Join us on an amaz­ing tour-of-a-life­time to Ire­land, the ances­tral home of renowned fur trad­er and ear­ly St. Louisan Robert Camp­bell!  Cel­e­brate 200th anniver­sary of Campbell’s arrival in St. Louis from Ire­land on this fundrais­er tour which vis­its both the Repub­lic of Ire­land and North­ern Ire­land.  The itin­er­ary high­light will be a vis­it to the Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park and Augh­a­lane House, Campbell’s birth­place.  We look for­ward to hav­ing you with us, and thank you for your sup­port of this unique fundraiser.

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Sep­tem­ber 11, 2023 – Our Jour­ney Begins
Meet Camp­bell House Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Andy Hahn and your St. Louis-based tour direc­tors Dea Hoover and Declan Rutan of Are We There Yet? Tours at the St. Louis Air­port as we begin our jour­ney. Dea hired Declan to help her plan a tour to Ire­land back in 2008; they end­ed up falling in love and have been lead­ing tours around the world ever since. They are also long­time friends of the Camp­bell House, and are excit­ed to be a part of this inau­gur­al tour! We fly on Delta Air­lines, con­nect­ing through Atlanta before our overnight flight to Dublin. Try to get some sleep on the flight – we’ll be in the Emer­ald Isle before you know it! (Meals on Plane)

Sep­tem­ber 12, 2023 – Wel­come to Ire­land
Once we arrive in Dublin Air­port, we clear cus­toms and immi­gra­tion before being met by our local driver/guide who will lead us to our await­ing motor­coach. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the green rolling pas­tures as you trav­el west­wards through the Irish mid­lands towards the coastal city of Gal­way and the region known as Con­nemara. Once described by Oscar Wilde as a ‘Sav­age Beau­ty’, its wild and rugged land­scape of moun­tains, lakes and bogs has been fea­tured in many films, from the John Wayne and Mau­reen O’Hara clas­sic The Qui­et Man and Richard Har­ris’ The Field to more mod­ern movies such as The Match­mak­er and Leap Year. The mag­i­cal scenery is a par­adise for artist and pho­tog­ra­ph­er alike, so make sure your cam­era is charged! Our home for the next two nights is in Gal­way, where we enjoy a wel­come din­ner in the hotel. (Meals on Plane, Dinner)

Sep­tem­ber 13, 2023 – Gal­way and the Aran Islands
After break­fast this morn­ing we head fur­ther west still, escap­ing from the hus­tle and bus­tle of the city and ride the fer­ry to Inish­more, the largest of the three Aran Islands and one of the gems of the Wild Atlantic Way. The Aran Islands have inspired count­less gen­er­a­tions of artists and arti­sans, poets and play­wrights, most recent­ly fea­tured in the award-win­ning film The Ban­shees of Inish­erin. The island is steeped in his­to­ry, serv­ing as an out­door muse­um with over 50 dif­fer­ent mon­u­ments to the Chris­t­ian, pre-Chris­t­ian and Celtic her­itage. We take a minibus tour of the island, with a stop at the world-renowned fort of Dun Aong­hasa, stand­ing guard over the dra­mat­ic 300-foot cliff that spans the entire west­ern part of the island. For the adven­tur­ous, enjoy the walk to up Dun Aong­hasa and enjoy the spec­tac­u­lar views before we return to the fer­ry for our jour­ney back to Gal­way. Tonight is yours to explore the city and enjoy din­ner on your own in one of Galway’s many live­ly pubs and restau­rants. (Break­fast)

