Hamilton & Chase Tours
Epic Ireland — Private Package 11-day Ireland tour: The complete Irish circuit — Dublin to Cork via Belfast, Donegal, Connemara, and Kerry.

11-Day Private Package Journey

Epic Ireland

The complete Irish circuit — Dublin to Cork via Belfast, Donegal, Connemara, and Kerry.

Available as Private Semi-Private Self-Guided
From €3,890 per person 11 days / 10 nights
View Itinerary

Tour Overview

11 days across Ireland.

Ireland is an island of four million people and five thousand years of recorded history, and eleven days is the right amount of time to understand why it is different from everywhere else. This journey is the complete circuit of the island: Dublin's Georgian architecture and literary culture; the Boyne Valley Neolithic complex and the Hill of Tara; Belfast's Victorian shipbuilding heritage and its recent political history; the Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Coast; Donegal; Connemara and the Aran Islands; the Cliffs of Moher; the Ring of Kerry; the Dingle Peninsula; and Cork. The route runs clockwise from Dublin — north through the Boyne Valley and Belfast, west through Donegal and Connemara, south through Clare and Kerry to Cork. Every major landscape and cultural region of Ireland is included. The driving is spread across eleven days so that no single day is dominated by transit. This is the tour for guests who do not want to choose between the ancient Neolithic sites and the Atlantic coast, between Belfast's murals and Dingle's beehive cells, between the Giant's Causeway and the Ring of Kerry.

Detailed Itinerary

Your journey, day by day.

Every day is designed with breathing room. Sleep in, take a detour, linger at lunch — the itinerary flexes around you, not the other way around.

Day 1 — Arrival in Dublin
Day 1
1

Day 1

Arrival in Dublin

The Georgian capital of Irish letters.

Your private driver meets you at Dublin Airport and transfers you to your hotel in the Georgian city centre. The afternoon at leisure: Trinity College and the Long Room library, the Book of Kells, and the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street — whose prehistoric gold collection is the finest in Western Europe and whose Viking Age material from Dublin's Wood Quay establishes the city's origins. The painted doorways and brick terraces of Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square represent the Anglo-Irish 18th century at its most accomplished. Welcome dinner in the Georgian quarter at a restaurant that takes modern Irish cooking seriously.

  • Private airport transfer to Dublin
  • Trinity College Long Room and the Book of Kells
  • National Museum — prehistoric gold and Viking Dublin
  • Georgian Dublin — Merrion Square and the painted doorways
4–5★ hotel, Dublin city centre
Day 2 — Newgrange and the Boyne Valley
Day 2
2

Day 2

Newgrange and the Boyne Valley

The passage tomb older than the Pyramids.

Newgrange was built around 3,200 BC — five centuries before the Great Pyramid — and it is still structurally intact. The passage runs 19 metres into the burial chamber, aligned so that the winter solstice sunrise fills the chamber with light for seventeen minutes. Your specialist guide covers Newgrange, Knowth (the largest mound in the complex, with the greatest concentration of megalithic art in Europe), and the Hill of Tara — the symbolic seat of the High Kings of Ireland from the Bronze Age to the medieval period, whose earthwork enclosures and the Lia Fáil standing stone occupy a ridge with views over five provinces on a clear day. The overnight at a country house hotel in County Meath or Louth.

  • Newgrange — 3,200 BC, winter solstice alignment
  • Knowth — megalithic art in the largest mound
  • Hill of Tara — seat of the High Kings, Lia Fáil standing stone
  • Boyne Valley specialist guide
Meals: Breakfast 4★ hotel, County Meath
Day 3 — Belfast
Day 3
3

Day 3

Belfast

Titanic, the Troubles, and the city that surprised everyone.

Belfast has transformed in the past twenty years from a city associated internationally with conflict into one of the most visited cities in the British Isles. The Titanic Belfast museum on the original slipways where RMS Titanic was built is the world's largest Titanic visitor centre. The political murals of the Falls Road and Shankill Road are guided by a local with direct experience of the period — the walls that divide Belfast's working-class Catholic and Protestant communities are still standing; the murals on them are updated regularly. The Cathedral Quarter's converted linen warehouses house Belfast's best restaurants and bars. Belfast's food culture has undergone a notable transformation — dinner in the city.

  • Titanic Belfast — the world's largest Titanic museum
  • Political murals — Falls Road and Shankill Road with a local guide
  • Cathedral Quarter — Belfast's food and arts district
  • Belfast Victorian city centre
Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Belfast city centre
Day 4 — The Causeway Coast
Day 4
4

Day 4

The Causeway Coast

The Giant's Causeway and the cliffs of County Antrim.

