Our group departs this evening on our over-night Air Transat Charter flight from Toronto to Dublin.
In-flight meals and entertainment included.

On arrival at Dublin Airport and after claiming our luggage, we head to the Arrivals Hall where our local Driver/Guide will be waiting to greet us. After all introductions are made and everybody is ready, we will depart on guided tour of Dublin City. During our tour, we will visit Christ Church Cathedral, which was commissioned in 1172 by Strongbow, the Anglo-Norman conqueror of Dublin. It replaced an earlier wooden church built by the Vikings in 1038.
We will also visit Trinity College founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I on the site of an Augustinian monastery. Trinity College is also home to the Book of Kells, which is the most richly decorated of Ireland’s medieval illuminated manuscripts. The book contains the four gospels in Latin. This evening we will have an early dinner in Wynn's Hotel in the heart of Dublin City.

After some much needed sleep and a hearty full Irish breakfast we will travel south to the rolling Wicklow Mountains, which will offer us some delightful vistas. We will make a visit to St. Kevin's 6th century monastery at Glendalough. The steep wooded slopes of Glendalough, the “valley of the two lakes”, harbour one of Ireland’s most atmospheric monastic settlements. Sacked time and again by the Vikings, it nevertheless flourished for over 600 years.
After lunch we will make a visit to Powerscourt Gardens. The gardens at Powerscourt are among the finest in Ireland, both for their design and for their dramatic setting at the foot of the Great Sugar Loaf Mountain. After a leisurely day in Wicklow we will make our way back to Dublin for an afternoon tour of the Guinness Store House at St. James Gate and enjoy a perfect complementary pint of Guinness in the Sky Bar, which is located at the top of a glass tower that commands spectacular views of Dublin City & County in every direction.
Dinner: After dinner in Wynn's Hotel tonight you might like to explore Templebar, which has some of Ireland’s best pubs.

This morning we will depart for Kilkenny considered by many to be Ireland’s loveliest inland city. It rose to prominence in the 13th century, when the Irish Parliament often met at Kilkenny Castle. On the way south we will visit the Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens in Kildare. This is a state – run bloodstock farm, which was founded in 1900 by an eccentric Anglo – Irish colonel called William Walker.
We will visit Kilkenny Castle, which has been an important site since Strongbow, constructed the first building a wooden tower in the 12th century. William the Earl Marshall built the first stone castle on the site in 1260. We will join our local guide for a walking tour of Kilkenny City, which is located on a kink on the River Nore. Kilkenny is of great architectural interest, with much use of the distinctive local black limestone, known as Kilkenny marble.
Dinner: This evening for dinner we will be guests of Irish families on their fully working Farmhouse B&B’s outside Kilkenny. This will be an excellent opportunity to experience at first hand Irish family daily life. Most bedrooms will have private facilities.

After a hearty Irish breakfast in the farmhouses we will depart for Cork City on the banks of the River Lee, home of Murphy’s Original Irish Stout, and considered by many including myself to be the real capital of Ireland!!! We will visit The Rock of Cashel in Tipperary, which was the seat of kings and mediaeval bishops for 900 years and flourished until the early 17th century. Brian Ború was crowned King of Munster here in 977 and he became High King of Ireland in 1002.
After lunch we will make a stop at the Old Midleton Distillery, which has the world’s largest pot still with a capacity of over 30,000 gallons. After the tour you might like to enjoy a complementary drop of Irish whiskey.
Tonight we will have dinner in the Imperial Hotel, which is on the South Mall in the heart of Cork City. The South Mall was a waterway up to late 18th century. If you look carefully you will see a series of steps outside many of the buildings that line this famous Cork Street which were once used to moor boats.

After breakfast spend a bit of free time wandering the many small streets of Cork City and I would recommend a visit to the Old English Market. It is a covered market for fish, fruit, meat and vegetable. The origins of the market can be traced back to James 1st in 1610, but the present building dates from 1786. It is less than a 5-minute walk from the Imperial Hotel.
We will then set off for the beautiful town of Kenmare via the west Cork town of Bantry. After lunch we will take a boat trip out to Garnish Island and if we are lucky we might just see the seals that make their home in the rich fishing waters of Bantry Bay.
Garnish Island also known by its Gaelic name Ilnacullin is a small island, which was turned into an exotic garden in 1910. On returning to shore we will continue our journey on to Glengarriff before passing over the wild & majestic Caha Mountains to Kenmare. William Petty, Cromwell’s surveyor general, founded Kenmare in 1670 but today its appearance owes more to his descendant, the first Marquees of Lansdowne who, in 1775, made it a model landlord’s town.
Dinner: Dinner tonight will be in the Brook Lane Hotel and after dinner you will be spoilt for choice for pubs to visit. Many will have traditional Irish music sessions in full swing!!

This morning we will set off on the world famous Ring of Kerry (Iveragh Peninsula) via Killorglin, Glenbeigh, Cahersiveen, Waterville, Coomakesta Pass with it magnificent views over Derrynane, home of Daniel O’ Connell, know as “The Liberator”, Caherdaniel, Castlecove & Sneem. We will visit a sheep farm and enjoy a sheep dog demonstration.
Then we will have lunch at The Blind Piper Pub in the village of Caherdaniel. Locals & visitors alike have been drinking here since 1865 and Sandra O’Farrell; the publican will provide her usual good lunch and excellent pints.
After a good lunch we will meet up with our local guide in Caherdaniel and set off over the Kerry Way on the “Old Butter Road” over the hills to the village of Castlcove. This trail has commanding views to the south of the spectacular Beara Peninsula & Kenmare Bay including the islands of Deenish, Scarriff and the Bull Rock.
Dinner: We will then continue on to Kenmare via Blackwater & Templenoe for a much needed & deserved dinner in the Brook Lane Hotel.

