Hungry to discover some of Ireland's most delicious destinations? Eat your way around Ireland with this selection of guided food tours.
Ireland’s phenomenal produce and talented makers, when paired with expert guides adept in storytelling and creating craic-filled experiences, creates a prime opportunity for engaging food tours offering a taste of the terroir.
As food tourism continues to emerge internationally as a key driver of growth - both domestic and international - savvy explorers continue to seek authentic, cultural experiences to really get to grips with a destination.
Since the mid-2000s many tours have been created to showcase the unique tastes and food credentials of not only major cities like Dublin, Cork, Belfast or Galway, but also Ireland’s gourmet towns like Westport, Kinsale, Kenmare and Killarney.
Here are 10 leading food tours to eat your way around the country.
1. Kerry Food Tours
Karen Coakley made the leap from food blogger - digitally sharing her adoration for 'The Kingdom’ she calls home to her thousands of followers - to in-person tour guide in 2018, taking groups around her cherished food finds in Kenmare.
A familiar face from her regular TV appearances in the kitchen on RTÉ Today, Karen turned a simple hobby and arc of her food writing content into a thriving and nationally-recognised food tourism business. Five years later, in 2023, she added a second product, Killarney Food Tours, with both tours sitting under her Kerry Food Tours umbrella.
As a Kenmare local, it was a desire to demonstrate the unique food story of the charming town, which dates back decades, that planted the seed.
"I love where I’m from and I love sharing that with people," Karen explains to me, adding, "I’m not a chef, I’m a mom of four boys and a home cook who just loves sharing my passion for where I’m from and the pride in spotlighting the food and people that makes it special".
On her food-focused walking tours, Karen zones in on hyper-local produce and producer, from French baguettes and craft beer to Benoit Lorge’s celebrated chocolates.
"Then, Killarney is different," she explains, "that tour tells the history and story of many food businesses in this incredible tourism town — Killarney has always been a hot spot but it particularly shines a light on how the landscape has changed post-Covid and is now bursting with a more local offering, like fresh seafood and Irish farmhouse cheese alongside international influences like fine wines and Argentinian empanadas".
Public tours take place on Wednesdays weekly in Kenmare while Killarney tours are Thursdays and Fridays. All tours kick off at 11am and run until late September annually. Private food Tours and corporate group bookings are also available year-round for both tours and a third, emerging product, Bite of Beara, takes in Coakley’s home region of West Cork. kenmarefoodies.com
2. Taste & Tour, Belfast
Caroline Wilson turned her heel on a career in law to make her hobby a full-time job a decade ago. Together with fellow founding director Phil Ervine, the pair have created Belfast’s premier, award-winning tour company Taste & Tour, which zones in solely on Belfast’s food and drink experiences with a band of tour guides with infectious passion.
The pair dub themselves, and their wider team, "cheerleaders of people, produce and place" and their tours range from the signature Belfast Food Tour, tracing a path by the tastebuds through the city beginning at the iconic St. George’s Market, to a Gin Jaunt, Cocktail Circuit, 5 Stop Brunch, Wine Wander and craft beer and whiskey-specific tours while they also run an interactive sensory cocktail experience, The Sensorium, as part of their Spirit Circle experiences. tasteandtour.co.uk
3. Fable Tours, West of Ireland
Margaret Leahy curates, organises, and hosts private one-day tours exploring the best of the west: The Burren, Galway, Connemara and Mayo. Hers are mostly private groups, from corporate days out and team bonding to family and friend circles.
"Fable tours take a farm to table ethos, where you get to meet local food producers from the fields and shores and enjoy their produce," Margaret explains, "I run these seasonally, since they often take in time on farms –– like any farm there is a season and usually I run tours March to the end of October to avoid any adverse weather conditions".
On any one tour you might be foraging for edible flowers or seaweed, tasting abalone or savouring shucked oysters, and Margaret organises these bespoke experiences depending on group size and preferences meaning there’s rarely a set price.
"I’m a passionate solo traveller so I also specialise in solo traveller tours," Margaret adds, "where I facilitate five-day tours which bring solo explorers together to get to experience a particular part of Ireland whilst meeting and spending time with one another. This year the tour I’m organising focuses on the food culture of Co. Mayo."