Sep­tem­ber 14, 2023 – The Road to North­ern Ire­land
Enjoy break­fast at the hotel before our jour­ney towards North­ern Ire­land. Before we cross the bor­der we make a few stops along the way, includ­ing Bal­ly­moe where you will vis­it the new­ly opened Father Flana­gan Vis­i­tor Cen­tre. Fr. Flana­gan found­ed the world-renowned Boys Town in Oma­ha, Nebras­ka, which grew from a sin­gle home to being a world­wide force for change. Enjoy the Centre’s Gar­den with sto­ry­boards detail­ing his life and writ­ings as well as a spe­cial­ly com­mis­sioned wood­ed sculp­ture.  Next, we trav­el onward to the Knock Shrine, com­mem­o­rat­ing the appear­ance of a vision of Mary, St Joseph, and St. John the Evan­ge­list in 1879. Every year over one and a half mil­lion pil­grims from around the world vis­it this holy site. Then it’s off to Sli­go where we stop in Drum­cliffe, the final rest­ing place of one of Ireland’s great­est poets, W.B. Yeats. Nes­tled in a church­yard in the shad­ow of Ben­bul­ben Moun­tain., his grave is marked with a sim­ple head­stone with the inscrip­tion, “Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death, Horse­man, pass by.”

We end our day in the walled city of Der­ry, North­ern Ire­land, also known as Lon­don­der­ry. The bor­der is a soft bor­der, with­out check­points, and in many cas­es the only way you can tell which side of the bor­der you are on is if the petro sta­tions have their prices in Euro or Pound Stir­ling and if the speed lim­it is in miles or kilo­me­ters per hour. We check into The Ebring­ton Hotel, our home for the next three nights and the loca­tion of our includ­ed din­ner this evening. (Break­fast, Dinner)

Sep­tem­ber 15, 2023 – Malin Head, Done­gal and Der­ry
Enjoy break­fast at the hotel before our excur­sion to the Inishowen Penin­su­la in Coun­ty Done­gal, renowned for its rugged coastal land­scape and attrac­tive beach­es. You will trav­el to Malin Head, the most norther­ly point of Ire­land which is iron­i­cal­ly not in North­ern Ire­land but rather back in the Repub­lic. Our next stop is Bun­cran­na where you will vis­it the Amaz­ing Grace Park, a beau­ti­ful, tran­quil space over­look­ing Lough Swilly. The dra­mat­ic land­scape where the land sea and sky come togeth­er was also the loca­tion where John New­ton and his crew found shel­ter from a mas­sive storm. His near-death expe­ri­ence made him decide to give up the slave trade and become a cler­gy­man, com­pos­ing per­haps the most famous hymn, “Amaz­ing Grace”.

We return to Der­ry this after­noon where you will enjoy the award-win­ning Der­ry City Walk­ing Tour. Our walk along the 17th cen­tu­ry walls is a walk through the his­to­ry of this ancient city, from its found­ing by St. Colm­cille in 546 AD to the bat­tles between the Williamites and the Jaco­bites in late 17th cen­turies, from the trou­bles of the late 20th cen­tu­ry to the new era of peace in the present day. We make stops at St. Colum­bus Cathe­dral and the new Der­ry Peace Bridge over the Riv­er Foyle, a pedes­tri­an bridge opened in 2011 that serves as both a phys­i­cal and metaphor­i­cal bridge between two sides of a once divid­ed com­mu­ni­ty. This evening is free for you to enjoy on your own. (Break­fast)

Sep­tem­ber 16, 2023 – Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park and the Camp­bell House
After break­fast at the hotel, we head towards Omagh and the famous Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park, an out­door muse­um of emi­gra­tion his­to­ry depict­ing emi­grant life on both sides of the Atlantic. Build­ings from across Ire­land and even from Amer­i­ca have been moved to the park to give vis­i­tors a chance to have a taste of what life was like for the Irish, both in their native land and their new homes across the sea. Walk down the street of a typ­i­cal Irish sea­port on the way to the repli­ca of the Brig Union ship, one of the many ships that car­ried emi­grants away from the Emer­ald Isle, and as you exit, you are sud­den­ly trans­port­ed to Amer­i­ca, from the city streets of Bal­ti­more to the rolling hills of Ten­nessee. Reen­ac­tors are sta­tioned through­out, bring­ing to life some of the hard­ships endured dur­ing the 12-week jour­ney across the Atlantic. But per­haps the most impor­tant build­ing for our tour is Agha­lane House, the child­hood home of Robert Camp­bell. Built by his father, Hugh Camp­bell, in 1786, the home was moved from its orig­i­nal loca­tion on a farm near Plumbridge in Coun­ty Tyrone to the park to help pre­serve it for future gen­er­a­tions, allow­ing us to explore the house and oth­er build­ings from the home­stead. On our return trip to Der­ry we will vis­it Plumbridge, the quin­tes­sen­tial Irish vil­lage where Camp­bell spent his boy­hood. Back in Der­ry we will enjoy din­ner at the hotel. (Break­fast, Dinner)

