton Whiskey Distillery


Cork City is over 800 years old and is an artistic city home to the Cork Opera House and numerous galleries and theatres. Snug bars hosting impromptu traditional music sessions neighbour chic restaurants serving Atlantic catch and racks of Kerry lamb. Wild and epic landscape pours in every direction across the county from the capital. Plant a smacker on the Blarney Stone and gain the ‘gift of the gab’ to enable you to compete with the sharp wit of the Corkonians.

Day 4 - Waterford & Kilkenny

Highlights



• Waterford Crystal
• Waterford City
• Lismore Castle

The Vikings first visited here in 852AD and tourists have being coming ever since. Reginald’s Tower dominates the skyline, gazing over the bustling River Suir and the narrow medieval lanes of the Viking’s triangle. Waterford Crystal, the awesome gem in Waterford’s wonderful crown, is a magical world of precious glass blowers and elegant engravers.

Kilkenny Highlights


• Kilkenny Castle
• Medieval Kilkenny City


• Kilkenny’s Traditional Irish Music Pubs

Kilkenny City is Ireland’s most authentic medieval towns; Kilkenny Castle, St. Canice’s Cathedral and the Black Abbey have being residing here since the thirteenth century. Remarkably these ancient structures rest seamlessly with hip bars, chic restaurants and fashionable boutiques. Pull up a high chair, grasp your pint of Kilkenny and make lifelong friends with the soon to be familiar locals.

Day 5 - Wicklow

Highlights


• Wicklow driving tour
• Glendalough
• Powerscourt House
• Avondale House
• Avoca Handweavers

Snugly tucked underneath bustling Dublin, Wicklow performs its role as green retreat to delightful perfection. Vanish over the towering gaps and enter a magical world of babbling brooks and wooded thickets, of affable villages and languid taverns. Time trickles by here, the land being parcelled out between ancient Christian sites and courtly period houses.

Day 6 - Dublin

Highlights


• Trinity College Dublin
• The Book of Kells
• Chester Beatty Library
• Temple Bar
• Guinness Storehouse
• Old Jameson Distillery
• National Museum of Ireland
• Christchurch Cathedral
• Kilmainham Jail

With a glut of boutique hotels, great shopping, mighty bars and some of the country’s most sophisticated restaurants, Dublin is fast becoming the premier city destination in Europe. Wander the maze of cobbled streets in Temple Bar, slurp a ‘pint of plain’ in the Guinness storehouse, marvel at the world famous Book of Kells, lose yourself in the Chester Beatty library – Dublin will not disappoint.

Day 7 - Westmeath

Highlights


• Mullingar Market Town
• Fore Monastic Sight
• Belvedere House & Gardens

Bashful in nature, Westmeath is Ireland’s best-kept secret. Legends abound in this beautiful county splattered with innumerable lakes, from the jealous walls of Belvedere House and the Children of Lir on the shores of Lough Derravaragh to the Seven Wonders of Fore and the Gothic romance of Tullynally Castle.

Day 8 - Meath

Highlights


• Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre
• Megalithic Tombs of Newgrange


• Boyne Valley
• Trim Castle

Meath is Ireland’s most enduring link to it’s mighty past as an island of saints and scholars; its amazing relics stand defiant, ignoring the ravages of time and invading armies. Brú na Bóinne is one of the most extraordinary sites in the world, the jewel in it’s crown is the mind blowing Newgrange. All of these gems lie under the epic shadows of the Hills of Slane and Tara, the sacred dwellings of St. Patrick and the gods.

Day 9 - Louth

The ‘wee’ county is a precious nugget, wedged proudly between Leinster and Ulster. Cloaked with delightful gems such as Mellifont Abbey, the High Crosses of Monasterboice and the superb King John’s Castle at Carlingford; encased in sublime scenery and dotted with intimate, little manor villages; the ancient kingdom of Oriel punches far above its weight.

Highlights


• Monasterboice monastic site
• Carlingford
• Cooley Peninsula

Day 10 - Antrim

Highlights


• Giant's Causeway
• Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
• North Antrim Coast
• Bushmills Distillery


Antrim is a treasure trove of scenic beauty, its peculiar black basalt and chalk white landscape is pocketed by magnificent castles slumbering in deep, forested glens. It is also possesses in the Giant’s Causeway of one of the most curious and remarkable geological sites in the world. Belfast is the pounding heart of the county, rejuvenated and confident, she’s sparkling once again.

Day 11 - Donegal

Highlights


• Ballyshannon Town
• Glenveagh National Park

Perched precariously on the outer tips, Donegal has a powerful sense of the final Irish frontier. Indeed, whilst buffeted and pummelled by the mighty elements on the outer reaches of Malin Head you experience an epic end-of-earth feeling. Donegal is a sheer beauty of gnarled promontories, desolate beaches and meandering streams.

Day 12 - Mayo

Highlights

• Clew Bay
• Croagh Patrick
• Westport Heritage Town
• Knock Shrine

Mayo is Galway’s quiet relation, whilst travelling through it you sense that you are forging new ground. Misty mountains, silent lakes, deserted beaches and desolate bogs all combine to create a mythical, magical land. Mayo leaves behind the stresses and demands of the modern world.

Day 13 - Galway

Highlights

• Galway City


• Galway Crystal
• Kylemore Abbey
• Galway Music & Theatre Venues

Weathered mountains, sheep studded hills, bogs and remote villages; all jaggedly sewn together by stonewalls and pounded by the mighty Atlantic forms the spellbinding beauty of Galway. Carved out of this tremendous landscape is legendary Galway City itself. Bohemian, funky and laid-back – revellers drink, sing and dance themselves around the curved, cobblestone lanes of this city steeped in history.

Day 14 - Clare

Highlights

• Bunratty Castle & Folk Park
• Cliffs of Moher
• The Poulnabrone Dolmen
• The Burren


• Doolin Village

Clare is perfect desolation, the indescribable Burren flings it’s jagged limestone rocks from the plunging Cliffs of Moher as far as the eye can see. Hidden amongst this craggy desert are a bundle of prehistoric monuments, blankets of wildflowers and delightful villages like Corofin, Ballyvaughan and the secret Mecca of Irish traditional music – Doolin.


Day 15 - Departure



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