Centre Based Walking Holiday – Walking Holidays in Ireland

Centre Based Walking Holidays

What Our Visitor Say

Centre based walking holiday allow you to stay in a great location for the duration of your trip and enjoy local hikes before returning back to your guesthouse each day. For our centre based walking holidays we have chosen the four bases walking bases in Ireland. Choose from Kenmare, Dingle or Castletownbere.

Each of the villages are surrounded by terrific hiking and a great choice of services. From the comfort of your guesthouse you can enjoy a selection of classic Irish walks that take in the most striking scenery on the Island. The guesthouses we have chosen are very special and are a great base for your holiday.

Dingle

Dingle is a delight. A heaven for artists and scholars, Dingle is staunchly proud of its Irish speaking status and the village could not be more scenically located. Near the most westerly point in Ireland it offers breathtaking coastal walks, awe inspiring ocean views as well as terrific hikes along the Brandon Mountain range. Traditional music and the best pubs in Ireland are the reward for a good day’s hiking. Our guesthouse is based in the village and all the walks can be enjoyed from your front door.

Kenmare

Kenmare is the best place to base yourself when hiking in the Ring of Kerry. The town is very attractive and it is the location for some of the finest food and cosiest pubs in Ireland. Located at the cross of the both the Beara and Iveragh peninsulas our walking program borrows from both regions. Enjoy hikes through the Lakes of Killarney, along the Kerry Way, through Gleninchiquin and the through parts of the Beara Way. A lovely base for terrific few day’s hiking.

Castletownbere

Castletownbere is beautifully situated overlooking Bantry Bay and Bere Island. A thriving fishing port the town has a more old world feel and is less dependent on tourism than Dingle or Kenmare. The town makes a wonderful base for excursions along the Beara Way and to Dursey Island and Bere Island. There is a good selection of pubs and there are a number of places to eat in the town.The town is surrounded by the mountains and you do not have to walk far to be up in the hills.

Of the three bases, Dingle and Kenmare offer the best local services. The fishing industry is a large part of the Castletownbere economy and tourism is less of share here than in Dingle or Kenmare. In Dingle and Kenmare there is a huge choice of restaurants, pubs and local craft shops minutes from your front door. In all three locations, Dingle, Kenmare and Castletownbere you are on the shores of the Atlantic which allows you enjoy the spectacular ocean scenery. Many of the hikes either start or finish from the front door of your guesthouse and we provide return transport when the walks are not circular.

As with all our self guided walking holidays, we provide you with the latest walking notes and maps for your walking routes. Our driver will meet you on your arrival in Ireland and bring you to your guesthouse for the holiday. All breakfasts and packed lunches are included in the price. We provide you with a local mobile phone with the best coverage in the mountains and we are ready to provide you with backup and support whenever you need it. At the end of your holiday we collect you and bring you back to Kerry or Cork airport or Killarney (for Kenmare and Castletownbere) or Kerry Airport or Killarney (for Dingle). We take great pride in ensuring that you go home having experienced the best that Ireland has to offer.

Our holidays are over and we are back home and back at work, and I am just thinking of the incredible time we had, especially during our time on the Dingle Peninsula. I cannot thank you enough for organizing such an incredible five days for my sister and I.

We relished every moment, beautiful weather our constant companion. We felt like we were in very good hands, the walking notes were incredible and trustworthy, the inns and innkeepers perfect in their own ways.

Thanks again for everything. You can be sure that I will be recommending your services to friends, and will not hesitate to call on you for a future return trip to your beautiful country.

Thank you for everything you and Wonderful Ireland did for us during our recent Beara Way Walk. We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip – all the B&Bs were great, the walking as good, interesting and challenging as expected and your notes really helpful.

We also appreciated the mobile phone & use of walking poles. Even the weather almost behaved itself, we were very nervous about heavy rain so some Irish drizzle didn’t faze us. The walk itself really was above expectations – it was easily the best marked walk we have ever done (& we have been all over the world).

