New Year’s in Dublin

December 27, 2007 - January 2, 2008
Newark Museum




Join the Newark Museum’s  annual New Year’s tour to Dublin.  This trip includes round-trip airfare, 5 nights accommodations, 2 performances, breakfast daily, 3 dinners, 2 lunch, New Year’s eve gala.



Céad Míle Fáilte! A hundred thousand welcomes to Ireland’s capital city Dublin, steeped in history and buzzing with vibrant energy. Enjoy a New Year’s Eve holiday in the Irish capital where medieval, Georgian and modern architecture provide a backdrop to a friendly bustling port.  Both cosmopolitan and charming Dublin has a delightful diversity.  On our fast paced five night trip, you’ll experience the vibrancy and excitement which makes Dublin a city to remember.  
 






1.  Thursday, December 27     
We depart Newark at 10:10pm, on Continental Airlines, non-stop flight to Dublin. (dinner-in-flight)



2.  Friday, December 28     
We arrive at Dublin airport at 9:30am.  After clearing Irish immigration and customs, we meet our Irish tour guide and driver in the arrivals hall and travel by private motor coach to Dublin city for a panoramic tour and lunch, before we check-in at the centrally located 4-star Davenport Hotel, ideally located on Merrion Square, surrounded by Ireland's premier shopping districts, a variety of restaurants and a host of museums, and visitor attractions such as Trinity College.  O'Callaghan Davenport  is considered to be one of Dublin's finest hotels offering a unique blend of modern European elegance and traditional Irish hospitality. The remainder of the day is free for relaxation and unpacking.  Tonight we enjoy a welcome dinner in the hotel  
(Breakfast-in flight) (Lunch) (Dinner)  



3.  Saturday, December 29     
After breakfast at our hotel, we meet our guide and our coach for a city tour of Dublin.  Dublin is an elegant European capital, graced with splendid Georgian public buildings and private homes from the 1700s on both sides of the River Liffey.  We tour Dublin Castle and the State Apartments, once the seat of the British Administration in Ireland,  and the focus of a fashionable and extravagant social life. Our tour also includes a visit to St.  Patrick's Cathedral, which was founded in 1190 and restored circa 1860.  After lunch we visit The Dublin Writer's Museum which was established to promote interest in Irish literature as a whole and in the lives and works of individual Irish writers.  We complete the day at the Hugh Lane Gallery. This Municipal Gallery houses a collection of nineteenth and twentieth century paintings and sculptures in a beautifully restored Georgian era townhouse designed by William Chambers. It includes a collection of Impressionist works by Manet, Degas and Vuillard. This evening we enjoy a performance at  either the Abbey or Gate Theatre.  (B) (L)



4.  Sunday, December 30     
No Dublin holiday is complete without a visit  to Guinness Storehouse.  The Storehouse was originally built in 1904 to house the Guinness fermentation process. This incredible building was constructed in the style of the Chicago school of architecture, with massive steel beams providing the support for the structure of the building. We visit The Irish Jewish Museum, located in a former Synagogue, with its original features.  The museum preserves memorabilia relating to Irish Jewry, displaying their important, though small, place in Ireland's cultural and historic heritage. We are free for lunch in lively Dublin. We complete the day with a visit to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. The Museum is housed in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, the finest 17th-century building in Ireland. The style is based on Les Invalides in Paris with a formal facade and a large elegant courtyard.  
 
Tonight we enjoy dinner and an evening of Irish music and dancing at The Merry Ploughboy Pub, a traditional Dublin pub which first opened its doors in 1750. The Pub prides itself as being one of the best places in Dublin to experience Irish culture and genuine Irish hospitality. The show includes a superb Irish dancing routine featuring many of Ireland's top Irish dancers.   (B/D)  



5.  Monday, January 1     
This morning we take a walking tour visiting the beautiful Georgian  squares and public sculpture, the lovely buildings at Trinity College, and the stately Bank of Ireland, originally designed to house the Irish Parliament. The curving facade with its different orders and sculpture groups ranks as one of Dublin's finest. We visit an art gallery and then have a free afternoon to enjoy Dublin on our own.  Tonight we ring in the New Year with a champagne reception, five course dinner and live music in the ballroom of the Burlington Hotel.  There's no mistaking when the New Year arrives in Dublin's centre. The bells of Christ Church Cathedral (the Holy Trinity) have been clanging in the year's best party night for a very long time.  (B/Gala dinner)



6.  Tuesday, January 2     
After a relaxing morning we visit The National Gallery of Ireland which houses the national collection of Irish art as well as the collection of European master paintings. It exhibits high quality works from the likes of Titian, Tintoretto, Goya, Monet, Degas and Picasso. We then move on to the National Museum of Ireland, built in the 1880s to the design of Sir Thomas Deane.  Its domed rotunda features marble pillars and a zodiac mosaic floor.  The Treasury houses priceless items such as the Broighter gold boat.  Other permanent displays include Irish silver and glassware. We have an early dinner before our 6:30pm concert at the National Concert Hall where we have tickets for the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra’s annual celebration of the New Year, with festive Viennese music including The Emperor Waltz, Roses from the South, music from The Merry Widow and other favorites by the Strauss family, Lehár, Kalman and more. (B/D)



7.  Thursday, January 3     
After breakfast we check out of the hotel and travel to the Dublin airport for our Continental Airlines non stop flight departing at 10:45am, arriving Newark at 1:20pm. (B) (Lunch in flight)





This engaging experience includes:

  • 5 nights in the 4* Alexander hotel.
  • Irish breakfast daily.
  • Porterage in the hotel.
  • Private bus according to above mentioned itinerary.
  • Local tour escort for tours. No escort for evening activities.
  • Welcome dinner, farewell dinner, Irish pub dinner with entertainment.
  • New Years Eve dinner and entertainment on Dec. 31st.
  • 2 Lunches.
  • Entrances as per itinerary.
  • New Years day Concert.
  • Gate or Abbey theatre performance.
PROGRAM PRICES  
Per person (double occupancy) from New York: $2900  
Single Supplement: $550