Sightseeing Tours & Guides in County Donegal

Whether you are coming to County Donegal or have already arrived, there are loads of excellent Guided Tours offering tailor-made itineraries and the opportunity to see all of the fantastic attractions around the County. 

Get an authentic Donegal experience, by connecting with some of our many partner Sightseeing Tours & Guides. This is part one of a 2-part listing. 

Atlantic Way Tours Ireland provide Bespoke Chauffeured Adventure Tours for Tourists and Corporate Clients to Scenic, Historical and Coastal locations throughout Donegal and the North West of Ireland. Their tours start and finish in Letterkenny, however you can request to be collected from your Hotel, Guesthouse or wherever you are staying during your visit.

Based in the historic town of Ramelton in Co.Donegal, Boyce Coaches are a familiar sight across the North-West with our fleet of top-of-the-range coaches. All their coaches and mini coaches are Fáilte Ireland inspected and fully approved.

Divin' Dec Scuba Dive School is a scuba dive training & education business based in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland. They provide world class dive lessons & courses through the PADI system of diving education and standards. Divin' Dec aims to provide the highest quality training and courses available anywhere in the World.

Donegal Bay Charters cater for all fishing and sightseeing occasions. They organise 2-hour mackerel trips, half-day and full-day fishing trips within the Donegal bay area with daily fishing trips and sightseeing trips available from The Pier in Donegal Town.

The Donegal Bay Waterbus trip lasts for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes and includes a full commentary on the historical, natural and geographical sights view from the vessel. Cruise around Donegal Bay in their state of the art 160-seater Waterbus. View the seal colony on Seal Island, the Bluestack Mountains and Donegal Bay's many islands with full commentary. Relax in their fully stocked bar and enjoy a cabaret show on the return leg of the trip.

Donegal Heritage Trails specialise in walking tours of Ramelton and Rathmullan. If you really want to explore Donegal, why not try one of their guided tours? And who better than a native guide with local knowledge to show you places of interest and tell you the fascinating stories behind them.

As one of Donegal's leading travel experts, Donegal Tours has put together a mix of amazing landscape, examples of real heritage and sheer excitement. Each organized tour has a different personality, covering major attractions around Donegal such as Sliabh Liag, Glenveagh National Park, Ardara, Gleann Cholm Cille and Inishowen. All tours collect passengers in both Letterkenny and Donegal Town.

With Fanad Lighthouse Tours an amazing journey of discovery awaits you as you learn about the lighthouse and other aids to navigation, past and present. Step back in time and hear stories about light-keepers in days gone by and climb to the top of the tower for spectacular views of land and sea.

Inishowen Tourism has produced an excellent information guide to enhance the experience of “what to see and do” when you visit the Inishowen Peninsula. Their Visitor Services Teams are located in both Buncrana and in Carndonagh and are dedicated to passing on their factual expertise of the area highlighting iconic attractions of scale, cultural and historical locations, niche and special interest activities to suit your needs.

MNG Ventures run customised tours and are a bilingual enterprise. They craft boutique experiences that help visitors connect with Donegal's unique culture and magical landscape. The tours are guided or self-guided with the handpicked local services assistance of Rock & Roam, Connecting Colmcille, The Whiskey Pilgrimage, Footprints, faeries & folklore!

Donegal Climbing is based in Malin Head. Your guide, Bren Whelan, is a Mountain Instructors Certificate (MIC) & International Mountain Leader (IML) award holder, who has over twenty five years of experience mountaineering & rock climbing in Ireland and across the World. Join him for an unforgettable Donegal rock climbing experience on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.

Click Here for even more Donegal Sightseeing Tours & Guides around the county so keep up-to-date by subscribing to our blog and getting updates to your email!

Surfing is Hot in the Coolest Place on the Planet - Donegal!

Donegal is renowned worldwide for its rugged, stunning coastline and it's beaches that catch the full force of those wild Atlantic waves! There simply is no place hotter than Donegal when it comes to surfing… and that's a fact.

