Welcome - On arrival in Dublin Airport, reclaim your baggage and enter the Arrivals Hall. Here, you will meet your Irish tour guide (who is also your driver). There will be three group transfers this morning between 7:00 am and 1200 noon. To ensure a smooth start to your tour, it is advisable to aim for an arrival time in Dublin Airport before 11:00 am, as clearing immigration and reclaiming baggage typically takes around 1 hour.
Board your luxury air-conditioned coach and make the short transfer to your hotel where you can relax and unwind after your flight.
3:00 PM Check-in time. Hotel reception will store your luggage prior to Check-in.
At 6:00 PM this evening all participants will gather for dinner in the hotel restaurant where you can become acquainted with your fellow travellers.
Dine & Overnight at the Clayton Hotel Charlemont.
Time | Arrival Transfer details |
---|---|
Between 07:00 and 12 (noon) | Dublin Airport There are 3 group airport transfers this morning, between 7am and 12 noon, from Dublin Airport to Clayton Hotel Charlemont. |
After some much-needed sleep and a hearty full Irish breakfast, we will depart for Northern Ireland. The province of Northern Ireland was created with the partition of the island of Ireland in 1921.
Your destination today will be Belfast City, the only city in Ireland to fully experience the Industrial Revolution. Linen, rope making, tobacco and most famously shipbuilding including the building of the Titanic Belfast on the Harland & Wolff shipyard, were the main industries. The Troubles took their toll on the economic life of Belfast, but the past fifteen years of peace have returned much prosperity, while the genuine friendliness of the city never left.
Travelling north, your route today will take you through County Meath & County Louth. On arrival in Belfast, visit the Titanic Belfast. The world’s largest Titanic-themed visitor attraction, located on the very slipways where she was built in the heart of Belfast. In the afternoon, enjoy a tour of Belfast City with a specialised step on local Belfast City Guide to see and hear all about the history of this once troubled city — including the Belfast Murals of the Loyalist Shankill Road and Nationalist Falls Road.
Tonight you will overnight & dine at the Clayton Hotel Belfast in Belfast City.
This morning after breakfast, you will depart for Derry/Londonderry City.
Our route today will take you via the spectacular Antrim Coastal Route through the nine Glens of Antrim and picturesque villages of Ballygalley, Carnlough, Cushendall and Cushendun to Ballycastle. Continue onto Bushmills.
Here you will visit the Bushmills Distillery. Known around the world as the oldest licensed distillery. We will stop here for a whiskey tasting. Its grant to distil whiskey was given in 1608, but it is believed that the spirit was probably made here 200 years before that!
Further north, on the coast, you will visit Giant's Causeway. This prehistoric geological phenomenon is the subject of many myths and legends. There are an estimated 37,000 basalt columns extending from cliffs down into the sea.
This afternoon you will continue west to Derry/Londonderry City for an overnight stay at the Maldron Hotel Derry. Dine at the hotel tonight.
This morning, after breakfast, you will be joined by a specialised local guide for a walking tour of Derry/Londonderry City. The city fortifications are amongst the best preserved in Europe and were completed in 1618 to defend the city from Gaelic chieftains in Donegal.
We will depart for the beautiful town of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, which occupies an island between Upper and Lower Lough Erne.
Your route will take you via Strabane and Omagh in County Tyrone, to the Ulster American Folk Park. An open-air museum located on the restored boyhood home of Judge Thomas Mellon, founder of the Pittsburgh banking dynasty. The Park's permanent exhibition, called 'Emigrants', examines why two million people left Ulster for America during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
Dinner and overnight will be in the Westville Hotel located in the heart of Enniskillen's waterside historic quarter.
After breakfast this morning, enjoy a Lough Erne Cruise. Boasting a rich combination of natural and historic sights, a haven for many species of water birds.
You will visit Devenish Island, where St. Molaise founded a monastery in the Sixth Century. The most spectacular sight on this tiny, windswept island is a perfectly preserved Twelfth Century round tower that stands 82ft high.
Your journey through Northern Ireland ends today when you cross the border into County Cavan and travel through the rounded hills called Drumlins that are typical of the border region between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The route will take you through Meath, known as the Royal County due to its history as the seat of the High King of Ireland. Your last stop today will be at Trim Castle. The largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter built it over a 30-year period and finished it in 1206. Trim Castle was also a film location for the movie "Braveheart".
For your overnight stay, continue onto Clayton Hotel Charlemont. Tonight you will dine in the Clayton Hotel Charlemont.
Today marks the end of the Discover Northern Ireland Tour.
After the final Irish breakfast this morning transfer by taxi (not included) to Dublin Airport for your return flight home. Turas sàbhailte dhuibh (safe journey).