Highlights |
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Celtic Dream - CDB Option
Premier
Escorted Motorcoach Tour!
Our premier tour offers
you an updated itinerary in 2010. This tour has added attractions for 2010 and
features most of the major historic and scenic attractions of Ireland. The
Celtic Dream is acknowledged by visitors and Travel Agents as being the best
value tour offered to Ireland.
Your Celtic Dream tour
includes:
- First Class and Superior First Class hotels
throughout.
- Full Irish breakfast daily, except day of
arrival.
- Dinner each evening except for two nights in
Dublin, including a traditional medieval castle banquet and traditional Irish
entertainment and dinner in Dublin.
- Full sightseeing by Deluxe Touring Motorcoach.
- Professional Irish driver/guide to escort you
through out.
- Visit to Rathbaun Farm to see an actual working
farm, including coffee/tea and Irish Farmhouse scones.
- Lough Foyle Ferry.
- Visits to: Kilmainham Jail, Guinness Storehouse,
Trinity College and the Book of Kells, Kilkenny Castle, Cobh Heritage Center,
Blarney, Dingle Peninsula, Foynes Flying Boat Museum, Cliffs of Moher,
Rathbaun Farm, Galway Crystal Factory, Belleek Pottery Factory, Glenveagh
Castle and National Park, Fort Dunree, Moville Pottery, Giants Causeway,
Titanic Docks & Pump House.
- Porterage of one (1) suitcase per person.
- Tips and taxes in Ireland. Gratuities to the
driver/guide not included.
- Celtic Tours flight bag and portfolio of travel
documents.
This tour is also offered as a 12-day tour - see
Celtic Dream 12-Day Option - Tour CDA
Click here to View/Print the 2010 Celtic
Dream - with updated itinerary!
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Itinerary |
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CDB Option: Day 01,
Saturday: U.S. to Ireland. Depart U.S. for your overnight flight to
Ireland. Dinner is served on board.
Day 02, Sunday:
Dublin. Morning arrival at Dublin Airport. Having cleared Irish customs
we are greeted by our Celtic Tours driver/guide. Transfers from Dublin Airport
to our hotel are available at approximately 7:30 am and 10:30 am. (Individual
passengers arriving after 10:15 am will be required to transfer to the hotel at
your own expense.) Check into our Dublin hotel, with free time to relax. Depart
hotel at 12:45 pm for a half-day city tour of Dublin, including a visit to
historic Kilmainham Jail, which covers some of the most heroic and tragic events
in Irish history from 1780 to the 1920's. Next, we visit the famed Guinness Storehouse to learn about the world famous Irish beer and
enjoy a sample brew in the rooftop bar. Have your camera ready for some
magnificent panoramic views of Dublin City. Return to our hotel where the
evening in free. Overnight in Dublin - Maldron
Hotel Cardiff Lane.
Day 03, Monday: Dublin.
Enjoy the morning free to shop or browse in Dublin. Early afternoon departure
for a panoramic tour of Dublin which shows us statue filled O'Connell St.,
elegant Georgian Houses and Trinity College
where we view the
priceless 8th century manuscript of the Book of Kells. This evening enjoy an
Irish Cabaret show and dinner at the Merry Ploughboy. Overnight in
Dublin.
Day 04, Tuesday: Dublin - Kilkenny - Cobh -
Cork. Morning departure from Dublin. We travel south to historic
Kilkenny for a visit to Kilkenny Castle. Some free time to browse in this quaint
town before we continue south to County Cork and visit to Cobh Heritage Center,
which documents the history of Irish emigration and the story of the ill-fated
superliners—the Lusitania and the Belfast-built Titanic. Cobh was the last port
of call for the Titanic, before she crossed the Atlantic. Dinner and overnight
in Cork - Rochestown
Park Hotel.
Day 05, Wednesday: Cork - Blarney -
Killarney. Leaving our Cork Hotel we travel to Blarney for an optional
visit to Blarney Castle where we have a chance to kiss the famed Blarney Stone,
said to bestow eloquence on all who dare. Optional shopping for tweeds,
knitwear, crystal and china at Blarney Woollen Mills. We travel over the scenic
Cork and Kerry Mountains to Kenmare and the Lakes of Killarney before descending
to Killarney town for dinner and overnight. Optional pub entertainment in
Killarney tonight - Killarney
Plaza Hotel.
 Day 06, Thursday: Killarney - Dingle Peninsula.
