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v.2 Wendy Perrin-Ann Wilkinson Ireland
Ann Wilkinson & Cary Saurage
Saturday 26th April – Tuesday 6th May 2025
Saturday 26th April – Tuesday 6th May 2025
Picturesque coastal towns and villages, green pastoral fields, soaring cliffs, wild barren landscapes, the crash of the ocean, the laugh of a local. Ireland is romantic, and authentic, a home away from home where both old and modern seem to cohabit seamlessly on a small island in the middle of the sea. Packed with history and tradition your days are spent exploring Ireland’s famous and off-the-beaten-track sites of natural, cultural, and ancient interest. A world-renowned food scene means your evenings are spent dining in style and with the promise of a pub just around the corner, music and laughter are never far away. Your trip to Ireland will surprise and delight you but the people of Ireland will stay with you, long after your journey has taken you home.
Céad míle fáilte! One hundred thousand welcomes. Arriving in Ireland today, a private transfer will pick you up from the airport and whisk you into the city to your boutique hotel where you can refresh, grab a bite to eat, or drop your bags and head out to start exploring the city.
We have lots of options to suggest to you on activity for this afternoon from art and history museums to food and drink experiences and tours.
In particular, some favourites we love are the EPIC Centre, The Little Museum of Dublin, Kilmainham Goal and the Guinness Storehouse.
Enjoy your free afternoon in Dublin and a delicious local pub dinner to toast your first night in Ireland.
Overnight: Dublin 2 | The Alex Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Double
Meals Included: None
This morning you will meet a local walking guide and historian for a private walking tour through this vibrant capital city. Enjoy its mix of 1,000 years of architecture from the mediaeval to Georgian to modern. See the Georgian-style Merrion Square, lush St. Stephen’s Green and Fitzwilliam Square, as well as O’Connell Street, the site of the ‘1916 Uprising’ that led to Ireland’s independence in 1922. Your guide will bring Dublin to life with colourful tales of life in the city in times gone by.
Your afternoon is free to rest or see more of Dublin. This afternoon is also a great opportunity to meet with the folks from EPIC if you have engaged them in some genealogy research.
Overnight: Dublin 2 | The Alex Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Doubles
Meals Included: Breakfast
This morning your private driver/guide will meet you in the lobby of your hotel and together you will travel to the west coast of Ireland and the Wild Atlantic Way.
On route, we stop at the little town of Cashel, in County Tipperary. Our guide will take you on the short walk to the Rock of Cashel, a medieval hilltop complex featuring a ruined Gothic cathedral and 15th-century castle with sweeping views over the town and county below. Enjoy lunch or a coffee and sweet treat in this picturesque little town before checking out Rossa Pottery Shop, Ireland’s oldest handmade pottery for some traditional handmade wear.
This afternoon you check into your quaint hotel in the town of Kenmare, Co Kerry.
Overnight: Kenmare | Brook Lane Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Doubles
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Just 40 minutes from Kenmare is Killarney National Park Ireland’s first and the most famous of Ireland’s national parks – and with good reason, as it is flourishing with breathtaking mountains, lakes and waterfalls. Historic manor houses and abbeys make for an interesting visit but Killarney is best explored via the water with a private boat trip across the lake with Kerryman, Dux. Afterwards, your guide will lead you through the grounds and gardens of Muckross House, a 19th-century mansion set upon the shores of the glistening lake.
Overnight: Kenamare | Brook Lane Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Doubles
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Into the southern part of the Ring of Kerry, the landscape becomes wilder and more rugged. At a secluded bay, join a foraging and foodie expert for a seaweed discovery and tasting walk to uncover the Kerry coast’s edible gems. Together, discover how to sustainably harvest these sea plants, and learn how they earned their reputation as a super-food. Enjoy a few nibbles of seaweed yourself, including the flavoursome variety, Duilleasc, which sustained the monks on Skellig Island, the rock pinnacles rising dramatically from the sea on the horizon, or Nori, the famous Sushi roll wrapping.
Enjoy lunch in a nearby pub before choosing to explore the peninsula and some Ring of Kerry sights with your guide or return to your hotel.
Overnight: Kenamare | Brook Lane Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Doubles
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Leaving Kerry, we head north, across the mouth of the River Shannon and into Clare, home to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.
