11D10N Irish Experience

Embrace your playful side and discover the allure of the lively Irish capital – a small city with a lot of heart and yours to explore before meeting your Travel Director and fellow travellers this afternoon for a sightseeing tour with your Local Specialist. See the stately Georgian Squares and Trinity College before enjoying a whiskey tasting at a local distillery. The excitement will build this evening over drinks, good food and great company as your Travel Director gives you a taste of what’s to come.

dinner

Leaving the cosmopolitan streets of Dublin behind, we travel to Northern Ireland and the bustling city of Belfast, where you will have some free time to enjoy a spud for lunch or perhaps an Irish stew. Later, we meet our Local Specialist ‘Cabbie’ for an insider view of the city’s living history during a journey through its vibrant streets in a real taxi. We spend the rest of the afternoon at leisure, or perhaps join an Optional Experience.

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Dive into Culture during a visit to the award-winning Titanic Belfast Experience. Gain insights into the tragic story of the Titanic and its passengers who lost their lives in the icy Atlantic. Leave the city behind, travelling to your Be My Guest experience near Ballycastle for lunch. Then onto the Giant’s Causeway as we walk in the footsteps of Finn McCool. Our visit will help to conserve this iconic natural landmark. Take some time to admire the natural spectacle of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns before continuing to Derry/Londonderry, our home for the next two nights.

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Join your Local Specialist for a walk along the 17th-century city walls and see the formerly turbulent Bogside neighbourhood, with its street murals depicting the history of the ‘Troubles’. Spend a free afternoon walking along the pretty Foyle River or consider joining an Optional Experience to Inishowen Peninsula, with its rich history. This evening enjoy dinner at your hotel.

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Journey through the lush countryside to Belleek, where you’ll Dive into Culture and witness talented pottery crafters create the exquisite collectables that have graced homes since the mid-19th century. Arrive in Galway later, where you will stay for the next two nights.

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The rugged beauty of Connemara was captured in the film ‘The Quiet Man’ with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. Its loughs and mountains are yours to explore today during a scenic drive. Arrive at Kylemore Abbey later to visit the country’s most romantic castle and ramble through the hidden nooks of its Victorian walled garden. Returning to Galway, enjoy some free time to explore its imposing stone Cathedral or stroll through Eyre Square, which John F. Kennedy visited in 1963.

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Marvel at the towering Cliffs of Moher as they rise over 200 m (650 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean. Take part in a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience, gaining a deeper understanding of this UNESCO-listed landscape with your Local Specialist. At the ‘Atlantic Edge’ exhibition, discover how thousands of years of wind and sea shaped the cliffs, and enjoy views from the perspective of nesting seabirds who call this place home. Continue your journey along the Wild Atlantic Way, soaking up more coastal views before crossing the waters of the Shannon Estuary. Arrive in Killarney, where your evening is free to explore or you can opt in for a traditional Irish ceilidh, full of music, dance and craic.

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The soul-stirring landscapes of Iveragh Peninsula provide a mesmerising backdrop for our scenic coastal drive around the Ring of Kerry – an unimaginably beautiful natural setting. En route we will see Killorglin, famous for its annual ‘Puck Fair’, as well as Daniel O’Connell’s Cahirciveen, the fishing village of Waterville, the Black Valley and Moll’s Gap.

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Today you might acquire the ‘gift of the gab’, bending over backwards to kiss the Blarney Stone before you travel to Waterford. Admire the delicate creations of fine crystal during a visit to the House of Waterford Crystal where you will Dive into Culture and witness a demonstration by master crafters. This evening, arrive in Kilkenny with its imposing 12th-century castle, once the seat of the Butlers of Ormonde.

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After a morning exploration of Kilkenny, depart for New Ross where you’ll see the monument to John F. Kennedy, who visited his ancestral family hometown in 1963. Dive into Culture and gain insights into the tragic plight of Irish emigrants during the potato famine of the 1800s on your visit to the nearby three-masted Dunbrody Famine Ship. Journey through the lush Irish countryside of County Wicklow, the ‘Garden of Ireland’, and back to Dublin where you’ll spend your final evening with travel companions sharing stories of your memorable journey through Ireland at dinner.

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It’s time to say a fond farewell to Ireland and newfound friends as you prepare to end your wonderful Irish experience.

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