Ireland for Families: Castles, Folklore and the West Coast

1. Day 1: Arrive in Dublin: St Stephen's Green and EPIC

   Dublin Airport to your hotel, then St Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, the Liffey and EPIC

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Dublin
   Day 1 details

   Overnight flights from North America land in Dublin in the early morning, and a driver meets your family in arrivals for the ride into the city, about 10 km. We ask the hotel for early check-in, and your luggage is held if the room is not ready; the first plan is a rest, and an extra night before the trip can be booked if you would rather arrive the day before. At about 2:30 your See Sight Tours guide meets the families in the lobby for a gentle walk: through St Stephen's Green, a Victorian park with a pond full of ducks and a playground in the middle, down Grafton Street to Trinity College's gates and along the Liffey to the Docklands. There we visit EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, a hands-on museum in the vaults of an old customs building that tells how millions of Irish people left and what they did abroad, with games, passports to stamp and screens children can touch. It takes about an hour and a quarter. We finish with an early welcome dinner, so younger children can be in bed on time.

   Included

   • Private transfer from Dublin Airport (DUB)
   • Walk with your guide: St Stephen's Green, Grafton Street and the Liffey quays
   • EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum
   • Early welcome dinner

   Easier option: Take a taxi from Trinity College to EPIC instead of walking the quays.

   Free time: Free until the early-afternoon walk

   Activity: About 2 km on flat city pavements, plus an hour on your feet in the museum.

   

2. Day 2: Hurling lesson and a Viking river cruise

   Dublin: a club pitch for Gaelic games, then the Liffey by boat

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Dublin
   Day 2 details

   This morning is for running about. A short ride takes us to a Gaelic games club pitch, where local coaches teach the families hurling, played with an ash stick called a hurley and a small leather ball, and Gaelic football, which mixes kicking, catching and bouncing. Parents play too, or watch from the side; there is no score that matters. It takes about an hour and a half, helmets are provided for hurling, and it is the best cure for jet lag we know. Back in the centre we board a covered boat for a cruise of about 45 minutes on the River Liffey. The guide tells how Viking ships came up this river and founded a trading town at the black pool, Dubh Linn, in the 840s, and points out the bridges and quays the city grew around. The rest of the day is free from lunchtime: the National Museum of Archaeology on Kildare Street is free, with Viking swords and Bronze Age gold (we confirm opening hours at booking), and Dublinia, a Viking and medieval museum by Christ Church, is an optional extra.

   Included

   • Gaelic games session with club coaches: hurling and Gaelic football, helmets and hurleys provided
   • River Liffey boat cruise with the Viking story of Dublin

   Optional experiences

   • Dublinia, Viking and medieval Dublin (extra, price shown at booking)
   • The Guinness Storehouse for adults (extra, price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Watch the Gaelic games from the side and join in for the penalty shots at the end.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Dublin

   Activity: About 90 minutes of running games on grass, at whatever pace each person chooses, then a seated boat cruise.

3. Day 3: Kilkenny Castle and on to Killarney

   Dublin to Kilkenny, then Cahir and Mitchelstown to Killarney

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Killarney
   Day 3 details

   We leave Dublin at about 8:45 and drive south-west for about an hour and three quarters to Kilkenny, a small medieval city on the River Nore. Kilkenny Castle was the seat of the Butler family for nearly 600 years; we tour its restored rooms, including the long picture gallery, and then let the children loose in the parkland behind it, with plenty of room to run. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the city. The afternoon drive to Kerry is the longest of the trip, about four and a half hours at the wheel in all and half an hour over our usual cap: it saves a one-night stop and a repack on the way. We break it with a leg-stretch at Cahir, beside the walls of its castle on the River Suir, and the van can carry chargers for tablets on request. We reach Killarney at about 5 pm. The evening is free: the town is small and walkable, and in season many pubs have traditional music early in the evening.

   Included

   • Kilkenny Castle, its rooms and parkland
   • Sit-down lunch in Kilkenny
   • A stop at Cahir Castle, seen from the riverside

   Free time: Evening free in Killarney

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot in Kilkenny, on castle stairs, park paths and city pavements. The rest of the day is seated.