Enjoy the scenic beauty for which this region is renowned and made famous by
such movies as “Ryan's Daughter” and “Far & Away.” See the long, sandy
stretches of Inch Strand and admire views across the bay to the Iveragh
Peninsula. See beehive huts where early Christian monks lived and visit Gallarus
Oratory, dating from the 8th century. Stop for some free time in Dingle and
drive up the Conor Pass for panoramic views before returning to Killarney. Enjoy
dinner at our hotel tonight. Overnight in Killarney.
Day
07, Friday: Killarney - Foynes - Limerick. After breakfast we depart
Killarney and travel via Tralee and Listowel, home to the late playwriter and
storyteller John B. Keane. Continue on to Tarbert and travel along the Shannon
River to Foynes, a small seaport on the Shannon River. Foynes gained prominence
as the transatlantic stop for the first seaplane service between the U.S. and
Europe. Our visit includes a tour of the Flying Boat Museum and the Boeing 314
“Yankee Clipper.” Irish coffee was first introduced here in 1942 by the
restaurant Chef Joe Sheridan. From Foynes we travel to nearby Limerick for
overnight at The
George Hotel. Tonight enjoy a Medieval Castle Banquet.
Day
08, Saturday: Limerick - Galway - Ballina. Morning departure from our
Limerick hotel. We
travel via Ennis to the scenic Cliffs of Moher where we stop for a photo-op.
Continue to Ardrahan in County Galway where we pause for morning tea/coffee and
scones at Rathbaun Farm. Here we will see a farming family carry out everyday
chores including sheep shearing and watch as the sheepdogs maneuver the flock.
We continue on to Galway and visit the Crystal Showroom and Galway Bay before
reaching our hotel in Ballina, at the Downhill
House Hotel, for dinner and overnight.
Day 09, Sunday:
Ballina - Sligo - Donegal. Morning departure from Ballina. We travel
north via Sligo, birthplace of W.B. Yeats to County Donegal where we cross over
the border for a visit to the Belleek Pottery Factory. After a short stop, we
continue on through Donegal town to Glenveagh Castle and National Park. Watch
out for the Golden Eagles who have returned here to nest. Then on to our Redcastle
Hotel, overlooking Lough Foyle, for dinner and overnight.
Day
10, Monday: Donegal - Buncrana - Inishowen Peninsula. Today have your
cameras ready as we tour the historic and scenic Inishowen Peninsula. We travel
via Buncrana, the principal town and resort of the peninsula to Dunree where we
visit the military fort with scenic views over Lough Swilly. The fort has an
array of large guns and artifacts from the 20th century. The fort and lough
below is of immense historic interest which dates back to the Norsemen, the
Anglo Normans and the Flight of the Earls. We continue on via Clonmany,
Ballyliffi n and Carndonagh where we view the 7th century St. Patrick's Cross.
Our tour continues to Malin Head, a spectacular headland on Ireland's most
northerly point. Leaving Malin Head, we travel via historical Culdaff and the
fishing port of Greencastle to Moville where we stop briefl y to
visit the Moville Pottery Factory. Return to our Redcastle Hotel for dinner and
overnight.
Day 11, Tuesday: Donegal - Coleraine - Giants
Causeway - Belfast. Morning departure from our Donegal hotel. We travel
just a few miles to the ferry that will take us on the short cruise across Lough
Foyle to Northern Ireland. We continue via Coleraine to Portrush on the Atlantic
Ocean. Visit the Giants Causeway Museum before we are transferred by a small bus
to the Causeway and its volcanic columns, which were formed over 60 million
years ago. Our tour continues along the scenic Antrim Coast to our Belfast
hotel, The
Dunadry, for dinner and overnight.
Day 12, Wednesday:
Belfast - Titanic Tour - Newry - Dublin. This morning we depart on a
historical tour of Belfast and its harbor and dock area where the Titanic and
her sister ships, Britannic and Olympic, were built. The Titanic keel was laid
here in 1910. We will tour the Thompson and Alexandra docks and see the HMS
Caroline, one of the last remaining ships from WWI. Inside the pump house we
will see the pumps, old workshops and view an audio visual display of how the
ship was built and the people involved. The tour will end at the visitor center;
we then travel on and enjoy a panoramic tour of downtown Belfast. Departing
Belfast we travel south to Dublin arriving at our hotel, Maldron
Cardiff Lane, around 4:00 pm. Tonight we are free to dine on our
own.
Day 13, Thursday: Dublin - U.S. Morning transfer to
Dublin Airport. Ample time allowed for check-in and duty free shopping before
boarding your flight home. Arrive home in the U.S. the same
day.
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