Blasket Island tour

Posted by debdunai on 05/24/26 12:28 PM

On the Rick Steves tour 7/5 - 7/18, but we have an entire day 'free' on the Dingle. I'm thinking about booking a separate tour -

90euro for the below tour - anyone take? I'll only need to choose between the 9AM and 11AM timeslots.

The Great Blasket Island Experience – a speedy sea safari paired with a Great Blasket Island landing departing Dingle Marina daily.
Touring the dramatic coastline all the way to the Great Blasket Island. An abundance of history, heritage and nature paired with breathtaking views, staggering cliffs, geology and wildlife.

Landing on the Great Blasket Island for approx 3.5 - 4 hours visitors can delve into Irish history and experience the lives of 'Islanders' and how they lived 100 years ago. Free guided history tours of the old Island village provided by OPW guides.

On the return boat journey, we tour further to the surrounding Blasket Islands and explore the 'Wild Bank' - a shallow feeding ground and hotspot for any marine activit, i.e whales, dolphins, basking sharks and birdlife.

Posted by Kathleen

05/24/26 12:59 PM

122 posts

We had originally been booked for your tour, but ended up needing to switch to one in June. :) I'll be curious about the responses because I am trying to decide on this, too.

Posted by Mary

Reno, NV, USA

05/24/26 01:13 PM

2631 posts

That tour sounds fantastic. We went to Great Blasket Island on our own by ferry and it took most of a day. Your tour would be more interesting than just going on your own as we did. We had the option of canceling if the weather was bad but luckily for us the weather was gorgeous. I would say that the trip out there is well worth it in good weather if you can manage it.

Posted by rrick10757

05/25/26 04:19 PM

1 posts

What tour company are you planning on using? We will be on this trip in June. Can you book this the week of to decide based on the weather?

Posted by debdunai OP

05/25/26 11:36 PM

3 posts

I found this one in Trip Advisor, but when I search again, the price has already gone up. Must've been a 'tease'. I'll keep checking.

Posted by jjgurley

Mountains of S. Oregon

05/26/26 12:19 PM

1182 posts

There are a least three ways to do Blaskett. The trip you propose from Dingle pier, another from Ventry, and a third from Dunquin. If you're without a car, then your pick is the only easy one.

We did the landing trip from Dunquin last year. The trip we took is much less time on the water, but with less chance to see sea life. Your trip is in a RIB-style speedboat, with a pretty bouncy ride (exciting for most, painful for some older folks). All the trips are weather dependent, mostly because of the landing pier on Blaskett. Because the Dunquin trip is the shortest, I believe it has the best chance of not being weather-canceled. We had tried to take the Dunquin trip in 2023 and it was cancelled at the last minute for weather reasons.

All three trips deliver you to the island and you're on your own once ashore. There are rangers that offer separate free walking tours to anyone or you can hike around by yourself. We found the ranger's talk to be valuable. While walking, we did observe a boat pestering a Minke whale, which might have been your tour. We attempted to circumnavigate the island on foot, but aborted after being worried about our pickup time.