   

4. Day 4: Jaunting car, lake boat and Muckross farms

   Killarney town to Ross Castle by jaunting car, a boat on Lough Leane, Muckross Traditional Farms and back

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Killarney
   Day 4 details

   Killarney National Park starts at the edge of town, and we see it the old way. At about 9:30 the families climb into jaunting cars, horse-drawn carts with a driver called a jarvey who tells stories as he goes, and ride through the park to Ross Castle, a 15th-century tower house on the shore of Lough Leane. From there we take a covered boat out on the lake for about an hour, with the castle behind us and the mountains ahead; the guide tells the legend of O'Donoghue, the chieftain said to live under the water. The van takes us on to Muckross Traditional Farms, where three farmhouses, a forge and a schoolroom show how Kerry families lived before electricity, with fires lit, hens in the yard and farm animals to meet. Lunch is at Muckross. We are back in town by about 2:30, and the afternoon is yours: ice cream, the shops, or a rest before an evening in town.

   Included

   • Jaunting car ride through Killarney National Park to Ross Castle
   • Boat trip on Lough Leane from Ross Castle
   • Muckross Traditional Farms
   • Lunch at Muckross

   Optional experiences

   • A guided tour inside Ross Castle (timed tours in season, extra), in the free afternoon

   Easier option: The guide shortens the loop at Muckross and the van meets you at the farm gate.

   More active option: Walk a lakeshore stretch of about 4 km with your guide, then the van brings you into town.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Killarney

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot on farm lanes and park paths; the jaunting car and boat are seated.

   

5. Day 5: Inch Beach, sheepdogs and a night in Dingle

   Killarney to Inch Beach, then Dingle and a sheep farm on the peninsula

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Dingle
   Day 5 details

   We drive west out of Killarney, about an hour, to Inch Beach on the Dingle Peninsula, a strip of sand about five kilometres long running out across Dingle Bay. We give it time: buckets, a paddle for the brave, kites if the wind is right, and plenty of space even in summer. Then on to Dingle town, a fishing port in the Gaeltacht, where Irish is spoken day to day, for lunch together. In the early afternoon we visit a working sheep farm on the peninsula, where a farmer and his border collies show how sheep are gathered from the hill by whistle and call alone; children usually get to meet the puppies and the newest lambs in season. We are back in Dingle by about 4 pm, and the rest of the day is free. Dingle Oceanworld, an aquarium on the harbour, is an easy optional, and the town's sweet shops and ice cream makers are a short walk from anywhere.

   Included

   • Time on Inch Beach
   • Sit-down lunch in Dingle town
   • Sheepdog herding demonstration on a working farm

   Optional experiences

   • Dingle Oceanworld aquarium (extra, price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Stay by the van and the cafe at Inch while others walk the beach.

   More active option: Walk the full length of the beach towards the dunes and back with your guide, about 5 km.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Dingle

   Activity: Short walks on sand and farm grass. Bring a windproof layer and a change of socks for the beach.

6. Day 6: The Shannon ferry and Bunratty Castle

   Dingle to Tarbert, the car ferry to Killimer, then Bunratty

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Bunratty
   Day 6 details

   We leave Dingle at about 9:30 and drive north through Tralee and Listowel to Tarbert, about an hour and three quarters, for the car ferry across the Shannon Estuary to Killimer. It is a crossing of about twenty minutes, and children can stand on deck and look for dolphins, which are often seen in the estuary. From Killimer it is about an hour and a quarter through County Clare to Bunratty, with a stop for lunch on the way. The afternoon is at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park: a tall 15th-century tower house, restored and furnished as it would have been in the 1500s, with steep spiral stairs to climb, and around it a folk park of farmhouses, a village street, a forge and a school from about a century ago. We sleep at Bunratty, and in the evening we go back to the castle for a medieval banquet, eaten by candlelight with singers and a harp, then walk the short way back to the hotel.

   Included

   • The Tarbert to Killimer car ferry across the Shannon Estuary
   • Bunratty Castle and Folk Park
   • Medieval banquet in Bunratty Castle

   Easier option: Skip the castle's spiral stairs and spend longer in the folk park, which is mostly level.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in the folk park

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot on level paths in the folk park, plus the castle's steep stone stairs.

   

7. Day 7: The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

   Bunratty to the Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, Aillwee Cave and Poulnabrone, then Galway

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Galway
   Day 7 details

   We leave Bunratty at about 9 and drive about an hour and a quarter by Ennis and Lahinch to the Cliffs of Moher, arriving before the midday crowds. The cliffs run for about 14 km and rise to about 214 m over the Atlantic, and the paths near the visitor centre are walled at the edge, which matters with children. We spend about two hours: up to O'Brien's Tower, a short way along the paths, and in the visitor centre's exhibition. Lunch is in Doolin, a village known for its music. In the afternoon we cross the Burren, a landscape of bare grey limestone, to Aillwee Cave, where a guided walk of about 35 minutes goes underground past a waterfall and the bones of a brown bear. Our last stop is Poulnabrone, a stone portal tomb more than 5,000 years old standing on the bare rock. We follow Galway Bay by Kinvara into Galway, arriving at about 5, and the guide walks the families through Eyre Square to the Latin Quarter and, for anyone who wants it, to an early-evening traditional music session in a family-friendly pub (drinks not included).

