Shore Excursion From Cork: Including Blarney Castle and Kinsale
Description
The tour begins with a pick up from the cruise liner terminal in Cobh, Cork Harbour, where your driver will be waiting for you to drive to Blarney Castle. Admission to the Blarney Castle and Gardens is included. Take a panoramic drive through Cork City, where your guide will point out the highlights of the southern capital. In the afternoon visit Kinsale and tour Cobh.
Tour Options
Itinerary
We will collect you in style from your Cruise Ship. When you leave the Ship, turn to the right, and your guide will be waiting for you near the pedestrian exit gate. We collect passengers from the cruise ship at 07:30 for departure @ 08:00. Where your ship docks later than 07:30 the tour will begin 30 minutes after disembarkation commences. We like to get ahead of the crowd and avoid the queues in Blarney!
Our first stop of the day is Blarney. Visit the most famous Castle in all of Ireland!! Lie back and kiss the magical Blarney Stone and get the gift of the gab! Your admission is included saving you 15 euro. WE ARE HAPPY TO INCLUDE ADMISSION TO BLARNEY CASTLE: others will make you join a queue and pay at the gate! You will also have time to visit the world famous Blarney Woolen Mills. Famed as the largest Irish Store in the world, many take advantage of its tax free shopping offers on quality Irish products.
We depart Blarney and take a panoramic drive through Cork City. We view the highlights of this fine City such as the River Lee, St Finbarre's Cathedral, Shandon Bells, English Market and Grand Parade. Cork was recently considered by the Lonely Planet one of the 10 must see cities in the world. Some of its famous sons include Henry Ford, Michael Collins and of course world famous footballer Roy Keane.
We drive through the beautiful Cork Countryside to the charming town of Kinsale! Enjoy typical views of the rolling fields of West Cork and also a stop overlooking picturesque Kinsale Harbor and its 2 forts - Charles Fort and James Fort. It was just off the Old Head of Kinsale that in 1915 the Lusitania sank with grave loss of life.
Our next stop is the historical town of Kinsale for, a town famed for the battle of Kinsale in 1601. Today it is Ireland's gourmet capital with winding streets, great pubs and fine restaurants. On our standard 8h tours we stop in Kinsale for lunch, however depending on the departure time of the ship this must be at the drivers discretion (NO EXCEPTION). The town is beautifully situated at the mouth of the harbor and is exceptionally colorful with picture post card buildings and many country Irish folk with strange and distinguished accents
If time allows, we can explore Cobh Cathedral.
We depart Kinsale and to make sure you are back at least 1 hour before departure. The service ends back at the dockside after approximately 8 hours on tour. If the boat is leaving earlier we will amend the itinerary as necessary.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
We collect passengers from the cruise ship at 07:30 for departure @ 08:00. If your ship docks later than 07:30, don't worry! The tour will begin 30 minutes after disembarkation commences. Example. If you dock at 11:00 am, we will operate the tour as soon as customers have disembarked the liner.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Booster/Baby seats required, and available. Please advise if you require at booking.
- Collapsible scooters and wheelchairs can be stored under coach. Responsibility for the passenger for the day.
Reviews(498)
Very knowledgeable guide. Had a couple of good laughs with him. Best advice Alex gave was get in line right away if you're kissing the Blarney Stone. The line got quite long very quickly. Kinsale was a beautiful little town. Alex had us back to the boat in plenty of time.
Driver was funny and knowledgeable. Great experience. I would take this tour again. Thank you very much.
Great time at Blarney castle.. the lines move faster than expected.. about 30 minutes from castle doors.. but the grounds.. trees.. gardens.. structures.. just wow.. great day
Totally worth the price. I would get into the line ASAP when you get there because it gets long quickly. I would go first thing in the morning annd take the earliest tour.
Great guide gave us lots of free time plus took us to 9/11 Memorial which was very very sobering Blarney castle was fun got to kiss Blarney Stone
The excursion itself and the explanation of the driver/guide were very interesting. Too bad there's no time to stop in Cork. However, the experience started badly. We had to be ready at 7.30 am to leave at 8 am sharp, too late has lost money. But the bus was way too late, we didn't leave until 8:56. We were brought back to the ship at 3.15pm. So that's a 6.15am excursion and not the promised 8am! It was a sunny summer day with temperatures around 28 degrees. Twice the bus was parked in the sun for a long time, no problem, but the air conditioning did not work properly. "It's not maintained because normally people don't use air conditioning in Ireland," the driver said. Has this company not heard of global warming? Unfortunately, this makes the experience only moderately successful.
Very good tour. Blarney Castle is fun. We got confused going back to the bus and couldn’t find it. We wound up being late getting back. Another driver from the tour company helped us reconnect with our group. We appreciated the extra effort from the tour company.
First of all, the “small”bus was not at the port. Another Paddy wagon guide had to call. Then. It was not a small group, it was a big busload of tourists. We spent the majority of time driving to Giants Causeway where we were left to explore. It’s quite a walk down/up hill so we got a a shuttle for a small fee. Then the bus was very hard to find, down a steep hill behind 4 other buses on a very narrow street. Most importantly, the tour left out the main places we wanted to see, sights in the city of Belfast. No maps available when we asked the guide/driver. It was Music Week and many roads were blocked off, so we were just dropped off at a pub and told “just go down that street and you will see City Hall’. We did enjoy the public music at City Hall and a nice lunch at a pub. However, it may be a European thing to have lunch at 3:00, but we would have preferred a noonish time since our dinner reservations on the ship were 5:30. Regarding the driver, he spent more time telling us about his work experience than interesting things about Ireland and sites we would see. I guess it’s because we didn’t see many sites. Our group agreed it was a waste of valuable vacation time and money.
Alex was a great guide. Barney Castle was very busy, which you'd expect in a tourist area. Waited 1 1/2 to get into the castle and see / kiss the Blarney stone.
Our Tour operator was excellent. Very knowledgeable and very patient with the people. He always gave us times to return to the bus and made account before we left.
