Cliffs of Moher tours from Galway run eight to thirteen hours south into County Clare, and the line that separates them is the €8 gate ticket. Some of these fares name it and the rest leave it to you. The second line is time: ninety minutes on the cliff top, or one hour, or four on the path.
The cheapest fare that names the gate ticket. Ninety minutes on the cliff top, twenty at Poulnabrone Dolmen and forty in Doolin, on a full-size coach out of Merchants Road.
From $65 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Four stops rather than two: Dunguaire Castle, Aillwee Cave, the cliffs and Doolin. Free hotel pick-up on a day's notice, and neither cave nor cliff ticket named in the fare.
From $76 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Four hours walking the cliff path in a group of eight, with the visitor centre entry paid and two hours in Doolin at the end. Moderate fitness asked for.
From $105 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The only day here that starts in Dublin. Thirteen hours, two of them at the cliffs with entry paid, and time in Galway with a short orientation walk.
From $81 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
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 card says how long you get at the cliffs and whether the gate ticket is already paid. Compare them side by side before you choose on price.
Compare every Galway tourA coach day south into County Clare, ninety minutes each way. The middle of it is spent at a wall of rock that runs almost fourteen kilometres along the coast and stands over seven hundred feet high at O'Brien's Tower. Nothing about it is a transfer: the road crosses the Burren, and every operator builds stops into it.
These days run eight to thirteen hours depending on what else is on the route. Most of them leave Galway itself. One starts in Dublin and reaches Galway at the end of a very long day.
The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience charges €8 for an adult and nothing for under-12s. Several of these fares name that entrance fee in their inclusions, so the coach parks and you walk in.
Poulnabrone Dolmen, Dunguaire Castle, Doolin and the limestone pavement of the Burren are all on the way, and a self-drive day rarely stops at more than one of them.
The coast road is narrow and winding for the last hour. Travellers on these routes say repeatedly that the driving was the part they were glad to hand over.
Most of these listings include live commentary on board, and the guide is usually the driver. It is what makes ninety minutes in a coach seat pass.
These are the two things the same road offers, and the choice is about hours rather than money. A day in the Aran Islands puts a fifteen-minute ferry and two hours ashore into the schedule, and it takes them out of your time on the cliff top.
| A Cliffs of Moher day | An Aran Islands day | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours | 8 to 9 | 8h 45m to 10h 30m |
| On the cliff top | 90 minutes | 1 hour, or none on the cruise version |
| On an island | None | 2 to 2h 30m on Inis Oírr |
| What can cancel it | Nothing — it runs in rain | A gale stops the crossing |
| Other stops | Poulnabrone Dolmen, Dunguaire Castle, Doolin | Doolin and the coast road |
| Cheapest fare | $65 | $94 |
If you have one day, take the cliffs. If you have two, the island day is the better second one, because it is a different landscape rather than more of the same.
Fares run from $65 to $153 a person. Book ahead from May to September, when the small-group days fill first; a day or two is enough in winter. Check-in runs from 8:40am to 9:15am depending on the operator. The two kerbs, Merchants Road and Forster Street, are a five-minute walk apart.
The gate closes at 17:00 from November to February and at 21:00 from May to August, so a winter day is shorter at both ends. Wear a windproof layer whatever the forecast: the mean wind on this coast sits near nine knots all year.
If you want to walk rather than stand, take the guided cliff-path day: four hours on the trail in a group of eight, with the visitor centre entry still in the fare. If you would rather see the wall from the water, one day trip swaps the cliff top for a thirty-minute cruise beneath it. And if this is your second day out of Galway, the other direction — Connemara and Kylemore Abbey — is a completely different landscape and sits on the Connemara tours page.
Eight and a quarter hours, ninety minutes on the cliff top and the €8 gate admission already paid.
Check availabilityNext: every fare on Galway Ireland Tours, the practical detail on planning your trip, and the month you are coming on Galway weather.