Serene and Soulful: Mother & Daughter Ireland Tour

Dublin is all color and charm as a small city with compelling energy. Touch down, and you will be whisked off into its atmosphere. Locals greet strangers, strangers become friends, and you can hardly believe that this is a capital city. You will stay at a boutique hotel in the center of Dublin, a quiet little place run in true Irish tradition. You will experience genuine hospitality, plenty of peace, and a nice chat with the owner over breakfast the next morning. This first evening, you will probably want to catch up, especially if you have not seen each other for a while, and many restaurants and bars can be found within easy walking distance as you settle in.

Indulge with a traditional Irish breakfast and set off with your local guide. Historical Dublin will unfold in front of you on a day full of laughter and charm. Inspect the medieval artwork in the Book of Kells, just one highlight to uncover inside Trinity College. Take a stroll down Grafton Street, musicians and entertainers all around. Walk the streets of James Joyce, and then relax in a grand café with a spot of afternoon tea, Irish style. The afternoon is left free for your own exploring, and you will probably continue catching up from yesterday. Spend the evening with a feast of dancing and music, experiencing a classic dance performance full of Gaelic flair and enigmatic moments.

Venture from the city and into the green as a patchwork of hues extend along the country roads. The Valley of the Boyne is peaceful, its mysterious landscapes dotted with stone cottages and the odd piece of wandering livestock. Hidden here are sacred prehistoric sites, with the burial mounds of Newgrange and Knowth an insight into life some 5,000 years ago.

Storytelling is an essential part of local culture, the gift of the gab passed down through generations or obtained by kissing the Blarney Stone. In a charming old pub, you can spend the evening with this tradition, listening to the tales that hold everybody captive. The stories are fanciful, but it is the storytelling that is important as you watch the ability of one person to hold the crowd, even when suggesting mermaids and fairy-like tales. It will be a raucous and fun experience to be part of, whatever your age, and gives you a lot to talk about on a mother-daughter vacation.

The rugged Wicklow Mountains cast shadows across Ireland’s garden county. It is lush out here, just as you imagine Ireland to be with clovers, pastures, and manor houses. Shafts of sunlight and rainbows add to a magical scene, County Wicklow a photograph everywhere you turn. Stop to explore Powerscourt Manor, a Palladian-styled retreat with some glorious gardens to walk through. At Glendalough, you will find a desolate and isolated 5th-century monastery set around brooding forest and typically shrouded in mist. It feels like you are stepping into one of the storyteller’s fairytales, Glendalough as fanciful a tale as ever you have seen. It will be your fourth night in Dublin, and by now, you will have some local favorites, like cafes or bars that best suit the two of you.

Move out across the legendary Irish countryside with shafts of sunlight seeping through the clouds and valleys cast in evocative green hues. The stories will continue, St Patrick and the ancient Munster kings told at the Rock of Cashel, a certain King Aengus in 450 AD one of the country’s ultimate tales. You travel east to west, traversing the country’s quiet roads to Killarney. Check into a converted castle and take a stroll around the grounds, where bucolic gardens are ideal for a quiet afternoon. You might choose to go horseback riding or hiking in the area, or you could sit back in the castle’s terrace and lounge, drinking hot tea with a couple of scones.

Mist shimmers across Killarney National Park, rippling like waves across the Atlantic. Iridescent mountains backdrop twinkling lakes, the odd castle adding bliss to the scene. Ross is the most imposing of them, enjoyed after you stop for tea at Dinnis Cottage. With a full day in the park, you can cruise across the lakes and go hiking in the translucent light, the guide tailoring a route based on your fitness and energy levels. Many people could spend a lifetime in this region, such is the tranquility and rugged beauty. Even with just a day spent here, you will easily understand why it is so revered. Rest up this evening with dinner in a lively local pub, more music, and dancing accompanying by the hearty, warming food.

From the cliffs, you will gaze out, daughter and mother, and the endless Atlantic. As in Killarney and Wicklow, it is so peaceful with rarely anybody else around. You can hear the wind whistle past your ears and ruffle your hair and sense the humbling beauty of the Irish coast, nature always dictating the day in this part of the world. When the wind howls, it is only more beautiful. When clouds roll in the moody atmosphere is even more engaging. And if the sun is shining the vistas seem to stretch for an eternity. Ireland is famous for its cliff-dominated coast and today helps demonstrate why.

The Dingle Peninsula engages many visitors with its distinct personality. Dramatic beaches await beneath the cliffs with prehistoric ruins and ring forts meeting with beehive huts and moss-covered stone crosses. Close to the cliffs, you will find small Gaelic villages that are each very traditional in their way of life. Taking a walk in these villages and meeting a couple of locals is always an Irish highlight, the experience akin to exploring a movie set. In Dingle today, you will visit Dunbeg Fort, Gallarus Oratory, and Coumeenole Beach, before driving back across the mountains to Killarney.

Burial monuments and ring forts dot the landscape north of Killarney, fringing Limerick like an old five-line poem. Monasteries stand isolated beneath mountains, churches and crannogs juxtapose, and stone dolmens compliment the enormity of nature. This is the Burren, home to monuments like Kilfenora Cathedral, Caherconnell Stone Fort, and Poulnabrone Tomb. Visit all these places on the drive north before turning left towards the coast and the world-famous Cliffs of Moher. This is where Ireland’s green carpet ends, pastures meeting vertiginous cliffs and Atlantic blue.

Wild and wondrous, this piece of Ireland reflects so many preconceptions and is surprisingly quiet. Despite the popularity, these cliffs extend for miles, so there is always a remote place where you can really feel the wind rush past your ears. After the cliffs, you can warm up in an atmospheric Doolin pub before completing the journey to Galway. You will spend the next several nights in a small boutique hotel, just on the edge of this colorful fishing town. In the evening, you will find live Irish folk music in many of the pubs, along with stone-clad streets behind medieval town walls.

Inishmore is barren. It is also hauntingly beautiful and silent, a rocky outcrop lost in the Atlantic. Once more, you can feel the serenity of Ireland. Stresses melt away here, the country a wonderful place to reset and reenergize. What stresses could you possibly find here, especially when the Atlantic waves crash wildly around your ears? Inishmore is one of the Aran Islands, and it is as traditional a place as any in Europe. The few remaining inhabitants keep language, culture, and music alive that have been passed down over three millennia. You will visit the Seven Churches, and then admire the unusual Dun Aengus, a Celtic stone fort in the most dramatic setting. Taking the boat back to Galway, you will have another evening to explore, choosing one of the pubs or perhaps a quieter fish restaurant on the coast.

Finally, you will arrive at Connemara, another of those landscapes that feels like quintessential Ireland. Bogs and swamps circle dark, mist-smothered lakes. The peaks are jagged, like the fingers of a storytelling giant. Kylemore Abbey is another place that could come from a fairytale, its Victorian walls tucked into a forest alongside a brooding lake. Other Connemara highlights include the market stalls and church spires of Clifden, plus the majestic cone of Diamond Hill. Like always the local guide can adjust the tour pace, throwing in one or two additional stops if you are in the mood. And once more you feel the desolate beauty of Ireland, so conducive to a mother and daughter escape from it all.

There will be some time for last-minute shopping in Galway this morning, the town dotted with antique stores and Irish charms. After lunch, you will be transferred to Shannon Airport for your outbound flight.