We enjoyed the rugged scenery and the fact there were few other walkers. We also enjoyed the days on Bere Island, Dursey and Garnish Island. As mentioned all the B&Bs were great. We will be recommending Wonderful Ireland to any friends visiting Ireland & I have posted a review on Trip Advisor.

I want to thank you for all of your planning and continued assistance in what was a most memorable trip to Ireland. If there were not so many other wonderful places on the Planet to explore.

I’d come back to the Dingle Peninsula without question. I recommended Wonderful Ireland to anyone who might be interested in walking in Ireland. Your planning, selection of B&Bs, route planning and instructions, not to mention the appreciated extras like the added dinner at the B&B in Dunquinb, lunch packed every day and the use of a cell phone, far exceed expectation

Mary and I wanted to send you a quick message to let you know how thouroughly we enjoyed our trip to beautiful Ireland. The arrangements you made for us could not have been better. We enjoyed all of the accomodations, delightful hosts, and excellent directions.

Your transfers and luggage arangements were flawless. There is such a sense of freedom and excitement to set off for the day with directions and a lodging name, but no real knowledge of where you’re going, what you’ll see, or where you stay next.

We loved that aspect of our adventure. I think it’s safe to say I speak for the whole group of 7 when I say “Well done”! Wonderful Ireland met or exceeded all our expectations. I’m confident we’ll be in contact again. Thank you.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the Wicklows. Your organisation was superb, everything had been covered so well. Our accommodations were all very good with some excellent and a lovely range too.

We want to commend Margaret at Kyle farmhouse who went out of her way to do everything for us. We had a lovely dinner there and she, like all our hosts, was scrupulous in attention to the detail required by a gluten free diet for a coeliac guest.

Again many thanks for everything you and your team did. The luggage and the people transfers all went smoothly and we returned home with delightful memories of our wonderful time in Ireland. We will be back!

We are back home after a wonderful holiday and adventure in Ireland. We loved walking both the Wicklow Way and the Kerry Way. We don’t really have a favorite as they were both different, and walking seven days on each of these gave us a great Ireland experience.

The directions and organization was better than any we’ve had on our other adventures around the world. The guesthouses and B&B’s were fabulous and the people so friendly and willing to help out. The drivers Kevin, Maureen and husband PJ, were so fun and helpful and very willing to assist us in shortening our walk if needed. It was great to meet you in Enniskerry. Thanks for everything.

I just wanted to send a note of thanks for helping the Fitzgerald family have an incredible holiday with the Wonderful Ireland Dingle Way walk. It was so much more than we expected and can’t wait to book our next one! The beauty of the Dingle walk may be quite hard to beat.

I appreciate your help and patience with all of our pre-trip questions and making us feel so welcome upon our arrival. The directions provided worked pretty well, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather! (Thanks for making that happen too :-). We were spoiled at each of our “Guest Houses” and enjoyed the conversation with each of the property owners. Thanks again for everything!

Thank you for our excellent trip with your company in September. I cannot say enough about how helpful and important it was to have had Wonderful Ireland do all the planning and organizing for those days. I could sit back and enjoy the trip!

We had come from Canada and are pretty experienced hikers. I had wondered whether we would find the walking too easy, or too hard. Instead I found it was just the right kind of challenging. There was a great sense of accomplishment to arrive in a new village every evening, knowing that we had worked hard and walked hard to get there. We were in awe of the landscape all day long.

All the walking notes provided gave us just the right amount of information–we were always confident that we were in the right direction, and could hike pretty worry-free. All of the accommodations were beautiful, atmospheric, and felt so luxurious after a long day of hiking. I’ve never eaten so well. I felt very well taken care of in every B&B. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

I will definitely be taking a walking holiday again. It was an excellent way to experience a new country. And I’ve recommended your company to a few people back here in Canada already. Thank you for helping us have such an incredible journey. All the best.