Sep­tem­ber 17, 2023 – Giant’s Cause­way and the Antrim Coast
This morn­ing we bid farewell to Der­ry and trav­el to Limavady, trav­el­ing along the Antrim Coast Road Dri­ve. Of course, no vis­it to North­ern Ire­land would be com­plete with­out a vis­it to Giant’s Cause­way – a remark­able basaltic for­ma­tion made of approx­i­mate­ly 37,000 columns and ranked as one of the nat­ur­al won­ders of the world. Enjoy the vis­i­tor cen­ter and take a stroll down hill along the paved path towards the site, which was des­ig­nat­ed a UNESCO World Her­itage Site in 1986. Our tour con­tin­ues along the Antrim Coast Road with spec­tac­u­lar views of the north­ern coast­line and, if the weath­er is in our favor, you might even see Scotland’s Mull of Kin­tyre across the sea. This after­noon we arrive in Belfast City, at the Grand Cen­tral Hotel for our two-night stay. Tonight, enjoy din­ner at the hotel. (Break­fast, Dinner)

Sept 18, 2023 – Belfast and the Titan­ic Muse­um
This morn­ing you will enjoy a tour of Belfast City. Set upon the banks of the Riv­er Lagan, Belfast is home to many hid­den gems, such as the City Hall, rec­og­nized as one of the finest Clas­si­cal Renais­sance build­ings in Europe. We’ll also vis­it the Linen Hall Library, still lend­ing books after over 200 years, and the Grand Opera House, one of the most beau­ti­ful Vic­to­ri­an era the­atres in the world. Keep an eye out for the many murals for which Belfast has become famous, depict­ing the his­to­ry and polit­i­cal views of the var­i­ous neigh­bor­hoods and were once a method of mark­ing ter­ri­to­ry.  After the tour we vis­it Titan­ic Belfast, a state-of-the-art vis­i­tor cen­ter which tells the sto­ry of RMS Titan­ic, from her con­cep­tion in Belfast to her famous maid­en voy­age and trag­ic end. As you pass through the nine gal­leries spread among numer­ous lev­els, you will get a true feel­ing for what a mile­stone the ship was as well as the human impact of her loss.

After some time to refresh at the hotel, we head to the sea­side vil­lage of Helen’s Bay where we meet with some dear friends of the Camp­bell House Muse­um. After­wards we return to Belfast for the night. (Break­fast, Dinner)

Sep­tem­ber 19, 2023 – St. Patrick Cen­tre to the Cen­ter of Dublin
We bid farewell to Belfast this morn­ing and head south to Coun­ty Down. We stop at the quaint lit­tle town of Down­patrick for a vis­it to The Saint Patrick Cen­tre. This exhi­bi­tion presents an authen­tic view of St. Patrick, explor­ing him through his own words and in the con­text of the peri­od. Then walk a short dis­tance to St. Patrick’s Cathe­dral to see the reput­ed bur­ial place of St. Patrick. Then it’s back to the Repub­lic of Ire­land and its cap­i­tal city, Dublin. Our hotel for the next two nights is cen­tral­ly locat­ed, and this evening we will trav­el to the Mer­ry Plough­boy Pub for din­ner and enjoy one of Ire­land’s pre­mier shows of Irish music and dance. (Break­fast, Dinner)