The Burren landscape is fissured plateaus of limestone and shale, vast in their captivating and barren beauty. Accompanied by your guide, wind your way over the stark rocky terrain, past prehistoric tombs and through wildflower grasslands. Later, visit the striking Cliffs of Moher, absorbing their majesty in a quiet, secluded spot away from the crowds. Home to thousands of seabirds, including razorbills, fulmars and puffins, the cliffs are alive with activity above the crashing waves far below.
Overnight: Doolin | Doolin Inn
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Doubles
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Today, spend your time exploring the Aran Islands: three distinctive, wild and remote isles that once held a position of great trading power in ancient Ireland. Now a bastion of traditional language, culture and music, they are as interesting as they are beautiful. Inis Mór (the largest of the three) is home to a prehistoric semi-circular stone fort and is best explored by bicycle or horse and carriage. Enjoy a private tour of a goat farm and meet the inquisitive herd of goats who graze the windswept pastures. Come away laden with cheese, returning to the mainland just as the sky blushes pink against the blue silhouette of the Connemara mountains.
Overnight: Doolin | Doolin Inn
Room Type: 2 x Deluxe Doubles
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
We continue our exploration north from Clare to Galway, once described as “a savage beauty” by author Oscar Wilde.En route, we take the opportunity to stop in Galway City, a charming Medieval-era city with a thriving arts and food scene. Joining a couple of locals we sample some of Galway’s hidden foodie gems from scones and jam to oysters and of course Guinness before continuing to the expanse of Connemara and home for the next few nights.
Check into Ballynahinch Castle Hotel, once owned by an Indian Raj, this traditional hunting lodge has seen presidents and dignitaries grace its halls and rooms for generations. Today, surrounded by thousands of acres of estate land and forests, Ballynahinch boasts fine dining, a traditional pub, on-site fly fishing and a remote escape in the wilds of Connemara.
Overnight: Connemmara | Ballynahinch Castle Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Superior Rooms
Meals Included: Breakfast
This morning your guide will take you to Roundstone Harbour to meet local man Damien, a fourth-generation fisherman who has been around the sea all his life. As you explore Roundstone Bay by boat, look out for the resident seals, dolphins & Basking sharks! You’ll pass by the stunning beaches of Ervallagh, Gurteen & Dog’s Bay as you make your way to the deserted Island of Inishlacken. With its panoramic views, picturesque unspoilt beaches & pristine waters, this deserted island is the perfect place to stop off for a bespoke picnic lunch! Inishlaken has long been a centre point for writers, poets & artists because of its unique setting. A once largely populated island with its own schoolhouse & lots of quaint cottages, the population dwindled & the last of the island’s residents left for the mainland. But where man has left, nature has flourished and the island is now home to a large variety of insects & birds, rabbits, resident goats, sheep & donkeys.
This evening, check out the local little town Clifden for some live traditional Irish music to enjoy.
Overnight: Connemmara | Ballynahinch Castle Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Superior Rooms
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
This morning it’s a 45-minute drive through the windswept Twelve Bens Mountain Range to Killary, Ireland’s only fjord. Start the day with a visit to a local sheep farm for a private sheepdog demo in this wild and remote landscape. From there, walk an abandoned famine route along the southern shoreline of the fjord. After a pit stop at a local café for lunch, we have the option to visit Kylemore Abbey, a haven of history, beauty, and serenity and home to a Benedictine order of Nuns for the past 100 years or transfer you back to Ballynahinch Castle where you will have some free time to enjoy the estate this afternoon – go fly fishing, have a massage, or simply kick back with a book by the river.
Your guide will leave you today at Ballynahinch where you can enjoy your final dinner in their award-winning restaurant. A private transfer will take you to Dublin tomorrow.
Overnight: Connemmara | Ballynahinch Castle Hotel
Room Type: 2 x Superior Deluxe
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
We leave the west coast and make our way back to Dublin or if preferred Shannon Airport for flights home. We hope your time in Ireland has been memorable and we would love the opportunity to welcome you to our shores once again.
Meals Included: Breakfast
The per person cost of the above itinerary is €13,710 based on two people and two rooms throughout.
Saturday 26th April – Tuesday 6th May 2025
