Galway, Connemara and The Aran Islands

Discover more of our beautiful and scenic Ireland on this four-day guided tour to Galway and Connemara.

Travel to Dublin independently. This morning, we meet our guide in Dublin before departing to our hotel in Galway. If booking from Northern Ireland, a coach transfer from Belfast, Ballymena, Newry and Lisburn is provided.

Details of the pickup point in Dublin and final timing will be advised closer to departure date. Estimated start time is 09:30am.  

En-route to Galway, visit Kilbeggan Distillery in the heart of Ireland, one of the oldest in the world. This is a real working distillery run by a team of enthusiastic craftspeople, skilled in the traditional ways of making Irish whiskey.  We can visit the gift shop and purchase some of this ‘liquid gold’, before continuing our journey west.

Following our arrival in Galway, for the rest of the afternoon we are free to relax and enjoy the ‘City of Tribes’ as we please. Our guide will be happy to make suggestions for local sightseeing and entertainment options.

Tonight, let’s re-join the group and enjoy a welcome dinner at the hotel.

Dinner at the hotel is included on the first and last night.

After breakfast, we will depart for a full-day guided excursion to Connemara, dubbed as a place of “savage beauty” by Oscar Wilde. With its rugged scenery, lakes, bogs, rivers, mountains, and picturesque villages, little has changed over time in this spellbinding landscape. Included today are stops in Leenane, Letterfrack, and Cong, famously the location for the film ‘The Quiet Man’.

Afterwards, we will take a relaxing *cruise on Lough Corrib, travelling from the heart of Galway city along the famous Steamers Line, the lake’s traditional trade route. The cruise will take approximately ninety minutes and there is indoor seating where we can relax and enjoy the scenery while savouring a cup of tea or coffee with scones. At the end of the cruise, we transfer by coach back to our hotel.

The evening is ours, to relax and explore our surroundings. Our guide will be happy to make recommendations for the best traditional pubs and other activities to suit our preferences.

This morning we depart on a full-day guided excursion with a visit to Inis Mor, largest of the Aran Islands. After a ferry journey of approximately forty minutes, we will have a tour of the island and visit Dun Aengus Fort. The fort is perched on a cliff, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and is enclosed by three massive stone walls. The fort is 900m from the Visitor Centre on rough and uneven ground, therefore we recommend you wear sturdy, closed in shoes for your comfort.

Afterwards, we make our journey back to the mainland and to our hotel. The rest of the evening is at leisure.

Let’s reflect on today’s adventure and enjoy some free time before our farewell dinner at the hotel (included.)

Later, we can take the opportunity to discover some more of Galway’s highlights, in our own time.