Two weeks, the whole island, and one private driver-guide who knows every road and story along the way.
Start Point
Dublin Airport
or Your Hotel
Duration
14 Days of
Touring
Group Size
Couples to
Groups of 26
Fourteen days, one island, and no rushing. The Full Irish is our complete 14-day tour of Ireland, a private journey from Dublin and the historic south to Cork, Kerry, the Wild Atlantic Way, Donegal and the Giant’s Causeway, before looping back to Dublin. You travel with your own driver-guide the whole way, at your own pace, with two nights in Cork, Killarney, Galway, Donegal and Belfast, so you actually feel a place before moving on. It is the trip for travellers who want to see the real Ireland, top to bottom, with every detail taken care of.
Think of the route below as a tried and tested template, not a fixed timetable. Want an extra morning in Dingle, or a castle swapped for a whiskey distillery? Say so, before you travel or on the day. We never say no on tour.
Your driver-guide meets you at Dublin Airport or your hotel. Depending on when you land, the afternoon can take in the Guinness Storehouse, where the visit ends with a pint in a glass-walled bar above the city rooftops, and the Book of Kells at Trinity College, a gospel book illuminated by monks around 1,200 years ago. A panoramic drive past Dublin’s landmarks gives you your bearings before the first night.
Overnight: Dublin
Horse lovers can start at the Irish National Stud and its Japanese Gardens in Kildare, about 45 minutes from Dublin. Next comes the Rock of Cashel, the old seat of the kings of Munster, whose ruined cathedral stands on a limestone outcrop above the Tipperary plain. Before Cork there is time for Blarney Castle, where you lie back over the battlements to kiss the Blarney Stone for the gift of the gab.
Overnight: Cork (2 nights)
The morning belongs to Cork itself. Walk through the English Market, the covered food market that has traded since 1788, then see St Fin Barre’s Cathedral and the old City Gaol. After lunch the road runs to Cobh, once called Queenstown and the Titanic’s final port of call. The Cobh Heritage Centre tells the story of the ship and of the emigrants who left Ireland from this harbour, and St Colman’s Cathedral looks down over the whole town. Kinsale and its star-shaped Charles Fort come tomorrow, as the first stop of Day 4.
Overnight: Cork
This is a day for scenery, following the coast and then the mountains into Kerry. Kinsale’s harbour and Charles Fort come first, then the Old Head of Kinsale, a narrow headland with a restored signal tower and sea on three sides. Along the estuary at Timoleague stand the atmospheric ruins of a Franciscan friary. Glengarriff, at the mouth of the Beara Peninsula, offers a short boat trip to the gardens of Garinish Island, weather permitting. The Caha Pass brings some of the best photo stops of the whole trip. Then Kenmare, and Molly Gallivan’s Cottage and Traditional Farm, where you can taste a drop of homemade poitín before Killarney.
Overnight: Killarney (2 nights)
Take the full Ring or a highlights version; you decide on the morning. Torc Waterfall drops through the woods of Killarney National Park. Muckross House, the Victorian mansion on the lakeshore, comes with gardens to wander. Ross Castle stands at the edge of Lough Leane. Out on the Iveragh Peninsula, the Kerry Cliffs and the Skellig viewing point look across to Skellig Michael, the island monastery that appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. There is free time in Killarney if you want to shop.
Overnight: Killarney
Aghadoe starts the day with a hilltop view back over the lakes and mountains of Killarney. Inch Beach is next, a sand spit reaching miles into Dingle Bay with mountains on both sides. Dingle is an old sea-trading town of painted shopfronts and music pubs. From there, the Slea Head Drive circles the tip of the peninsula on the Wild Atlantic Way. The Blasket Centre tells the story of the island community that lived just offshore until 1953.
Overnight: Dingle
A ferry across the Shannon estuary brings you into County Clare. The Cliffs of Moher, Ireland’s most visited natural attraction, rise more than 200 metres straight out of the Atlantic. Take your time along the viewing platforms and up to O’Brien’s Tower, with the Aran Islands out on the horizon on a clear day. The coast road then runs through the Burren, where grey limestone pavement meets the sea at Fanore Beach and Black Head Lighthouse, before you reach Galway.
Overnight: Galway (2 nights)
Start with a short stroll through Galway city if you like, then head west into Connemara’s mountains, lakes and bog. Coffee comes in Clifden, the little capital of the region, before the Sky Road, a high loop above the Atlantic with the islands laid out below. Kylemore Abbey finishes the day, a castle-like abbey on a lake shore, home to Benedictine nuns and a walled Victorian garden.
Overnight: Galway
Heading north, you stop at Glencar Waterfall, the falls W.B. Yeats wrote into “The Stolen Child”. Coffee is at Drumcliffe, where Yeats is buried under the flat-topped bulk of Benbulben. Mullaghmore Head follows, with big Atlantic views and Classiebawn Castle on the skyline.