The Antrim coast north of Belfast is the Causeway Coastal Route — 200 kilometres of cliff road past the Glens of Antrim, Carrickfergus Castle (the best-preserved Norman castle in Ireland), the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge (suspended 30 metres above the sea), and Dunluce Castle (the 16th-century clifftop stronghold above its sea cave). The Giant's Causeway — 40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is the northern endpoint of the route and the most-visited natural sight in Northern Ireland. The Bushmills Distillery, the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery (1608), is one mile from the Giant's Causeway.

  • Giant's Causeway — 40,000 basalt columns, UNESCO World Heritage
  • Dunluce Castle — clifftop stronghold above its sea cave
  • Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge — 30 metres above the Atlantic
  • Bushmills Distillery — world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery
Meals: Breakfast 4★ hotel, Bushmills or Portrush
Day 5 — Donegal
Day 5
5

Day 5

Donegal

The county that faces the North Atlantic on three sides.

The drive west from the Causeway Coast passes through Derry — whose 17th-century walls are the most complete surviving city walls in Ireland — and into County Donegal. Donegal Castle in Donegal town: the 15th-century O'Donnell tower house extended into a Jacobean mansion after the Flight of the Earls in 1607. The Slieve League cliffs on the southwest coast rise to 600 metres — nearly three times the height of the Cliffs of Moher — in near-complete solitude. Glencolumbkille in the evening: the valley where St Columba founded his monastery before sailing to Iona, still one of the quietest places in Ireland.

  • Derry's 17th-century walls — the most complete in Ireland
  • Donegal Castle — the O'Donnell chieftains' tower house
  • Slieve League — 600 metres, the highest sea cliffs in Ireland
  • Glencolumbkille — the valley of St Columba
Meals: Breakfast 4★ hotel, Donegal town or Slieve League coast
Day 6 — Connemara and Galway
Day 6
6

Day 6

Connemara and Galway

The bogland landscape and the city where the west begins.

The drive south from Donegal passes through Sligo — past Knocknarea and the unexcavated cairn above the bay — and into Connemara through County Mayo. Kylemore Abbey, the Victorian castle on Kylemore Lough, and Killary Harbour — Ireland's only fjord — are the anchors of the Connemara circuit. The Twelve Bens provide the mountain backdrop. Galway by late afternoon: the city at the mouth of the Corrib whose Latin Quarter, Spanish Arch, and Shop Street pub culture represent the most concentrated expression of west-coast Irish character in an urban setting.

  • Kylemore Abbey — Victorian castle in the Connemara mountains
  • Killary Harbour — Ireland's only fjord
  • Connemara bog and the Twelve Bens
  • Galway city — the Latin Quarter and the Spanish Arch
Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Galway
Day 7 — Aran Islands and Galway
Day 7
7

Day 7

Aran Islands and Galway

The limestone islands where the oldest Irish culture survives.

The ferry from Rossaveal to Inishmore — the largest of the three Aran Islands — takes forty minutes. Dún Aonghasa is the defining monument: a semicircular Iron Age fort on the edge of a 90-metre Atlantic cliff, defended by rows of sharpened stone stakes (chevaux-de-frise) and open to the sea on one side. The limestone pavement, the hand-built stone walls, the early Christian monastery ruins, and the Gaelic-speaking community of around 800 people who live on the island create a landscape that has attracted writers since J.M. Synge came here in 1898. Back on the mainland by late afternoon, with the evening free in Galway.

  • Ferry to Inishmore — the largest Aran Island
  • Dún Aonghasa — Iron Age fort on a 90-metre cliff
  • Aran Islands limestone landscape and Gaelic community
  • Galway evening — pubs and the Latin Quarter
Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Galway
Day 8 — Cliffs of Moher and the Burren
Day 8
8

Day 8

Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

The Atlantic cliff face and the flowering limestone plateau.

The Cliffs of Moher rise 214 metres from the Atlantic along eight kilometres of Clare coastline. The morning walk from O'Brien's Tower north toward Hag's Head follows the cliff edge with the full Atlantic horizon. The Burren in the afternoon: the 250-square-kilometre limestone plateau whose Arctic, Alpine, and Mediterranean flowers coexist because the rock acts as a heat store through winter. The Poulnabrone dolmen — a portal tomb built around 4,200 BC standing in open limestone pavement — is the oldest monument visible from a public road in Ireland. The overnight at a hotel near the Clare coast or in Killarney.

