In May-June 2025, I had the absolute pleasure of going on three incredible tours with Flavour Trails: the Irish Food Trail, the Whiskey Trail, and the Storytelling Trail. Each tour felt like a meticulously crafted experience that offered a completely different slice of Dublin’s culture and character. The Irish Food and Whiskey Trails, both guided by Gráinne, were very engaging and riddled with interesting stories and details that have stuck with me (Make sure to come hungry to the Irish Food Trail!!!). The Storytelling Trail, led by Gav, was equally special; full of high energy, laughter, lore, and that fiery spirit only present in Dublin. Every experience felt genuine; not scripted, not rushed, just like having a natural conversation with a Dublin local! At the time I visited, the Taste Trail hadn’t yet launched, but I can’t wait to return and experience it. Honestly, every trip I make back to Dublin will include another Flavour Trails tour…they’ve become a part of what made Ireland so special to me. I also had the unique opportunity to intern with Flavour Trails for a month, spending time with Gráinne, Lara, as well as Ray, Deirdre, and Gav (all of whom I shared great conversations with and made me feel completely welcome). (Tell Deirdre she was successful in getting me into Indian cuisine haha). Leaving Dublin to return to California almost gave me reverse homesickness…and I am eagerly looking forward to coming back to Ireland to visit them once again. As an intern on my first day, Gráinne established that she views Flavour Trails as not just a tour company; but a community messenger that celebrates CRAIC, CULTURE, and CONNECTION in the most authentic way possible… and I think that is very evident on every tour.

We scheduled a whisky tour that didn’t make so we did the food tour. It was fabulous. Grainne was very knowledgeable, funny had great stories and took us by so really nice whisky taverns. The food we had was not small bites but very good portions. We visited 3 different places and they were all exquisite. Definitely do any of these tours.

I don’t think of myself as a “tour person”. I like to explore on my own and find hidden gems. But Dan’s storytelling tour is the best of both words. Hidden gems guided by his seemingly endless knowledge of the Dublin’s pubs and the stories of Ireland. Our trip to Ireland was short so it was especially good to get all his expertise packed into a three hour tour. And I liked that we and our fellow travelers were sitting a table listening to Dan, talking amongst ourselves and enjoying tasty food and drink.

Seán was amazing! There were 13 of us on the group but you’d never know it. He made each of us feel like we were the only people there with his conversation. The tour was a great mix of food, drinks and history. Highly recommend if you’re wanting to try some authentic Irish food and get great recommendations to try outside of the tour sites.

My wife and I had a tour with Ray, and while he was pleasant enough, we thought he was just going through a script, sort of a “rewind/play” of other pre-packaged tours that he’d done in the past. After the tour we looked back at the original description that our travel agent had given us (that I imagine was supplied by Flavour Trails) and realized that there was a disconnect between the description and what we actually received. At the beginning of the tour Ray indicated that there would be five stops, and after he departed at the end of the tour we wondered what the fifth stop was, as we only counted four. It turns out that in the Powerscourt center (where Flavour Trails is located) there's a bake shop that Ray stopped in front of (as it was closed) and handed us a box of sweets. So that was the fifth stop... not quite what we would have thought based on "freshly baked sweet treats" as shown in the original description, so it's a bit misleading. Also misleading was the "guided whiskey tasting" which reading that, to us, meant more than one, but that's all it was, just one pour of whiskey and a few minutes later off to the next stop. Going into a pub for fish & chips Ray told us that drinks were not included. We didn't want to get into an argument but my wife and I both thought "what?!". And the final nail in the coffin was the final stop at another pub to pull our own pints of Guinness. Ray didn't mention anything about the cost of the beer not being included, but he wrapped up the tour script and blew out of there before we were handed a bill, only to find out that the beers were on us and not included in the price we paid. We paid a bunch of money for the private tour, and what we got wasn't worth anything close to that, and then paying for beers on top of it was just not cool. For a private tour Ray didn’t ask a single question about our likes or dislikes, or else he would’ve found out that my wife doesn’t like whiskey or Guinness, so I wound up drinking both mine and hers, instead of her being offered an alternative liquor and beer. Also, the food that we were given was pretty basic (fish and chips, and a small plate of a few deli meats and cheeses at a food shop), all things that we could eat at home and don’t have to go to Dublin for. So all in all it really was not a good experience, and we would not recommend this operator to anybody.

We went on a fantastic food tour with Gràinne this afternoon. A great mix of story telling, history, recommendations and of course some amazing food (and drinks). This is our second food tour with FlavourTrails as we loved it so much the first time, we came back again!

Wonderful way to see Dublin and get a taste of the city. Grainne led us on a fun, informative and tasty tour of Dublin.

A very nice statue of William Lecky on the Trinity College campus.

Freestanding bronze statue of Henry Grattan, executed by John Henry Foley, erected 1876. Surmounting square-profile dressed limestone pedestal with incised name plaques to recessed panels on stepped dressed limestone base with scrolled brackets. Two former gas lamp standards with carved sea horses to east. Located on traffic island to centre of College Green facing Trinity College.

A deceptively attractive man of his time, a bygone age, who was extremely biased and idealistic but had his heart in the right place. His statue has always been contentious but less than the successfully toppled Parnell. Leaving the rest of this review in his own words, "I will remain anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her fall."

Getting to it, it's amidst a high traffic area, be mindful of the cars.

Fine food, good selection of whiskey.

You find thé statue of Henry Grattan on an prime location inbetween thé Bank of Ireland and thé main entrance of Trinity College. A lot of traffic there. Thé statue stands like on a small island.

In front of trinity college. It’s a meeting point for many tours. Can get quite busy.

Nice to learn about the history of Ireland. It's located next to the old college.