The Irish Soccer Experience: Dublin and Galway

Meet your Tour Director and check into hotel

Welcome meeting and orientation

Participate in a training session at a local field in the area.

Dinner

Get a friendly introduction to Ireland’s capital city, led by your Tour Director. Discover an urban landscape of Georgian buildings, castles, and cathedrals. Stroll bustling O’Connell Street, once (at 150 ft wide) the widest street in Europe, and still the busiest thoroughfare in Dublin. Pass shop after shop of local and global wares and flairs, and a lush street-meridian lined with tall trees and ebony statues of Irish leaders. Make your way to the end of the strip to Parnell Square, an antique scape of red brick townhouses and classic Irish theaters. As you wander the streets, take in the international glamour of Ireland’s most cosmopolitan city.

Discover Trinity College, the oldest university in Ireland. Trinity was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. The beautiful campus features cobbled squares, gardens, a picturesque quadrangle, and buildings that date from the 17th to 20th centuries. Trinity College is also home to the Book of Kells, an 8th-century version of the four Gospels decorated with elaborate scripting and illumination. We will view this famous treasure and other early Christian manuscripts in the Colonnades, an exhibition area on the ground floor of the Old Library.

Play an international friendly match against a local club or academy team. Your team will meet and compete against athletes of similar ages and skill levels and have the opportunity to make friends for life.

Dinner

Actively participate and learn more about the Irish sports and its role in Irish society. Four Gaelic sports, including Gaelic football hurling, have been on the island for over two thousand years, and the vast majority of Irish have a special place in their heart just for "their team."

Attend a professional soccer match featuring teams from the top leagues. Seeing the top talent in the world in person would itself be an unforgettable experience, but add the passionate crowds singing, cheering, and chanting, and you will enter an atmosphere that can only be understood through personal experience.

Dinner

Croke Park has been at the heart of Irish sporting life for over 100 years. This magnificent stadium is actually the third largest in Europe. Its size is only part of its greatness, however, as you’ll discover on this eye-opening, access-all-areas tour. From quirky insights into why Croke Park’s grass is always greener to learning about defining moments in Irish history, the passionate Tour Guides will take you on an inspiring journey.

Play an international friendly match against a local club or academy team. Your team will meet and compete against athletes of similar ages and skill levels and have the opportunity to make friends for life.

Dinner

Travel to Galway

Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland. Founded by Vikings, the city thrived due to its position on the River Shannon until the Cromwellian conquest. After years of neglect, the city is now experiencing a rebirth, and the historic districts of the city center offer plenty to see and do. Take a walking tour with your Tour Director through the historic city center, known as King John's Island, which is renowned for its fine Medieval architecture.

Participate in a training session at a local field in the area.

Dinner

Participate in a special coaching clinic with a guest coach, player, or instructor. The clinic will be designed exclusively for the team and to enhance skills in areas identified by the coaching staff.

Meet and greet the bayside city likened to San Francisco on a foot tour led by your Tour Director. Discover a traditional Gaelic culture turned trendy with college students, artists, and writers in the midst of a buzzing Bohemian culture of 50,000 people. The journey begins at the Spanish Arch (actually a pair of stone arches speckled with greenery), constructed to guard the quays where Spanish merchants docked their boats. Stroll along residential Quay Street into bustling High Street, a micro shopping mecca lined with all kinds of shops, coffeehouses, and outside eateries. Venture outside the buzz and discover a one-of-a-kind pyramid-shaped spire atop Ireland’s second largest medieval parish house, St. Nicholas Church. Meander through Eyre Square’s Kennedy Memorial Park, a green oasis where locals gather to lounge, socialize, and attend musical performances. Bordering the lush grounds, find the 17th-century Browne Doorway, a real entryway transported in 1900 from its original location at the Browne Mansion. Another highlight is the original set of cannons from the Crimean War, and the bubbling fountain adorned with a steel sculpture of a traditional broad-masted ship (hooker).

Visit Galway Cathedral, one of the largest and most impressive buildings in the city. The architecture of the Cathedral draws on many influences. The dome and pillars reflect a Renaissance style. Other features, including the rose windows and mosaics, echo the broad tradition of Christian art. The Cathedral dome, at a height of 145 ft, is a prominent part of the city skyline.

Dinner

Enjoy one of Ireland's and Europe's most interesting and scenic areas, The Burren. Carved by nature from carboniferous limestone, the view manages to be simultaneously desolate and beautiful. Sheets of rock jut out and seem to undulate in a kind of moonscape as far as the eye can see. We will stop to view the unique rock formations, as well as the Poulnabrone Dolmen, a portal tomb dating back to 2500 B.C. Somehow, delicate wildflowers and curling ferns thrive in this strange landscape that was created 300 million years ago. Spend time at the Cliffs of Moher, a series of dramatic undulating cliffs plunging 700 feet down to the Atlantic Ocean, offering unforgettable views of Ireland's west coast. On a clear day, we may be able to see the Aran Islands in Galway Bay as misty shapes off in the distance. Those who choose may climb O'Brien's Tower, a viewing point built for the benefit of Victorian tourists.

Play an international friendly match against a local club or academy team. Your team will meet and compete against athletes of similar ages and skill levels and have the opportunity to make friends for life.

Dinner