Ten days, hand-picked luxury hotels and castle stays, and a private driver-guide who shows you Ireland through Irish eyes.
Start Point
Dublin
Airport
Duration
10 Days of
Touring
Group Size
Couples to
Groups of 26
Our flagship journey, and the one to choose when you want Ireland at its most effortless. Five Star Supreme is a luxury 10-day tour of Ireland from Dublin through Wicklow, the historic south, Cork and Kinsale, Kerry and Dingle, Clare and Connemara, with a private driver-guide who shows you the country through Irish eyes. Eight of the nine nights are in five-star hotels, two of them in a castle on the shores of Lough Corrib, and every day is built around you.
The pace is the point. Four of the stops are two-night stays, so you wake up without a suitcase to pack, and the days leave room for a slow lunch or an afternoon on the castle estate. Lloyd calls it touring come as you go: the route below is the plan, and the day bends to suit you.
Your driver-guide meets you at Dublin Airport. Depending on your arrival time and energy, the afternoon can take in the Guinness Storehouse, where the visit ends with a pint in a glass-walled bar above the city rooftops. Or choose the Book of Kells at Trinity College, a gospel book illuminated by monks around 1,200 years ago, or Kilmainham Gaol, the prison where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were held and executed. A panoramic drive past the city’s landmarks rounds off the day before you settle into your hotel.
Overnight: Dublin (2 nights)
A day in the hills just south of the city. The road climbs to the Sally Gap, a lonely crossroads on the old Military Road, then on to the viewpoint above Lough Tay, the dark lake with a pale sand beach that everyone calls the Guinness Lake. Glendalough is the heart of the day: the monastic settlement St Kevin founded in the 6th century, with its round tower and two lakes in a glacial valley. Back to Dublin for a second night.
Overnight: Dublin
Heading south, horse lovers can stop at the Irish National Stud in Kildare, a working thoroughbred stud with Japanese Gardens to wander. The bloodstock world is one Lloyd knows well, so ask about the horses. The Rock of Cashel follows, the old seat of the kings of Munster on its limestone outcrop. Before Cork, there is time for Blarney Castle, where you lean back over the battlements to kiss the Blarney Stone. Home for the next two nights is a manor house hotel in its own walled gardens, a short stroll from Cork city centre.
Overnight: Cork (2 nights)
Choose your day. Cobh was the Titanic’s last port of call, and its heritage centre tells the story of the ship and of the emigrants who left from this harbour. Kinsale, long known as the gourmet capital of Ireland, is a harbour town of narrow streets and seafood restaurants where lunch is the main event. Just outside the town, the Ringfinnan Garden of Remembrance has 343 trees, one for each New York firefighter lost on 9/11, created by a Kinsale nurse who worked in the city.
Overnight: Cork
A scenic day through West Cork, past the friary ruins at Timoleague on their tidal estuary, through Bantry looking out over its wide bay, and on to Glengarriff, a sheltered harbour village where the Beara Peninsula begins. The Caha Pass brings some of the best mountain views of the trip, with the road running through tunnels cut in the rock. Then comes free time in Kenmare, a planned town of colourful shopfronts at the head of Kenmare Bay. If you prefer, a half Ring of Kerry can replace the West Cork route.
Overnight: Killarney (2 nights)
The Slea Head Drive circles the tip of the Dingle Peninsula, with cliffs, beehive huts and the Blasket Islands out to sea. Dingle town has painted shopfronts and music pubs for a relaxed lunch. An optional sheepdog demonstration on a working farm shows the dogs and their handler at work. You return to Killarney for a second night.
Overnight: Killarney
A longer day on the road, with big rewards. A ferry across the Shannon estuary brings you into Clare and on to the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland’s most visited natural attraction, with viewing platforms and O’Brien’s Tower above the Atlantic. Doolin, the village famous for its traditional music, is a good place to stop for lunch. After free time in Galway, a lively city of music pubs and narrow lanes, you drive on to Lough Corrib and a castle estate whose oldest walls date from the 1200s, home for the next two nights.