   Included

   • The Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, exhibition and cliff paths
   • Sit-down lunch in Doolin
   • Aillwee Cave guided tour
   • Poulnabrone dolmen in the Burren
   • Short walk with your guide to Galway's Latin Quarter

   Optional experiences

   • The birds of prey centre at Aillwee (extra, price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Stay on the paved paths and platforms by the visitor centre and O'Brien's Tower.

   More active option: Walk south on the cliff path for about 30 minutes and back with your guide, older children with an adult.

   Free time: Evening free in Galway

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot on paved and gravel paths, some slopes, and cave steps. Cliff paths can close in high wind.

   

8. Day 8: A bike day on Inis Mór

   Galway to Rossaveal, the ferry to Inis Mór, Kilronan to Dún Aonghasa by bike and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Galway
   Day 8 details

   Today we go out to Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands. We leave Galway at about 9:15 for the harbour at Rossaveal, about 45 minutes away, and take the passenger ferry, a crossing of about 40 minutes. At Kilronan, the island's harbour village, we pick up bikes, with child bikes, seats and tag-alongs booked ahead to fit each family. The ride west to Kilmurvey is about 7 km on a quiet road between stone walls, with stops whenever anyone needs one. From Kilmurvey a rocky path climbs about 1 km to Dún Aonghasa, a stone fort on the edge of a cliff about 100 m above the sea, with no railings; children hold an adult's hand here. Lunch is in Kilmurvey. On the way back we stop where seals haul out on the rocks. We take an afternoon ferry and are back in Galway by about 6:15, in time to change before a farewell dinner together. If the sea is too rough to sail, we spend the day in Galway instead.

   Included

   • Return van to Rossaveal and the ferry to Inis Mór
   • Bike hire on the island, with child bikes, seats or tag-alongs
   • Dún Aonghasa fort and visitor centre
   • Lunch in Kilmurvey
   • Farewell dinner in Galway

   Easier option: Take an island minibus tour to Kilmurvey instead of cycling, then join the group at the fort.

   More active option: Cycle on past Kilmurvey to the beach and the seal colony, about 4 km more, with your guide.

   Free time: Free hour in Galway before dinner

   Activity: About 14 km by bike on a quiet, rolling island road, and a 1 km rocky uphill walk to the fort. The island minibus is there for anyone who would rather not cycle.

9. Day 9: Depart from Shannon or Dublin

   Galway to Shannon Airport (SNN) or Dublin Airport (DUB)

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   The last morning is short. After breakfast two transfers leave, one to Shannon and one to Dublin, depending on your flight: Shannon is about an hour and a quarter from Galway and the closer airport, Dublin about two and a half hours on the motorway. Tell us which airport you are flying from when you book. For Shannon, book a flight leaving after about 12:30; for Dublin, after about 3 pm, so nobody is rushing breakfast with tired children. Both airports have US preclearance, so families flying to the United States pass US immigration and customs before they board; allow extra time for it. If you have an early flight, we can book a last night near the airport instead, and families who want more time in Ireland can add nights in Galway or Dublin at the same hotels. Your guide travels with the Shannon transfer, and the Dublin van goes with our driver.

   Included

   • Private transfer to Shannon Airport (SNN) or Dublin Airport (DUB)

   Free time: Morning free until your transfer

   Activity: Shannon flights after about 12:30, Dublin flights after about 3 pm; US-bound families should allow time for preclearance.

Wildlife and weather: Ireland's weather changes by the hour, so the guide keeps the order of a day flexible and swaps indoor and outdoor stops in heavy rain. The Cliffs of Moher, Inch and Inis Mor are windy, and cliff paths and the Aran ferry can stop in a gale. Seabirds, puffins among them, nest on the Cliffs of Moher from about April to July; seals haul out on Inis Mor most of the year; dolphins are often seen in the Shannon Estuary but never promised. Lambs are on the farms in spring. Days are long in June and July, with light until about 10 pm.

• Dublin2 nights
• Killarney2 nights
• Dingle1 night
• Bunratty1 night
• Galway2 nights