Day Trip Suggestions Prior To Start of Ireland Tour

We’re in Ireland right now, and have been visiting places in County Cork that we hadn’t been to previously, and aren’t part of Rick’s Tour. So more time in southern ireland would be rewarding. But since your tour starts in Dublin, I’d highly recommend a daytrip to the Boyne Valley neolithic sights. Newgrange and Knowth. Hill of Tara, of you can include it, too.

The town of Trim is another suggestion. We stayed there for 2 nights. There’s a castle and pubs with trad music, plus a very good Indian restaurant. We did have a rental car, although you can go between Trim and Dublin by Bus Eireann bus.

My only regret from going on the RS Ireland tour was not going to Newgrange ahead (or after) the tour. So though I haven't been there, I'd suggest doing that!

If your tour does not go to Brú na Bóinne sign up for a half day tour at the visitor center / tourist office in Dublin. The Trim castle is another good place to visit. A day trip to Kilkenny is another option. You can learn how to get around at the visitor center.

This was an excellent tour of Newgrange and the Boyne Valley. Sights in the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin are often recommended, but I didn't experience them. I spent several days before the tour visiting the National Museum, both cathedrals, the GPO, Dublin Castle, and the Chester Beatty Library, all of which were worthwhile. I would have taken a student-led tour of Trinity College if I'd realized that the RS tour focuses only on the Book of Kells and library. The RS tour provides only about half a day of free time in Dubin once it starts, so getting there a few days early would be a good idea.

We did this last fall. We booked the Newgrange all day tour and it was great. We spent one day wandering and time in the archeological museum on a rainy day. The tour does not cover much about Trinity other than the Book of Kells if that matters to you. We did not spend much time in pubs, sadly, as we had to pass a Covid test prior to starting the tour. It is my one regret about doing this tour last year. The tour is great.

In 2019 after our RS tour we did Mary Shelly’s tour to Newgrange and the next day Wild Wicklow Tours that included Glendalough and Wicklow National Park. Both places RS didn’t include and both fascinating.

I think it was Mary Shelley's tour of Glendalough that we took from Dublin. It also went to Kilkenny. We really enjoyed the tour.

Looking back, it looks like it was Mary Gibbons not Mary Shelly (didn’t she write Frankenstein?) 😆

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to offer suggestions. We signed up for the Mary Gibbons Newgrange tour, sounds interesting. It appears the slots on her tour fill up fast, so if the tour interests you plan to book early.

We also plan to see the Riverdance show in Dublin. We enjoyed the show on PBS about 25 years ago so we are cited to see it live.

PaulB, we also saw Riverdance, and I enjoyed it. Due to jetlag, my husband slept through most of it! We also did the Mary Gibbons Newgrange tour and saw people on the tour with various Rick Steves' items, who ended up with us on the same RS BOI tour as well. Enjoy it all!

We visited the National Stud farm outside of Dublin. If you like horses it is a great side trip. Beautiful gardens too.

Just returned from 8 day Ireland tour and booked Newgrange, Knowth, Monasterboice with lunch stop at Boyne battle site Oldbridge home and lovely gardens. Mary Gibbons tour was sold out went with a company called Hilltop treks. Met at Molly Malone statute 9 am returned to Dublin around 4. Newgrange is fascinating!

Glendalough was magical went early in the morning before the groups arrived

I would definitely say to add the Newgrange/Bru Na Boinne. We went on our own before the start of the Best of 14 Ireland tour last summer. It was a highlight of our trip! Unfortunately, we were too late to go by organized tour. The travel instructions to do it on your own in the Rick Steves book were very straight forward; however, there were not taxis when we got off the train, but they picked us up within ten minutes of calling. We also saw Riverdance in Dublin on the day we arrived. I always like to schedule something for our first night.