Dublin Decoded have offered a range of wonderful, in person art tours in various galleries and museums in Dublin for over 10 years, including the Chester Beatty Library, the Municipal Hugh Lane Gallery and most notably, superb private tours of the wonderful National Gallery of Ireland, covering many different aspects of the collections there.
From October 2025, we began running occasional, small group, high-quality, real in-person art excursions, to overseas art destinations overseas.
Our approach focuses on quite high-end, small group tours, staying in good hotels, using good restaurants, no providi flights but we do provides plenty (lots) of cultural “inclusions” We only work with quite small groups too, typically just 10 to 12 guests on each trip.
Our inaugural trip ran from 28th of October to 1st November (inclusive) in 2025 when we visited the magical city of Venice.
This trip included expert tours inside the Basilica San Marco, the Doge’s Palace, Frari Church, the Peggy Guggenheim collection, Zanipolo Church, and the Academia Museum, where we saw works by Titian and members of the Bellini family, and two of Venice’s famous scuole – Scuola Grande di San Rocco to see works by Tintoretto and the mush smaller Scuola Dalmatia, to see the lovely paintings of Carpaccio.
This was all in addition to an entire series of superb, expert-led walking tours of the beautiful city of Venice itself, led by the outstanding Francesca.
Entry tickets to all sites and museums were included in our trip, including expert commentary by Francesca and by Arran, as well as four nights accommodation, breakfast each morning at our exceptional hotel, plus a welcome and farewell dinner.
We were fully subscribed – with 12 guests – and the trip was an enormous success.
Following the great success of that Venice trip, we made a second excursion, this time to the wonderful city of Rouen, in Normandy, France, This trip took place in May of 2026, and was also adjudged a great success. if you wish to watch online talk we delivered, a few weeks before that Art of Rouen trip, press here.
You can also see some great images, of both those two first trips, below. It is now anticipated however, that these two overseas tours will be just the first of many such trips over the next 5-10 years. Future trips will include Rome, and separately Florence, Bruges and Brussels and excitingly, the Venento (Padua, Verona and Vicenza) and Mantua.
Our next trip however, will be to Rome, in April of 2027. It is anticipated in fact that demand is such that we are running two trips (two groups) to Rome, on two consecutive weeks in. April 2027, with the respective dates as follows:
Trip one: Ultimate Rome: Monday 12th to Thursday 15th April, inclusive
Trip two: Ultimate Rome, deluxe: Monday 19th to Thursday 22nd, inclusive.
Note that at this moment, these dates are confirmed, and definitive, but that booking is not yet open. This is a save the dates only stage, at the moment. As part of build-up to the trip (purely optional) I will be running one of my 8-week winter online art history and appreciation courses,
Arran’s Ultimate Guide to Italian Art
Eight Online Art talks:
starts Tuesday 5th of January 2027.
This is of course, open to everyone, not just people who decide to join us in Rome. It will be the perfect Winter treat.
To see details, or prices and other information for our two, wonderful 5-day trips to Rome in Mid-April 2027, go to this page, and if you’d like to book, please follow the exact procedure described there. If on the other hand, you would like to join our next overseas art tours, in general, any-time over the next few years, yes, explore the menus on this his website, for details of our past and future trips. And crucially, make sure also you’re subscribed to the Dublin Decoded newsletters. If you sign up to that, make sure you also approve the confirmation email (or you will not be subscribed).
Image above: wit my guests in October 2025, at the eternally beautiful San Zaccaria altarpiece, by Giovanni Bellini, still where it was intended and painted for, in the church of the same name. Somewhere we always go to visit when in Venice.
exploring the lanes between the half timbered houses of Rouen, Normandy, with my guests, in May, ’26, and below, On our expert- architect led tour, exploring the stunning Gothic architecture of the gigantic, abbey church of saint-Ouen, in the city of Rouen, May 2026.
above: Arran leading a tour, and the discussion on a Caravaggio, and other masterworks, at the MBA Rouen, May, 2025; below, the superb Gothic cathedral of Rouen, one of the architectural masterpieces we visited, and (as painted by Claude Monet) another painting we viewed and discussed in the Rouen MBA
an incredible finale to our May 2026 trip to France, and just a few miles outside of Paris too, although you would never know it! In the beautiful village of Auvers-sur-Oise, the final home, creative hub, and the resting place, of Vincent van Gogh.
If you would like to join any of our Dublin architecture and history tours, and/or our Dublin private art tours, or indeed, any of our next overseas art tours, in general, any time over the next few years, then yes, explore the menus on this his website, for details of our past and future trips.
But also, crucially, do make sure you are subscribed to the Dublin Decoded newsletters. And if you sign up to that, make sure you approve the confirmation email (or you will not be subscribed)
See you on tour.
– Arran Henderson.