Donegal has waves for all levels of surfing skills, from beginners to experts. With our uncrowded and unspoiled beaches, it’s little wonder that many a dedicated surfer is making a dash for Ireland's surfing hot-spots such as Bundoran, Rossnowlagh, Culdaff, Fanad Head, Dunfanaghy and Bloody Foreland. 



 

It’s no secret that surfing is fun. It is in fact, a truly exhilarating experience. Once you've tried surfing, it's hard to fight off the bug! It can make you feel young wild and free, it takes your mind off life’s problems, frees your mind and riding that first wave ride is….unforgettable.

Whether you are a veteran surfer in search of the perfect wave, or a beginner looking to get started in more moderate waters, there is no shortage of options in Donegal. The beach at Rossnowlagh is perfect for beginner and intermediate surfers. More challenging waves are found in the wilds of Inishowen, Fanad Head, Dunfanaghy, Bloody Foreland and Dungloe. 

For the novice, surf lessons will open up the world of surfing to you and Donegal has no shortage of surf schools dotted around the County. If you are just beginning, instructors will teach you the essentials that will have you ‘hanging ten’ before you know it. No matter what your skill level, you can learn the basics of board handling, positioning, paddling, and various techniques for getting to your feet, surfing etiquette, ocean knowledge and water safety from dedicated, professional instructors.     

Surf trips make memories that you will carry for the rest of your life and once you've been bitten by the bug, we can’t guarantee any cure! Pretty soon you’ll go from being a kook to kickflips and laybacks (you'll definitely have to learn some surfin' speak!). 

For further information on surfing in Donegal check out these links below:

GoVisitDonegal.com/surfing Fin McCool Surf School
Adventure One
Nasora Life Surf School Bundoran Surf Company
Donegal Adventure Centre
Jaws Water Sports
Turf 'n Surf
Surf World
I Surf Ireland
Donegal Surf School 

So grab your board - Surfing is epic and cranking in Donegal!

Search is on for the Best Cultural Destination in Ireland

Fáilte Ireland launches the 8^th EDEN Competition with Cultural Tourism as this year’s theme 

The search has begun to find the destination in Ireland which has best used its local cultural assets as potential to grow visitor numbers. Fáilte Ireland, is inviting entries for the 2017 European Destinations of Excellence Network (EDEN) competition, which focuses on a different aspect of tourism each time. 

The theme for 2017 is “Tangible Cultural Tourism”.  The tourism authority is looking for applications from emerging destinations in Ireland who have developed a specific tourism offering based on their cultural assets - that balances sustaining the local environment with the promotion of viable tourism (full detail on criteria below).   

Speaking about the competition Paddy Mathews, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Investment & Innovation, said:

“Through the EDEN Competition, Fáilte Ireland wants to showcase the best examples of how cultural assets have been sustainably used to benefit both tourists and local communities.

“Ireland has long been recognised for the richness of its cultural heritage which is of critical importance to our attractiveness to visitors. We have over 5,000 years of material culture which tells an exciting and engaging story for our visitors. Communities across Ireland are fiercely proud of their heritage and culture and many have harnessed these assets through tourism to deliver real social and economic benefits for their local areas.”

EDEN is an EU project promoting sustainable tourism development across the European Union and is currently held every two years in 29 member states.  Previous Irish winners include the Burren Food Trail (Tourism & Local Gastronomy), the Great Western Greenway (Tourism & the Regeneration of Physical Sites) and Loop Head (Aquatic Tourism). 

The 2017 winning destination will receive a photo shoot of the destination, a certificate of achievement and an awards ceremony. In addition all applications will receive a written report on their application with expert feedback from the adjudicators. Also the EU will offer the winner in each Member State international promotion of the destination through the EDEN web-portal (www.edenineurope.eu), a short promotional visual presentation, and participation in the EU EDEN network.

Eligible destinations will be those:

• that are “small” or “emerging” or “off the beaten track” or “non-traditional” (with visitor numbers from low to very low in comparison with the national average);
• which offer authentic Tourism experiences;
• that have a well-developed cultural offerings, characteristic of their region.

Full competition details are available at www.failteireland.ie/eden/ or by emailingeden.helpdesk@failteireland.ie. The closing date for entries is 4pm on Monday 31^stJuly, 2017.