Aran Islands tours from Galway put a fifteen-minute ferry from Doolin into a day that also reaches the Cliffs of Moher, and every one of them goes to Inis Oírr rather than the big island. That is the first thing to know, and the second is that a westerly can cancel the crossing outright.
Ferry and cliff top in the same fare: two hours on Inis Oírr, an hour above the Atlantic and forty-five minutes in Doolin. Check in by 8:40 on Merchants Road.
From $94 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The only fare carrying all three: the crossing to Inis Oírr, the cruise under the cliff wall and an hour at the visitor centre. The cruise sails subject to the sea.
From $99 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Two and a half hours on the island and the cliff wall from the water, on a day that never enters the visitor centre. Smaller coach, later finish, free pick-up with notice.
From $153 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Every island fare here also reaches the Cliffs of Moher. Compare how each one splits the hours between them.
Compare every Galway tourA day in the Aran Islands from this side of the country is a coach south to Doolin, a fifteen-minute ferry to Inis Oírr, two hours or more on the island, and the Cliffs of Moher on the same run. Eight and three-quarter to ten and a half hours in total, and the only days in the catalogue that put you on water.
All three go to Inis Oírr, the smallest and nearest of the three islands. None goes to Inis Mór, which is the one with Dún Aonghasa on its cliff edge.
You go from standing above a two-hundred-metre wall to walking between walls that reach your waist, on a rock grid where a few hundred people live.
Doolin to Inis Oírr is the short sailing. Inis Meáin is twenty-five minutes and Inis Mór thirty-five, and the long route out of Rossaveal is a different day entirely.
Every one of these three includes the return crossing, so the only money you need ashore is for a bike or the pony and trap.
A thirty- to fifty-minute sailing along the foot of the cliff wall, which is a view you cannot buy from the top.
These days are built on the same road, so the trade is hours rather than money.
| An Aran Islands day | A Cliffs of Moher day | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours | 8h 45m to 10h 30m | 8 to 9 |
| On Inis Oírr | 2 to 2h 30m | None |
| On the cliff top | 1 hour, or none on one of them | 90 minutes |
| The ferry | Included on all three | Not part of it |
| Weather risk | High — a gale stops the crossing | None |
| Cheapest fare | $94 | $65 |
The island day costs more and takes longer, and it gives you something the cliff day cannot. If the forecast is settled, it is the better day out; if it is not, book it early in your stay so you can move it.
Fares run from $94 to $153. Check-in is 8:40am on Merchants Road or 9:00am on Forster Street, and the days end between seven and eight in the evening. The coaches cap at twenty-five, fifty-three and sixty-one, so the smallest one goes first.
Pack a windproof layer for the crossing even in July, and something to eat: lunch is excluded on every one of them, and the island's places to eat are a short walk from the pier.
If a gale is forecast, choose a Connemara day instead — nothing in it depends on the sea, and the Connemara tours page compares them. If the cliffs are the whole point of your trip, a dedicated Clare day gives you ninety minutes up there rather than sixty. And if it is Dún Aonghasa you came for, no day trip from Galway includes it: that is a day of its own from Rossaveal.
Two hours on Inis Oírr, an hour at the Cliffs of Moher, and the crossing inside the fare.
Check availabilityNext: every fare on Galway Ireland Tours, the practical detail on planning your trip, and the month you are coming on Galway weather.