Overnight: castle hotel on Lough Corrib (2 nights)
A catamaran cruise on Killary, one of only three fjords in Ireland, takes you between steep mountain sides. Kylemore Abbey follows, the castle-like abbey on a lake shore that is home to Benedictine nuns, with its walled Victorian garden. The afternoon is yours on the castle estate, with woodland walks along the lake shore.
Overnight: castle hotel on Lough Corrib
This is the longest drive of the tour, broken up with good stops. Clonmacnoise, the monastic city St Ciarán founded on the Shannon in the 6th century, has round towers and high crosses in a quiet river meadow. In Athlone, the Norman castle tells the story of the town’s great siege, and Sean’s Bar, reputed to be Ireland’s oldest pub, is the place for a last pint on the road. Your final night is in a castle hotel in Dublin.
Overnight: Dublin
Your driver-guide takes you to Dublin Airport for your flight home.
Included
Every tour is bespoke, so tell us your dates and group and we will tailor it and quote.
Five Star Supreme covers much of the same south and west as our longer tours, but it is built around the stays and the pace. Eight of the nine nights are in five-star hotels, and the trip runs as four two-night stops, in Dublin, Cork, Killarney and a castle on Lough Corrib at the edge of Connemara, with a final night in a Dublin castle hotel before you fly. That means fewer early starts, more time to enjoy where you are staying, and days with room for a slow lunch in Kinsale or an afternoon on the castle estate. The sightseeing is still full: Glendalough, the Rock of Cashel, Blarney, Dingle, the Cliffs of Moher and Kylemore Abbey all feature. If you would rather cover more ground than slow down, The Full Irish takes in the whole island in fourteen days.
For a 10-day Ireland tour, the south and west are the right size: enough to see properly without rushing. This route gives you Dublin and Wicklow, Cashel and Blarney, a day for Cobh or Kinsale, then Kerry, Dingle, the Cliffs of Moher and Connemara before the drive back through the midlands. Most bases are two-night stays, so you see a lot without packing every morning. What ten days does not leave time for is the north: Donegal, Derry, the Giant’s Causeway and Belfast are not on this route. If those matter to you, Tour of the North covers them in seven days and pairs well with this trip as a longer holiday, or The Full Irish covers the whole island in fourteen. You can also extend Five Star Supreme by a night or two anywhere on the route, and we will rework the days around it.
Yes. The hotels on this tour are a curated set we know and trust, chosen for their service and setting, and we book them on your behalf, often at preferential rates. That said, the list is a starting point. If you have a favourite hotel in Dublin, want a second castle night in place of a city stay, or would like a smaller country house instead of a grand hotel, tell us and we will build the route around your choices. If there is an anniversary or birthday on the trip, we can plan the days so you reach that night’s hotel with time to enjoy it. Everything stays in one itinerary, with your driver-guide collecting you from the door each morning. The only thing we cannot promise is availability at the busiest properties in peak season, which is why it helps to enquire early.
Five Star Supreme is quoted individually for each group, which is why there is no price on this page. What moves the price most is your choice of hotels, followed by group size, vehicle and season. Castle and five-star rates in Ireland change a lot between the quieter months and the summer, so the same route can be priced quite differently in April and in July. When you enquire, tell us your dates, your group and the kind of stays you have in mind, and we will send a clear quote. It covers your private driver-guide and vehicle for all ten days, fuel, tolls, parking, ferry crossings and the driver’s expenses, plus the hotels we arrange for you, with breakfast. Lunches, dinners, attraction entrance fees and gratuities are not included, so you know exactly what is covered before you book.
On a trip like this, the person at the wheel matters as much as the hotels. Lloyd Creagh is a certified, badged tour guide and a member of the Independent Tour Guides Association, and he has driven for visiting heads of state. Creagh Travel has been guiding visitors around Ireland since 2006, and Lloyd’s father Greg brings more than 40 years as a driver-guide.
Travellers rate Creagh 5.0 on TripAdvisor. Reviewers write about history told with humour, songs on the road and the sense of being looked after from the first pickup to the last. The fleet runs from a Mercedes V-Class for couples to a 26-seat coach for larger groups. To compare routes, browse all our private tour packages.
Tell us your dates, your group and the kind of stays you love, and we will build ten days of Ireland around you.
Tell us your dates and plans. We reply personally, no obligation.