  • Cliffs of Moher — 214 metres above the Atlantic, eight kilometres
  • Morning cliff walk before tour coaches arrive
  • Poulnabrone dolmen — 4,200 BC in open limestone
  • Burren plateau — Arctic and Mediterranean flowers together
Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Kerry
Day 9 — Ring of Kerry
Day 9
9

Day 9

Ring of Kerry

The 179-kilometre circuit of Ireland's most celebrated peninsula.

The Ring of Kerry is the anticlockwise circuit of the Iveragh Peninsula — the route that all private guides follow to keep coaches on the inside of the narrow coast road. The Skellig Ring loop adds the view of Skellig Michael, the UNESCO World Heritage sea rock seven miles offshore where monks built a monastery in stone beehive cells between the 7th and 12th centuries. Ladies View above the Killarney Lakes provides the most photographed panorama in Kerry. The Gap of Dunloe is the glacial pass through the MacGillycuddy's Reeks — the highest mountains in Ireland at 1,038 metres. Killarney or Kenmare for the night.

  • Ring of Kerry anticlockwise — the full 179km
  • Skellig Ring and the view of Skellig Michael
  • Ladies View above the Killarney Lakes
  • Gap of Dunloe — glacial pass through the Reeks
Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Killarney or Kenmare
Day 10 — The Dingle Peninsula
Day 10
10

Day 10

The Dingle Peninsula

The westernmost road in Europe.

The Dingle Peninsula receives fewer visitors than the Ring of Kerry and is more dramatic for it. The Conor Pass — the highest road pass in Ireland at 456 metres — crosses the central spine with views of both coasts. Dingle town is a working fishing port with an exceptional restaurant culture. Slea Head at the western tip faces the Great Blasket Island — the last inhabited land before Newfoundland — and the Blasket Centre at Dunquin tells the story of the Irish-speaking islanders evacuated in 1953 who left three important writers behind. The beehive cells above Fahan: dry-stone corbelled huts built by 8th-century hermits, still standing without mortar. Cork by evening.

  • Conor Pass — 456 metres, highest road pass in Ireland
  • Slea Head — the westernmost road in Europe
  • Blasket Centre — the last Gaelic island community
  • Dingle beehive cells — 8th-century dry-stone hermit huts
Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Cork
Day 11 — Cork and Departure
Day 11
11

Day 11

Cork and Departure

The real capital — and farewell.

Cork has been insisting it is the real capital of Ireland for as long as Dublin has been claiming the title. The English Market — established 1788 — sells the produce that Cork's food culture is built on: tripe, drisheen, crubeens, Cork butter, dry-aged beef, and the freshest Atlantic fish. The Crawford Art Gallery holds the finest collection of Irish art outside Dublin. Blarney Castle is thirty minutes from the city — the 15th-century tower house whose Blarney Stone visitors kiss to gain the gift of eloquence, suspended upside down above a forty-metre drop. Your private driver transfers you to Cork Airport at the agreed time. Eleven days and the full island covered.

  • Cork English Market — the 1788 food market and its singular produce
  • Crawford Art Gallery
  • Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone
  • Private transfer to Cork Airport
Meals: Breakfast

Where You'll Stay

Hand-picked hotels, every night.

We choose properties for character, location, and the kind of service that makes you feel looked after — not just checked in. Every hotel can be swapped for an alternative if you prefer.

4–5★ hotel, Dublin

Dublin

1 night

4–5★ hotel

City centre

Merrion Square for Georgian Dublin and the National Museum

4★ hotel or country house, County Meath

County Meath

1 night

4★ hotel or country house

Near Boyne Valley

Close to Newgrange visitor centre — allows early-morning access before day visitors

4–5★ hotel, Belfast

Belfast

1 night

4–5★ hotel

City centre

Cathedral Quarter for Belfast's food scene and evening culture

4★ hotel, Causeway Coast

Causeway Coast

1 night

4★ hotel

Bushmills or Portrush

Bushmills puts you within walking distance of the distillery and Giant's Causeway

4★ hotel, Donegal

Donegal

1 night

4★ hotel

Town centre or Slieve League

Slieve League location for evening cliff light in June–July

4–5★ hotel, Galway

Galway

2 nights

4–5★ hotel

City centre

Two nights for Connemara, Aran Islands, and Galway evenings

4–5★ hotel or country house, Kerry

Kerry

2 nights

4–5★ hotel or country house

Killarney or Kenmare

Two nights covers the Cliffs of Moher/Burren day and the Ring of Kerry day

4–5★ hotel, Cork

Cork

1 night

4–5★ hotel

City centre

Near the English Market for the final morning

Hotels shown are indicative of the standard we book. Upon request, we will provide a detailed itinerary with specific hotel options tailored to your preferences and budget.