I just wanted to write a note of appreciation for your excellent trail notes and arrangement of our overnight stays on our trip to Ireland. The accommodations were varied and fun, all our hosts were very welcoming, and the Kerry Way is one of the most well-marked trails I have ever traveled.

We were blessed with excellent weather during our Ramble, our first trip to Ireland, and I have to say, I had no idea how stunning and dramatic the scenery would be. By walking we were able to see and learn so much. I had over 1,000 photographs on my camera when I got home, and my husband had just as many on his.

Literally, the scenery was so brilliant and ever-changing that some days it was hard to keep moving forward. Every step presented a new photo opportunity. Anyway, thanks for all your help. We hope we will be able to come explore another area of your country in the future

I wanted to drop you a note to thank you for all you did to make our walking visit of Dingle such a success. Your website is very user friendly and the reservation process was easy and efficient. Your attention to detail and your eagerness to answer all of my questions made our trip from the states to Ireland effortless. The transport, and accommodations were very good.

The walking notes and maps were extremely helpful. I personally appreciated the daily phone calls from you. It was so nice to know that someone was watching out for us. All of the walks were extraordinary. The views were simply incredible. BJ, Carolyn and I have been to Ireland on several vacations and we all agree that our walking tour of Dingle is by far our favourite.

Again thank you for all that you did to make this such a memorable trip. We are already planning our next visit!

On our first visit to Ireland, we have verified the country is as beautiful and welcoming as it is known for. We are certain that Peter, of Wonderful Ireland, is greatly responsible for our positive impression. Somehow, we felt we were being treated with special attention ( perhaps due to our age), but reading other reviews we have seen that this is just the way Peter is!

He provides great attention to detail, planning that works with great precision, timely and accurate response to your personal needs and wants (such as pick-up in remote roads if you need or wish to shorten a walking distance), company provided gear (precise notes, maps, walking poles, basic local telephone) and promptly responded messages.

We hiked the challenging Kerry way and can’t wait to do other hikes with Wonderful Ireland in the future. Nothing beats feeling safe and fully supported on your holidays!

If you are wondering whether or not to use this company, think no longer - go ahead! We booked quite late for a 5 day Wicklow Way trip. Peter was excellent at getting it organised for us. All arrangements went to plan, the accommodation he booked for us was great.

Baggage transfers were great and the walking notes were excellent too. To be fair the Wicklow Way is very well way marked so you would have to make quite an effort to get lost. One should be aware that the Wicklow Way does not always go through a town or village so some accommodation may be off-route and therefore you will be taxied to a restaurant, i.e. not walkable, e.g. Roundwood, or 10-15 minutes walk out of the village, e.g. Glendalough.

During our holiday we had an emergency situation (nothing to do with the company in any way) which meant that our plans had to be changed significantly and at short notice. Peter Galvin was exceptional at helping us. He went out of his way to support us and make sure that we got everything resolved. I think he has kindness in his bones. He could not have done more for us and if we have an opportunity we will definitely use this company again. Thank you Peter.

My friends and I walked a part of the Dingle Way in May, when planning the trip we decided because of a lack of experience to use a tour company. So glad we did and so pleased to have chosen Wonderful Ireland to help facilitate our vacation. Peter's assistance was invaluable, the set up made us feel as though the trip was effortless on our part except of course we did all the walking.

Peter supplied us with clear, helpful and personalized walking instructions and helped us to modify the route to accommodate our needs. The B&Bs and hotels were wonderful, breakfasts fantastic and our drivers were informative and dependable. The walking sticks were a great bonus and the cell phone gave us reassurance that if needed, help was a quick phone call away.

Wonderful Ireland was a flexible, helpful service and we will definitely use them again. We are already planning our next walking trip to the Emerald Isle and will call Peter and Wonderful Ireland to help us plan our next adventure. We even suspect that was it Peter who arranged the beautiful weather as well.

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Wonderful Ireland Walking Holidays

63 Dundrum Gate,

Dundrum,

Dublin 16

D16 EY00

Republic of Ireland

Company Number 397494

VAT Number 6417494G