Blarney Castle Tour: Explore Cork, Kinsale, and Cobh

Discover Blarney Castle, explore Cork City, and tour Kinsale on this immersive shore excursion from Cobh. Book your adventure now!

Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Cobh - Passengers will be collected in style from their Cruise Ship. Upon disembarkation, turn right, and the guide will be waiting near the pedestrian exit gate. Collection is at 07:30 for an 08:00 departure. If the ship docks later than 07:30, the tour will start 30 minutes after disembarkation begins. This ensures an early start to avoid the…
What's Included
  • On-board WiFi
  • Driver/guide
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • Port pickup and drop-off
  • Live commentary on board
  • Blarney Castle and Gardens Entry Fee included
  • Back at port 1 hour before last boarding
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Lunch
Additional Information

The journey starts with a pickup from the cruise liner terminal in Cobh, Cork Harbour, your chauffeur will be there to escort you to the Blarney Castle. The entry fee for the Blarney Castle and Gardens is covered. Enjoy a scenic drive through Cork City, as your guide identifies the notable sights of the southern capital. An afternoon trip to Kinsale and…

Location
Port of Cobh
Cobh (Cork) Cruise Ship Terminal - 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.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.3
(467 Ratings)
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Andrea_t
Oct 5, 2025
Well organized, getting... - Well organized, getting to Blarney Castle right when it opened meant a very short wait to kiss the stone. Kinsale is a beautiful seaside town with great pubs and shops galore
Review provided by Viator
Anita
Sep 18, 2025
Kissing the Blarney Stone - Great tour with knowledgeable tour director. He gave helpful hints to get our group to see as much as possible (like don’t stop to take a picture here but do it on your way to beat the line!). Enjoyable trip
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sbergslp
Sep 15, 2025
Blarney Castle and Kinsale - Our tour was outstanding Our guide Zikor from Croatia made our excursion memorable. He spoke clearly, was extremely informative and told jokes and played music for us (Irish and popular) on our ride back to the cruise port. The bus was waiting and he got us to the castle before all the other buses showed up so our wait was not that long.👍We had experienced an excursion with friends to Glasgow with Viator and was very disappointed with the guide Therefore we were a little concerned how this excursion would be. What a wonderful experience and because of Zikor we kept our Viator excursion to Normandy. 👍👏
Review provided by Viator
Jacky_w
Sep 4, 2025
Good Value Tour - This excursion took us to the Blarney Castle, Garden, and the Kinsale downtown. The driver from Paddywagon is very punctual and humorous. He is not only the tour bus driver but also a tour guide. He highlighted all the attractions and interesting things along his drive. We listened Irish music along the way so it was very relaxing even though there was traffic. Since the drive was punctual, we were the second bus arrived the Blarney Castle, so the queue wasn’t that long. We were able to walk up the castle and the Kissing Stone without a long wait. Garden is very pretty. If you enjoy nature and garden, you can a whole day there. We only had less than three hours in Kinsale, so we didn’t have much time to walk around after lunch. I wouldn’t blame on the driver because he had to bring us back to our cruise ship. Other than that it is a well worthwhile tour.
Review provided by Viator
Mandmwhitby
Sep 1, 2025
Best tour guide 2025!!! - We had the best experience with a local cab driver we hired for the day!! Val Calnan was amazing!! He gave us a great tour with a very knowledgeable description of the sights along the way. We stopped a pub he recommended for lunch and the food was great. He also took photos of each couple at Blarney Castle.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Glen_p
Aug 30, 2025
Blarney Castle - Nice tour not overly expensive. Bus driver was well aware of the problems with Castle Blarney, the hordes of people. We were the second bus there that day and were able to kiss the stone. Later in the day the line up to ascend the castle were well over 1.5 hours
Review provided by Viator
Carmen_g
Aug 30, 2025
Exceptional - A beautiful tour of the coast with an excellent guide/guide. Stunning landscapes and everything in the right timming.
Review provided by Viator
Daytrip27213524392
Sep 24, 2025
Disappointed - We were so excited to go on this private tour, only to be disappointed. The van was not clean and had stains running down the inside. Our driver was an older man with a soft voice. There was no speaker system in the large van, so we could not hear him unless he pulled over and shut off the motor. He also drove so slow that we missed time in Kinsale.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Richard_m
Sep 18, 2025
Blarney Castle - The organization, actually the lack of organization was terrible. We had to walk at least 1/2 mile I a crowd of people who like us had no idea where we were going. I walked ahead of the line, several people were upset to asking a man were to go. He checked and said not with us to get back in line. I kept going and found a man with a green Paddywagon sign in his front pocket talking to someone whose name wasn’t on his list. He led us across, j-walked, two danger streets with cargo trucks entering and leaving the port. We were lucky. several people got on the wrong bus and at least on couple had to hire a private car to get to the castle. The exterior of the Castle and grounds were beautiful but to stand in line for 90 minutes to just turn around because we couldn’t climb the stairs was a joke. The town of Kinsale was cute but we only had 2 hours so lunch was about all we got to do. I’ve used Viator in Europe, Australia and New Zealand using small vans with expert guides, they were great. So far in Iceland, Ireland and the UK they have fallen short, large poor quality buses and the absence of true professional guides…our driver to Blarney was both driver and guide. I think I spend enough money traveling it’s time to hire professional guides and not depend on 3rd party services.
Review provided by Viator
Fen2nq
Sep 22, 2025
Broken down bus no refund . - Cork, Blarney Castle & Kinsale on a bus tour. Bus broke down before Blarney Castle. We did make it to the castle on another bus. They said bus is fixed so we got on it just to get a few more miles then it brakes down again. So we didn’t even get half the tour with no sort of a refund. My wife has cancer so we have been busy that’s why this late, thanks
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $103
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).