What's in the Price

Included

  • 10 nights in 4–5★ hotels and country house hotels
  • Daily breakfast at each property
  • Private airport transfer at Dublin
  • Private vehicle and driver throughout
  • Dublin guided visit — Trinity, National Museum, Georgian quarter
  • Boyne Valley specialist guide (Newgrange, Knowth, Tara)
  • Belfast guided city tour — Titanic Belfast and political murals
  • Giant's Causeway and Antrim Coast guided circuit
  • Donegal guided visit including Slieve League
  • Connemara guided circuit
  • Aran Islands ferry and guided visit (Inishmore)
  • Cliffs of Moher entry
  • Burren guided walk including Poulnabrone
  • Ring of Kerry full-day circuit with guide
  • Dingle Peninsula guided circuit
  • Cork guided visit including English Market
  • Blarney Castle entry
  • All entrance fees for guided visits
  • 24/7 travel specialist support
  • Hamilton & Chase digital travel booklet

Not Included

  • International flights to Dublin / from Cork
  • Travel insurance (required — we can arrange on request)
  • Meals not listed
  • Personal expenses
  • Gratuities for guides and drivers
  • City tax (collected by hotels)

Good to Know

  • This tour crosses into Northern Ireland — no passport required for EU and UK citizens, but non-EU visitors should verify that their visa covers both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
  • Northern Ireland uses GBP; the Republic uses EUR. Your driver carries both currencies for day-to-day transactions.
  • The driving is spread to ensure no day exceeds three hours in transit. Ireland is not large but its scenic roads require slow travel.
  • May, June, and September are the optimal months — best balance of weather, daylight, and manageable visitor numbers at the major sites.

Make It Yours

Optional add-ons & upgrades.

Every trip is different. These extras can be woven into your itinerary — just let your travel specialist know what catches your eye.

Skellig Michael boat trip

The UNESCO World Heritage island off the Kerry coast — weather-dependent, June–August, pre-booking essential. Can be added as a half-day on the Ring of Kerry day.

From €75 pp

Aran Islands additional day

Visiting all three Aran Islands (Inishmore, Inishmaan, Inisheer) rather than Inishmore only — requires an overnight on the island or a longer ferry day. Add one night to the itinerary.

From €65 pp

Northern Ireland Troubles private historian

A dedicated half-day in Belfast with an academic historian specialising in the Northern Ireland conflict — covering the political, religious, and economic roots of the Troubles with primary source material.

From €95 pp

Connemara pony trekking

A two-hour guided ride across Connemara bog on the native ponies that have existed here since the Bronze Age — can be added to the Connemara day.

From €85 pp

"Eleven days and I felt like I had finally understood Ireland rather than visited it. The Boyne Valley at dawn with no other visitors, the murals in Belfast explained by someone who was there, the Aran Islands on a clear day — these are the moments that justify the planning. Hamilton & Chase got every detail right."

Patrick & Anne L.

Melbourne, Australia · Epic Ireland, June 2025

Common Questions

Questions about this trip.

Is eleven days too long for a first Ireland visit?

No — it is the right amount for the full circuit. The alternative is a shorter tour that leaves out either the north (Giant's Causeway, Belfast, Donegal) or the west (Connemara, Aran Islands, Dingle). Both halves are essential to understanding Ireland. This itinerary covers both without feeling rushed.

How does this compare to the other Ireland tours?

The Essence of Ireland (7 days) covers the south and west: Dublin, Kerry, Clare, Galway. The Wild Atlantic Way (8 days) focuses exclusively on the Atlantic coast from Cork to Galway. The Ancient Ireland (9 days) includes the Boyne Valley, Belfast, Donegal, and the Aran Islands but not the full Kerry circuit. Epic Ireland combines everything.

Private Package Journey

Epic Ireland

11 days / 10 nights

From €3,890

per person

Ready to go?

Share a few details and a specialist will reply within one business day.

More Ireland Tours

Prefer to Talk?

+1 646-466-6841 [email protected]

Available Mon–Fri 9am–6pm CET.
On-trip support is 24/7.

Keep Exploring

More Ireland journeys.

Essence of Ireland

7 Days · Private Package

Essence of Ireland

Dublin, the Ring of Kerry, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway — the essential Irish circuit.

From €2,690 View Trip →
Wild Atlantic Way

8 Days · Private Package

Wild Atlantic Way

The Beara Peninsula, Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Cliffs of Moher, and Connemara — the full Atlantic coast.

From €2,990 View Trip →
Ancient Ireland

9 Days · Private Package

Ancient Ireland

Newgrange, Belfast, the Giant’s Causeway, Donegal, and the Aran Islands — 5,000 years in nine days.

From €3,390 View Trip →
Plan My Trip