Sep­tem­ber 20, 2023 – Dublin’s Fair City
This morn­ing you embark on a tour of Dublin City, found­ed as a Viking set­tle­ment and home to the Irish Par­lia­ment since the cre­ation of the Irish Free State in 1922. On your tour you will see the Geor­gian Squares with their 18th Cen­tu­ry hous­es, Phoenix Park, the biggest town park in Europe, the famous stat­ues of O’Connell Street and the fash­ion­able Grafton Street with their shops and pubs. We vis­it Saint Patrick­’s Cathe­dral, an archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal site which has been at the heart of Dublin his­to­ry for over 800 years as well as the Old Library at Trin­i­ty Col­lege, home to the famous of Book of Kells. Tonight, you will have a farewell din­ner at your hotel. (Break­fast, Dinner)

Sep­tem­ber 21, 2023 – Return Home
After break­fast we sad­ly bid farewell to Ire­land, head­ing to Dublin Air­port for your flight home. Thanks to an arrange­ment with the US gov­ern­ment, pas­sen­gers head­ing to Amer­i­ca clear cus­toms and immi­gra­tion in Ire­land rather than the US, which means when we con­nect through Atlanta we are able to go direct­ly to our con­nect­ing flight. They even have Glob­al Entry kiosks for those who have reg­is­tered with the pro­gram to make the process eas­i­er. (Break­fast, Meals on Plane)

Click here to down­load a short his­to­ry of Ire­land by our guide Declan Rutan.

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Per per­son: $5,759 (dou­ble occu­pan­cy)
Per per­son: $6,495 (sin­gle occupancy)

Make your reser­va­tion with a $1,000 deposit per per­son. Group air­fare is includ­ed in the price. If you wish to explore oth­er air arrange­ments or will join­ing from city oth­er than St. Louis, please con­tact us for fur­ther details.

Down­load the Reser­va­tion Form by Click­ing Here

Itin­er­ary price includes:
• $500 dona­tion to the Camp­bell House Muse­um
• A pre-trip VIP tour and recep­tion at the Camp­bell House with live Irish music
• Round trip air­fare from St. Louis to Dublin on Delta Air­lines
• Lux­u­ry accom­mo­da­tions across Ire­land
• 17 Meals (10 Break­fasts and 7 din­ners)
• Vis­its to the Titan­ic Muse­um, Giant’s Cause­way and a walk­ing tour of Der­ry
• Scenic dri­ves of Antrim Coast Road, Inishowen Penin­su­la
• Vis­it to the Aran Isles via fer­ry to Inish­more
• Tours of Belfast, Dublin
• Tour Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park and Robert Campbell‘s birth­place Augh­a­lane House
• Music and Dance Show at Mer­ry Plough­boy Pub in Dublin
• All oth­er Activ­i­ties as indi­cat­ed
• Bag­gage Han­dling
• Pro­fes­sion­al Tour Direc­tors Dea Hoover and Declan Rutan (lead­ing tours to Ire­land since 2008)
• Spe­cial Guest: Andy Hahn, direc­tor of the Camp­bell House Muse­um, St. Louis
• All gra­tu­ities includ­ing step-on guides, wait­staff at includ­ed meals, dri­ver and director

Have ques­tions or need more infor­ma­tion? Con­tact: Are We There Yet?, LLC at 314–304-3508 or dea@arewethereyetdea.com.

Please note: Any notice of fuel sur­charges imposed by car­ri­ers and/or attrac­tions will be dis­closed at least 30 days pri­or to tour departure.

This is an Are We There Yet? Select Tour. We will take no more than 30 trav­el­ers and once this tour fills, a wait list will be formed. We encour­age all trav­el­ers to pur­chase trav­el pro­tec­tion and pay with ini­tial deposit.

Please remem­ber that cer­tain ben­e­fits are time sen­si­tive. Insur­ance plans help pro­vide cov­er­age for unex­pect­ed cir­cum­stances and help pro­tect your trip and your investment. 

Bal­ance on base tour price is due June 20, 2023, and no refunds will be giv­en after that time. If you attempt to book after this date, there may be a sub­stan­tial increase in price or you may have to arrive on a sep­a­rate flight.

Please ensure that you have a valid pass­port for this tour. You will not be allowed to fly with­out the prop­er doc­u­ments, nor enter Ire­land or return to the USA. Trav­el pro­tec­tion will not cov­er any expens­es due to not hav­ing valid trav­el documents.

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