Overnight: Donegal (2 nights)
Donegal Castle comes first: the restored stronghold of the O’Donnell chieftains, right in the town centre. Then the coast road leads to Sliabh Liag, sea cliffs among the highest in Europe and nearly three times the height of the Cliffs of Moher. The return runs through Glencolmcille, a remote Irish-speaking valley at the end of the road, before an evening in Donegal town.
Overnight: Donegal
A hand-weaving demonstration in a Donegal studio shows how the county’s famous tweed is made. Then the road heads north around the Inishowen Peninsula to Malin Head, the most northerly point on the island and the northern end of the Wild Atlantic Way. You finish in Derry, the only city in Ireland whose walls still run the full circuit.
Overnight: Derry
Dunluce Castle’s ruins cling to the cliff edge above the sea. A little further on, the Giant’s Causeway spreads out its tens of thousands of interlocking basalt columns, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the stuff of Finn McCool legend. The North Antrim Coastal Drive carries you on to Belfast.
Overnight: Belfast (2 nights)
After breakfast, a Black Cab tour with a local guide takes you through the murals and peace walls of the city’s recent history. Titanic Belfast stands beside the slipways where the ship was built. If time allows, Belfast Castle on Cave Hill gives sweeping views over the city and the lough. The evening is yours for Belfast’s restaurants and pubs.
Overnight: Belfast
The road south passes through Armagh, the Orchard County, with a visit to a family cider farm. Next are the High Crosses of Monasterboice, where Muiredach’s Cross is one of the finest carved crosses in Ireland. Then it’s on to Dublin for a last night.
Overnight: Dublin
Included
Every tour is bespoke, so tell us your dates and group and we will tailor it and quote.
Two weeks is the length we recommend for a first full loop of the island. It gives you the classic south and west, Cork, Kerry, Dingle, the Cliffs of Moher and Connemara, and still leaves time for Donegal, Derry and the Causeway Coast, which most shorter trips have to drop. The difference is pace. With two nights each in Cork, Killarney, Galway, Donegal and Belfast, you are not changing hotels every morning, and the long scenic days are balanced by slower ones. You will not see every corner of Ireland in 14 days; nobody does. You will see the landmarks people fly over for, plus places you would never find on your own. If two weeks is more than your calendar allows, The Emerald Isle, our 12-day tour, covers much of the same ground, and Tour of the North focuses on the north and north-west in seven days.
Yes. The Full Irish is a proven template, not a fixed package, so you can add a night where you want more time, drop a stop that does not interest you, or build in something personal: a family townland you want to find, a distillery, a day at the races, a horse farm in Kildare. Tell us before you travel and we will plan it in. Once you are on the road, your driver-guide can still adjust the day around weather, energy levels and whatever catches your eye. That flexibility is the point of a private tour. There is no coach schedule to keep and no group to wait for, so the day runs at your pace. Lloyd calls it touring come as you go, and it is why the itinerary above reads as suggestions rather than a timetable. Share your wish list when you enquire and we will send back a route built around it.
Yes. For most of our travellers, Creagh Travel arranges the whole trip, not just the driving. We book accommodation on your behalf at hand-picked hotels, manor houses and castles, with breakfast included, and we have preferential rates with a select group of four and five star properties around Ireland. You tell us the style you like, whether that is a castle night to mark an anniversary or a comfortable town hotel within walking distance of the pubs, and we match each stop to it. Everything is then held together in one itinerary, with your driver-guide collecting you from the door each morning. If you would rather book your own hotels, that works too; we simply plan the route around where you are staying. Either way, you deal with one Irish contact from first enquiry to last day, and every price is quoted for your dates and group, because no two trips are the same.
Driving yourself round Ireland for two weeks means narrow rural roads, driving on the left and a lot of time looking at the map instead of the view. With a private driver-guide, all of that disappears. You are collected at your door, the luggage is handled, and the person at the wheel knows which roads suit a larger vehicle, where to stop for the best view and when a place is quieter. Just as important, your driver is also your guide. The stories come with the scenery, from the kings of Munster at Cashel to the Titanic at Cobh and Belfast, so the drive becomes part of the trip rather than the gap between stops. Our driver-guides also know the pubs, the music and the people along the way, which is where many of the best moments of an Irish holiday happen. You arrive each evening relaxed, with nothing to do but enjoy it.
Creagh Travel has been showing visitors Ireland since 2006. Lloyd Creagh is a certified, badged tour guide and a member of the Independent Tour Guides Association. His father Greg has more than 40 years behind the wheel as a driver-guide, so between the family there are over 60 years of guiding on these roads. Lloyd has driven for visiting heads of state, and every traveller gets the same care.
It shows in the reviews. Creagh is rated 5.0 on TripAdvisor, and the comments keep coming back to the history, the humour, the singing and the feeling of being properly looked after. The fleet runs from a Mercedes V-Class for couples to a 26-seat coach for larger groups. Want to compare routes first? Browse all our private tour packages.
Tell us your dates, your group and what matters most to you, and we will come back with a route and a quote built around you.
Tell us your dates and plans. We reply personally, no obligation.
