On this particular Brendan tour you will spend nine days visiting nearly the entire island of Ireland: you will see St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, Galway Bay, the Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Castle. The voyage begins in the busy and bustling capital of Dublin where you can walk the cobbled streets of Old Town and tread the historical Georgian squares. You will be accompanied by a tour guide for the entire tour as you depart Dublin towards Sligo, Castlebar, Limerick, Kerry, Blarney and Waterford. One particular highlight is the trip to Adare, also known as the prettiest town in Ireland; here you can wander among the thatched cottages and stone walls before moving on to Blarney for some traditional Irish knitwear. Make sure that you remember to kiss the famous Blarney stone: something that is said to bestow the gift of eloquence upon those who kiss it. See the References section for a full itinerary and route map of the Glimpse of Ireland tour.
Begin your pub and folklore trip of Ireland in Dublin with a tour of the Guinness Storehouse; here you can find out exactly what goes into a glass of Guinness and even sip on a pint in the Gravity Bar overlooking the historic city. Stay in Dublin for another day and head out for the Literary Pub Crawl where you can try some of the city's finest ales or beers and marvel at the writing talents of Joyce, Yeats and Behan. A few days later in Blarney you are invited to have another pint in the four-time National Pub of the Year, Langton's Bar. And before your trip home you are invited to explore the Irish National Stud, home to some of Ireland's most famous and pedigree breeds of horse. Prices for the Pubs & Folklore Tour start at $1,399.
Brendan is not the only tour operator that takes you through the stunning cities and picturesque villages of Ireland. For example, Affordable Tours offer an Introduction to Ireland Tour for 2011 which offers Marble workshops in Moycullen and a visit to the Crystal Factory Showrooms in Waterford. Sceptre Tours also offers an Irish escorted tour called The Treasures of Ireland. On this particular trip you will experience all the major attractions in and around the South of Ireland with a little bit of history thrown in: the Cobh Heritage Center, the Ring of Kerry, Blarney Castle and Dublin's medieval Trinity College Library. See the Resources section for links to other Irish tour operators.