Occasionally Margaret also runs public tours, open to anyone, including Galway city in early September, details of which are always on fabletours.com.
4. Kinsale Food Tours
Suzanne Burns came to food tours from a background in marine biology and over a decade spent as a wildlife guide in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada before returning to Ireland in 2016. A year later, she set up Kinsale Food Tours in what has been dubbed in the past the 'gourmet capital’ of Ireland.
"Kinsale has had an unparalleled reputation since the 80's as an iconic food destination," Suzanne says, "famed for our diversity, quality and provenance but also for an array of really talented chefs, restaurateurs, farmers and producers who work in collaboration with one another".
Commenting on the relatively small size of the famed town, she adds: "we pack quite a punch with over 60 venues to eat and drink for a population of around 5,000 people, and some of the highlights to eat on the tour include Koko's handcrafted chocolates, the ceviche and seaweed soda bread at Max’s restaurant and Sabrina Levis’ award-winning chicken liver pâté from Gourmet Pantry.
Suzanne runs three different tours currently: a walking tour of Kinsale town, a coastline foraging and picnic tour, and a private yacht charter around Kinsale harbour. Tours take place Monday to Friday, up to four tours daily, all bookable via kinsalefoodtours.com.
5. Delicious Dublin Tours
Having fallen in love with Dublin, and calling it home for over a decade, Loire-born Ketty Quigley set up Delicious Dublin Tours in 2015, having established herself as a prominent food writer and Ballymaloe Cookery School graduate.
Running three hour-long walking tours in Dublin's fair city near daily (but never on Sundays), the Delicious Dublin Tour comprises six to eight tastings across five stops and groups are kept to 14 people or less to make it manageable and engaging.
Alongside leading the tours herself, Ketty works with a small handful of freelance tour guides, many of them recognisable Dublin-based hospitality personalities including restaurant manager Ross Duffy (The Westbury, formerly Circa) and Sinéad-Germaine Smyth, a wine writer, consultant and chair of Wine Spirit Women.
"I used to be in customer service roles and loved working with people and after graduating from my Culinary Arts degree in 2013 I thought ‘I love Dublin, I’m in food and drink and I would love to do food tours’," Sinéad explains, "so a few years down the line when Ketty was taking on extra guides I applied and it’s the most fun job ever".
"I think when people come here they don’t know what to expect [of Irish food] and can be pleasantly surprised," Sinéad adds, "but what makes Delicious Dublin Tours different is our guides are proper food people, not just actors filling a role".
Ross came to the tour life while studying for his Masters in Gastronomy and Food Studies, taking on a new restaurant role which offered flexible hours.
"It allowed me time to explore touring and I love the idea of sharing your passion for your city and getting to meet new people, so now I try to do two or three a week if I can," he explains.
Both say Dublin’s character is what really makes the tour, "Dublin is a great city for people," Ross says, "it’s the people you meet and everyone want to get their passion across for what they do, especially the stops we go to are all small, independent businesses".
Sinéad agrees, "the type of humour in Dublin is different to anywhere else and I love showing guests that side — you never know what you’re gonna get or who you’re going to meet". deliciousdublintours.com
6. Taste of Sligo
Anthony Gray, the restaurateur behind Hooked and Eala Bhan in Sligo town and former President of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, set up Taste of Sligo to showcase the breadth of dining along the Garavogue.
The 2.5 hour-long tour runs most weeks and Gray calls it "the perfect foodie experience, sampling the freshest Wild Atlantic Way produce and local beverages in top class and award-winning venues".
"My true love is showcasing local, seasonal produce of the Northwest patch of the Wild Atlantic Way and I’m passionate about putting Sligo in particular on the map," he adds, and Gray has been crowned ‘Local Food Hero’ in the past by what is commonly held as the ‘Food Oscars’ awards, as well as being on the board, and former Chairman, of Sligo Food Trail. TasteofSligo.ie
7. Fab Food Trails
Running tours in two Irish cities, Dublin and Cork, Fab Food Trails specialises in culinary adventures and was the brainchild of Eveleen Coyle, who started the business in 2008.
