Escape Dublin and explore Wicklow, the “Garden of Ireland”—on a private chauffeur-driven tour.
This relaxed, full-day tour is tailored to you. After pick-up from your hotel, we head south into the Wicklow Mountains. The scenery soon opens to rolling hills, quiet valleys, and winding roads. Travel in comfort at your pace, with local insight throughout.
The first stop is Powerscourt House and Gardens, among the most beautiful estates in Ireland. Set beneath Sugar Loaf Mountain, the gardens feature sweeping terraces with views of the countryside. Wander through Italian and Japanese gardens, explore the grounds, and enjoy coffee with views of the estate.
From this point, you can choose between two options for the remainder of the day.
You might choose to visit Glendalough, a valley famous for its lakes and early Christian monastic site. Enjoy peaceful trails past ancient ruins, woodland, and water.
Alternatively, you may prefer Mount Usher Gardens to Glendalough. It offers a quieter, more intimate setting. The gardens feature natural, flowing design along the river, seasonal plantings, shaded paths, and a calm, unhurried feel—ideal if you want something less visited.
As the day comes to an end, we return to Dublin via Wicklow, dropping you off at your accommodation after a relaxing, memorable day. If you are staying in Dublin a little longer, our Trim and Malahide castles tour and our Cliffs of Moher private tour from Dublin make natural companions to this one.
Itinerary
Private Wicklow Tour Itinerary (Up to 8 Hours)
Pick-up in Dublin
Pick-up at your hotel or residence. Depart Dublin for County Wicklow.
Powerscourt House & Gardens
Walk the gardens, visit shops, and enjoy refreshments.
Option 1: Glendalough & Wicklow Mountains Visit Glendalough. Free time for walking, lakes, and photos.
Option 2: Mount Usher Gardens
Visit Mount Usher Gardens. Riverside walks and quiet surroundings.
Scenic Return to Dublin
Relaxed drive back. Drop-off at your hotel or chosen location.
Powerscourt in a little more detail
The Italian garden is the part that stays with people. It falls away from the back of the house in terraces of stone and clipped hedging down to the Triton Lake, with the Sugar Loaf standing beyond it, and that view along the axis is the one nearly every photograph of Powerscourt is taken from. Behind the terraces the grounds open out into the Japanese gardens, the walled garden, the tower walk and a pet cemetery that visitors always linger at longer than they mean to. There is time to browse the shops and sit down for a coffee before we move on, and if you would like the estate’s waterfall as well, say so in advance, because it has its own entrance away from the house and needs to be built into the day.
Glendalough, and the road that takes you there
The drive is part of the visit rather than a gap between two stops. The mountain road south from Powerscourt climbs into open bog and heather with Lough Tay lying dark in its valley below, then drops into wooded ground at the far end. Glendalough itself is a monastic settlement founded by Saint Kevin in the sixth century, and what survives is a round tower, a gatehouse and the roofless walls of the cathedral standing among centuries of gravestones. Marked trails lead from the visitor centre past the Lower Lake up to the Upper Lake, and the walking is straightforward in ordinary shoes if the weather has been kind. Mount Usher, the alternative, lies east of the mountains on the River Vartry and makes a gentler afternoon altogether.
What the day costs
Every itinerary is quoted individually, because what you pay depends on how long the day runs, how far we travel and what we book for you along the way. Tell us your dates, where you are staying in Dublin and which of the two afternoons appeals, and you will have a firm quote before anything is confirmed. If your time in Ireland takes you further south, our Cliffs of Moher and the Burren tour from Cork reaches the same west coast scenery from that side of the country.
