Organize the Best St. Patrick’s Day Trips in Ireland and Around the Globe

This weekend, it’s St. Patrick’s Day. It was only in order for us to write an article about St. Patrick’s Day trips. What a better way to celebrate this Irish national holiday than by coming up with the best St. Patrick’s Day trips for your travelers?

Ideas for St. Patrick’s Day Trips

Last year, more than 60% of Americans celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. And let me tell you something—they are not the only ones excited to celebrate this day!

Ireland’s patron saint is celebrated in places like Montserrat, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, and even Tokyo!

Photo: Giuseppe Milo www.pixael.com[/caption]How to organize the most memorable St. Patrick’s day and where to take your tour?

Here’s your guide to creating the best St. Patrick’s day trips ever!

Get to Know How St. Patrick’s Day is Celebrated

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is on many peoples’ bucket list.

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to dress up in green, walk around with a huge hat in the shape of a shamrock, sing Irish songs, and drink Guinness?

However, for some people, St. Patrick’s Day is more than that.

Some travelers want a customized experience. For instance, they want to get to know the history behind the holiday, explore Dublin on foot, and visit famous Irish landmarks. So, have that in mind when deciding which activities to include in your tour and itinerary.

Research the traditional way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and offer a unique and educational tour for your clients.

Fact:

Did you know that in Ireland, it’s actually not all about wearing green top to bottom?

As a matter of fact, people in Ireland, wear a small cloverleaf, or a shamrock, on their coats as a small reminder of their Irish heritage. Those shamrock badges are blessed in a special ceremony in churches all over Ireland.

Fact:

On St. Patrick’s Day Irish families didn’t drink alcohol.

In the old days, pubs were closed for business on St. Patrick’s Day. Instead of partying, the Irish families would have had a nice dinner and celebrated this day within the family without getting obnoxiously drunk the people you see today after the parades.

Nowadays, people all over the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, drink Guinness, and wear green even if they are not Irish. It’s that day of the year when everyone can feel a bit Irish and have a good time.

Don’t Make Your Tours Just About St. Patrick’s Day

As you may already know, in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated for almost an entire week. That means you can create a well-planned, adventure and festivity-packed 5 or even 7-day St. Patrick’s Day trip.

For people not so crazy about the idea of drinking, parties, and festivities, organize a walking tour around Dublin. Just keep in mind the streets will be crowded and that it won’t be easy to get around on the 17th of March.

• What Tour and Activity Operators Should Know about Walking Tours

Search for alternative routes and pick places that are worth seeing but still not overcrowded. That’s why it’s important that you check out the festival events and program in advance.

Here’s what’s worth including in your tour offer:

• Guinness Storehouse for an exquisite brewery experience.
• Trinity College is one of the oldest universities in Europe.
• Christ Church Cathedral is Dublin’s oldest building, a leading visitor attraction and a place of pilgrimage for almost 1,000 years
• Saint Patrick Cathedral is the most popular visitor attraction in Dublin, especially on St. Patrick’s Day.
• Molly Malone is the most famous statue in Dublin. She was a heroine in the famous song that’s widely considered to be Dublin’s unofficial anthem.
• Dublin Castle is where tourists can learn more about Dublin’s history.
• Docklands is the part of Dublin where your clients are going to enjoy modern architecture, numerous art galleries, and historic buildings. To make it more interesting, take your clients on an exciting river trip.
• Grafton Street is the most popular shopping street in Dublin. Your shopaholic clients are going to enjoy this street so much. 😊
• Temple Bar offers the best of Dublin such as pubs, galleries, restaurants, and music.

If you have a more adventurous crowd, organize “hidden spots in Dublin tour”.

Be Creative and Customize Your Offer

While we’re on the subject of drinking, one way of making your St. Patrick’s Day tour even more interesting is by organizing a Guinness factory tour.

I’m absolutely positive that your beer-loving clients will love it! Especially, if the tour includes tastings. Or you can take your tour group to a pub crawl, for example at the Dublin’s original Temple bar.

• Enrich Your Tour Operator Business With These 6 Beverage Tours

If you’re creative, I’m sure you can come up with a variety of tours.

Here are a few to get you started:

• Food tours – How to Start a Profitable Food Tour Business
• Hiking tour in the mountains
• Beer tours
• Historic Ireland tour

I mean, how else are your clients going to meet those awesome leprechauns?

Just a thought. Carry on.

The Most Famous Places to Visit Outside Dublin

“Ok, ok, so you’ve mentioned I lead my tour around Dublin on the most crowded day of the year?”

Ok, my mistake, I was just going for an authentic St. Patrick’s Day experience.

So anyway… Dublin is too crazy and hectic for your clients on St. Patrick’s Day? Why not choose another city and still have a great time? Exactly!

What about tourists that aren’t interested in visiting Ireland?

No problemo.

There are travelers who are not too keen on Ireland’s breathtaking landscape.

Let your travelers know that they don’t really need to be in Ireland to celebrate Paddy’s day. All across the globe, people are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with parades, cooking special meals, with music and festivities.

Here’s a list of cities whose locals truly outperform themselves when it comes to hosting St. Patrick’s Day.

• New York, US – The world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade.
• Boston, US – The city that held the first St. Patrick’s Day parade 1737.
• Chicago, US – Travelers wouldn’t miss Chicago’s River dyed in green.
• Tokyo, Japan – On St. Patricks day, the Harajuku district goes green and hosts an awesome parade.
• Vancouver, Canada – Five-day festival at the Celtic Village with music, Irish food, and acrobats!

Stay Organized and Don’t Lose Track of Your Bookings

Most important of all, once you create the perfect St. Patrick’s Day tour, make sure you have your bookings out there.

“Where?“

Well, out there, on the internet!

You planned this tour so meticulously for your clients, you don’t what such a tour to go unseen in the sea of other St. Patrick’s Day trips, now do you?

Of course not. So start selling!

“How?”

Get an online booking engine and put BOOK ONLINE button on your website ASAP.

• This Is What the Most Effective Booking Button Looks Like

How do I know you need an online booking system?

Because you are here, reading this article instead of selling your tours online.

About Orioly

Orioly is a booking and distribution software. It’s really simple to use and yet has very powerful features. From a single console, you can do the following:

• Create, edit, and manage activities, tours
• Schedule custom departure date
• Manage bookings and deposits
• Generate coupons
• Process payments and create invoices
• Export transaction information
• Generate bookings report
• Add and manage your agents, resellers, and affiliates

Test Orioly and see how you can close bookings 24/7 from your website and bear the fruits of growing your own distribution network!

Experience just how easy it is to create new tours and share them with your resellers and business partners.

Check our pricing plans!

If you’re already using Orioly, awesome! Relax and go to a pub for some pints.

Cheers and happy St. Patrick’s Day!

ORIOLY
on March 12, 2018

by Lidija Šomodi