Connemara Galway Day Tour: Mountains Movie Locations

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.08 (107 reviews) 33% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellation

1/12

Duration12h

GroupUp to 50

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Twelve hours through Connemara's famine landscape and Galway's tribal streets

A 12-hour guided day tour from Dublin to Connemara and Galway with professional English-speaking guide, air-conditioned coach, and live commentary on board. The tour departs Dublin, crosses the Irish midlands with a comfort stop, then enters Connemara's mountain and lake country — visiting either the village of Cong (a Quiet Man film location) or the historic Glengowla silver mines depending on the day and season — before a 2-hour free stop in Galway city. The return journey follows the Maam Valley and Atlantic coastline back to Dublin, arriving around 7:30pm. WiFi and USB ports are available on board throughout.

12h

Step-by-step itinerary

Connemara and Galway City Tour

Depart Dublin and travel west
Comfort stop for refreshments
Visit Cong village or Glengowla mines
Explore Cong village or Glengowla show farm
Drive through Connemara wilderness
Travel via Deserted Maam Valley
Arrive in Galway for 2-hour stop
Explore Galway city highlights
Depart Galway and return to Dublin

The Experience

The coach leaves Dublin heading west across the midlands, with a comfort stop built in so you can stretch and grab refreshments before the landscape opens up. Once you enter Connemara, the terrain shifts: stone walls, deserted valleys, and the Twelve Bens mountains frame a region shaped by the 1847–1851 potato famine. The barren patches you see are part of that history, but the lakes, ridges and moorland are what drew filmmakers to shoot The Quiet Man and The Guard here.

Depending on when you travel, the tour stops at either Cong or Glengowla. From November through March and on Sundays and Mondays year-round, you visit Cong — the village where Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne filmed The Quiet Man, now a national Tidy-Town winner with shops and a rural atmosphere to wander through. Tuesday through Saturday from April to October, the stop is Glengowla instead: a working show farm and the site of historic silver mines you can explore. Either way, you get a real sense of how people live and worked in this part of Ireland.

Galway gets a full 2-hour stop. The city sits on the coast and was once home to Christopher Columbus; it is known for traditional music, the Spanish Arch, St. Nicholas Cathedral, and the colorful storefronts of Shop Street. You can walk it at your own pace, sample Galway Bay oysters if you want, or simply sit by the water. The return drive follows the Maam Valley — described as scenically unsurpassed — and traces the coast past Spiddal with views of Galway Bay and the Aran Islands before heading back to Dublin. The coach departs Galway at 5pm and arrives in Dublin around 7:30pm.

What’s included

The tour includes professional guide and live commentary in English.
air-conditioned coach with WiFi and USB ports at every seat.
all taxes, fees and handling charges.
a comfort stop with refreshments on the outbound journey.
and entry to either Cong village or Glengowla silver mines and show farm depending on the day and season.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePublic transport nearby

Operated by Paddywagon Tours

Is this one for you?Small to mid-sized groups work well here because the coach holds everyone together through the long drive and the guide's commentary carries across the landscape — you get the history and the geography without building an itinerary yourself. The fixed schedule and 2-hour Galway stop suit travelers who want a full day of Connemara and the coast without the logistics of a rental car or multiple bookings.