"Back then there was an assumption that Ireland’s produce was ordinary but that has definitely changed for the better," Eveleen explains, "travel has changed and widened our collective palette, broadened tastes and curiosity and has also highlighted how good our own food is, that’s been the biggest change of the last 15 years or so, that awareness of what Irish food is and today the expectation is for the best quality, best taste and wide variety, sourced locally".
Fab Food Trails works with a wide range of different guides and focuses on the best of Ireland’s produce, showcasing both the traditional and the contemporary. "On our walks we show guests how we, living in Ireland today, shop and eat at home and out," Eveleen continues, "and we often get a lot of Irish guests - we love having locals along - so we always hope to introduce them to places and foods maybe they aren’t entirely familiar with, so it works both ways for the domestic and international markets."
Fab Food Trails run gourmet walking tours mostly on weekends in both cities, with other seasonal, private group and limited edition options every so often, too. Keep an eye on fabfoodtrails.ie.
8. Causeway Coast
On Antrim’s windswept and North Atlantic-battered coast, Wendy Gallagher operates her unique, one-woman Causeway Coast Foodie Tours, among them Spirit of The Bann.
Bobbing along the River Bann, on an old Harland & Wolff-made boat, refurbished in recent years, Wendy takes guests upstream and downstream sharing the fascinating history of the first settlers of the region with wildlife spotting alongside tastings of Bushmills’ uisce beatha.
"You can’t come to the North coast and not have whiskey," Wendy urges, "we have Bushmills on the doorstep here, a totally unique story and the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world, so we share its history, too, and a tasting flight alongside big platters of local food including Corndale Farm charcuterie, hot smoked salmon from North Coast Smokehouse, and local chutneys, preserves and more".
Wendy also hosts a once-monthly Coast & Country tour, a six-hour tour hopping on and off a luxury small coach to visit five different award-winning producers. An extended and enhanced version of this will be held on 4th October as part of the Bushmills Salmon & Whiskey Festival (4-6 October 2024).
"Post-Covid the landscape has changed for food tourism," Wendy explains, "there’s a lot more private bookings and specifically curated tour experiences where maybe a family or a large group of friends want to experience different aspects of the region tailored to their own interests, plus being such a golf destination there’s lots of interest in private tours from golfing groups, too". causewaycoastfoodietours.com
9. Galway Food Tours
Sheena Dignam created the Galway Food Tour as a culinary amble around the city’s Latin Quarter in 2015 and has grown the business to five guides which host a handful of different tours in and around the City of Tribes. From daytime and evening walking (and tasting) tours in the city centre to a whiskey-specific or craft beer-focused tour, one of the newer experiences is partly on two wheels, combining the city centre food tour with a breathtaking cycling route.
The main daytime tour operates effectively daily throughout much of the year while evening tours are pre-organised Thursday to Sunday only. Not solely operating in Ireland, Sheena also delved into her Franco-Irish heritage and built upon years spent in Tours in the Loire Valley of France to create Food Tours in Tours, a similar product for visitors to get to grips with the French city. galwayfoodtours.com | foodtoursintours.com
10. Westport Food Tour
There’s no doubt that Westport is one of Ireland’s premier food towns, and Westport Walking Tours celebrate this by hosting a twice-weekly food tour to trot around the streets being led by your tastebuds.
From boxty to black pudding, scones to sea salted fudge and charcuterie to craft beer, the tour takes in over eight different stops as it invites guests to meet the makers, bakers, chefs and producers while learning about Westport along the way.
A unique feature is this a mid-afternoon tour, so it leisurely kicks off at 3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, running right through ‘til late September. Passionate about sustainable practices, this food tour also follows a ‘Leave No Trace’ philosophy, strictly sampling food and drink local to Co. Mayo and prioritising recyclable and compostable packaging where needed.
One of the stops is PAX Whole Foods and Eco Goods, a refill and zero-waste store where visitors will hear more about recycling and reducing waste. westportwalkingtours.ie