After a full Irish breakfast this morning we will pick up our packed lunch and meet our local guide in Kenmare and walk the “Old Kenmare Road” via Galway’s Bridge to Torc Waterfall inside Killarney National Park. The National Park covers over 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) of mountain, moor land, woodland, waterways, parks and gardens. The mountainous old red sandstone uplands support large areas of blanket bog, and the remoteness and relative inaccessibility of some of these areas aids the continued survival of Ireland's only remaining wild herd of native Red Deer.
Our walk will also take us through forests of some of the largest area of old-growth Oak woods left in the country, a remnant of the woodland that once covered much of Ireland. A shorter walk for those not feeling like tackling the longer one will be available as well.
We will meet our coach & driver/guide at Torc Falls and travel along the spectacular Lakes of Killarney to Killarney Town. We will return to Kenmare via the village of Kilgarvan, home to one of Ireland’s most famous politicians, one Mr. Jackie Healy-Rae.
Dinner: On our return to Kenmare we will have dinner in the Brook Lane Hotel.

This morning we will set off to tour the Dingle Peninsula with its fascinating antiquities ranging from Iron Age Forts to inscribed stones. We will meet with our local guide in Ventry and follow the Dingle Way along Dingle Bay’s coast path. Along the trail we will encounter panoramic vistas of sea, mountain and islands and many unique birds, plants and unspoiled landscapes.
After our walk, we will have free time to explore Dingle, a Gaelic speaking fishing port town, which has been in the news quite a bit of late. As you wander the streets and shops you may hear many locals speaking in Irish. This is because Dingle is an Irish or Gaelic speaking region. Such Irish speaking areas are called "An Ghaeltacht". Recently a new law was passed that Dingle must change its name to its original Irish name which is "An Daingean".
Dinner: We will return to Kenmare and will again eat a much needed & deserved dinner in Brook Lane Hotel.

This morning bright & early we will head up the Atlantic seaboard to the village of Ennistymon on the west coast of Clare. At Killimer we will cross the Shannon River by Ferry to Tarbert and if we are really lucky we might just see some dolphins that regularly visit this part of the Shannon Estuary.
On arrival in Tarbert we will continue up the Atlantic seaboard via the villages of Kilrush, Kilkee, Ennistymon and Ballyvaughan past Dunguaire Castle at Kinvarra then along the west coast to see the dramatic 650ft Cliffs of Moher. We will meet up with our local guide and explore the Burren, which is Gaelic for rocky land – an apt name for this vast limestone plateau. In the 1640’s Cromwell’s surveyor described it as “a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury”.
Our local guide is an expert on the flora, fauna & local folklore of the area and in this unique botanical environment it is common to see Mediterranean and Alpine plants rare to Ireland grow side by side.
Dinner: We will have dinner tonight in the Fall’s Hotel in the lively village of Ennistymon. Take a ramble down the local pubs after dinner where sessions of spontaneous traditional Irish music often take place.

Today we will tour the sights of wild Connemara via the Atlantic coastal village of Clifden, Connemara National Park, Killary Harbour & Leenane.
We will make a stop at Kylemore Abbey, which its nestled at the base of Duchruach Mountain on the northern shore of Lough Pollacappul, in the heart of the Connemara Mountains, it is regarded as one of Ireland's most romantic buildings.
After lunch we have a real treat, a visit to a Mountain Sheep Farmer who is a local historian and philosopher and quite the character. He has 600 mountain ewes & 30 suckling cows. He farms about 600 hectares, which consists mostly of bog .On his farm there is turf cutting & some excellent fishing lakes.
However emigration, low marriage & births rates and a falling population have been a major problem among the farmers of this area. This problem started in 1846 during the Great Famine, which caused the population to drop from 8 million to 3.5 million in a short period. This farmer is quite a historian on the effect of the famine in his area and there are remains of a pre-famine village and a mass grave from that period on his farm.
Dinner: After a full day spent in the wilds of Connemara we will make our way back to Galway City and enjoy dinner in the Imperial Hotel Galway, which is on Eyre Square in the heart of Galway City often referred to as the “City of the Tribes”. After dinner you might take a ramble down Quay Street with its many great pubs including “The Quays” and “Ti Neachtain” a town house which belonged to “Humanity Dick”, an 18th –century MP who promoted laws against cruelty to animals.

After an early breakfast we will travel to Connemara Regional Airport where we will board planes and fly with Aer Arann to Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. On arrival on the island we will meet with our local guide and go exploring Inishmore with its landscape crisscrossed with dry stone walls, stunning coastal views and several large prehistoric forts including Dun Aonghasa.
This Iron or Bronze Age Promotory fort has four concentric stonewalls and is protected by a chevaux de fries, a ring of razor-sharp pointed stone stakes.
Dinner: After a day exploring this fascinating island we will get back on board our planes and return to Galway for a much deserved dinner in the Imperial Hotel Galway.

This morning after a full Irish breakfast we will set off once again for Dublin. Travelling east we will go via Ballinasloe & Athlone, which is the centre of Ireland to make a visit to Clonmacnoise the monastery founded by St. Ciaran in 6th Century.
On arrival in Dublin you have an afternoon at your leisure to explore the museums and art galleries or perhaps you may be tempted to visit Grafton Street, Dublin’s most popular and stylish shopping district.
Dinner: Tonight we will have a farewell dinner and a mighty evening of Irish music, song & dance at the Abbey Tavern. After a late night we will make our way to Wynn's Hotel to get a good nights rest for our journey across the Atlantic in the morning.

After a great big Irish breakfast we will depart to Dublin Airport where after checking in we will board our return charter flight home and bid a fond farewell to Ireland.