Tell me about Dublin?

[Bernadine]

I think I have h talked into it, in early June.  Tell me everything!

[letsgetweird]

I would only spend a day or two in Dublin and then explore other areas of the country

[just]

Most people don't go to Ireland for Dublin, BUT if you can only do Dublin - it's a great town and there's a lot of shit to do

Book of Kells and Trinity College; the Old Library is so beautiful. 
Guinness and Jameson
Kilmainham Jail
Grafton Street
Our parks - St. Stephens Green, Merrion Square, Iveagh Gardens, St. Anne's on the North side, Phoenix Park
Croagh park stadium and learning about Irish games - Hurling and GAA
Our art and history museums  

Then slightly out of the city but on the DART (city train)
- Howth is my favorite place in the world - Cliff walk followed by fish and chips on the pier and an evening drinking
- I grew up 10 minutes from the Clontarf seafront and I can believe now how lucky I was. Sand dunes, nature, windswept - you feel that you're a million miles from anywhere, but it's 20 minutes from the city.
- On the other end - Killiney is beautiful with a wonderful view of the south bay

You can also do day trips with tours to Newgrange (older than the pyramids), Glendalough, and even over to the Cliffs of Moher, though I would save that for a time you can hire a car

A day trip, or an overnight by train to Belfast is cool too especially if you're interested in a Black cab tour. Though I haven't been since Brexit.

In Dublin, there's lots of great pubs and restaurants and night life that will give you an authentic taste of Ireland - not all of us live down the country.

[lo]

We did a really fun bike tour. This was like 8 years ago, but I’m sure they still exist! It’s a small city so you can bike all over.

[just]

Also because clearly I love talking about this, here is some other info I give people who ask ...

- If you’re looking to grab a sandwich to go, Marks and Spencer’s food hall (on Grafton St. and Mary St) have a good selection. If you have a sweet tooth, pick up a bag of Percy Pig candy. Not Irish as such, but a big part of Dublin for real people.
- Alternatively Spar, Centra and other convenience stores do good deli sandwiches - Chicken Fillet Baguettes are particularly Irish
- A full Irish Breakfast, preferably at a non-hipster cafe, bar or bed & breakfast
- If you like Orange Soda - Club Orange, Club RockShandy or Club Lemon are yummy and very Irish. You can buy at stores or bars. Lilt is a grapefruit/pineapple soda that some people love.
- Shops like Spar, Centra, Dunnes, etc. have a huge selection of IcePops (Ice cream bars and popsicles). Some of them are truly bizarre and yummy - I like Loop the Loops, Tangle Twisters, Fat Frogs, Brunch, Cornettos … try some!
- Shops also have tons of wonderful chocolate bars. I like Toffee Crisps, Double Deckers, Purple Snacks, Flakes, Moros. These are great gifts for people at home
- You have to try Irish Potato Chips (which we call them crisps). The most famous (and delicious in my opinion) are Cheese and Onion Tayto, but there are a huge range in stores under the chocolate display by the cash register. They come in small single serving bags so buy some and just try them out. (Stay away from Walker brand – those are British, not Irish)
- If you’re really adventurous – try a Tayto sandwich. Cheese and Onion Tayto crisps on Irish sliced pan white bread with Irish butter!
- An irish carvery is a great experience. Lots of pubs do it, but I used to recommend O'Neills on Suffolk street because it's great and they're open lunch and dinner, and the space is cool. But I haven't been there since covid.

[Susie]

I've taken two trips of about 10-14 days in Ireland, and only went to Dublin at all on one of them, and only for 2-3 days.  It was nice, but I enjoyed other parts of the country more.

Kilmainham Gaol was one of the best things we did.  We also visited the GPO, Trinity College, Book of Kells, and the Jameson's distillery and Guinness brewery.  The latter two were totally tourist traps but the upper floor views from Guinness were pretty great.

If you have any interest in Irish history, that makes it richer.  I read a lot about the Easter Rising, the formation of the Irish Free State, the Troubles, etc. before my 2nd trip and going to Dublin.  Highly recommend.

We also went to Derry on that trip, and man.  That hit hard.

[Bernadine]

So, if not Dublin, where should we look to go?

[laurack]

Eh Dublin is just another city. Now those of us from Cork like to call that the “real capital”🤣

Seriously though I agree a day or two in Dublin is fine but if you have a week or more there you can see quite a bit of Ireland! In fact I’d rather fly in and out of Shannon and explore the west coast -it’s beautiful! You can visit the cliffs of Moher, take the ferry from doolin to Inishmore for a day or a night after flying into Shannon, then drive down the coast and explore the Kerry way.

Pack a raincoat 😀



ETA you can also fly into Dublin and explore the west coast - everything in Ireland is not very far

[dochas]

Drive through it to get to Wicklow.

[mbcdefg]

Mar 10, 2022 20:37:54 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

So, if not Dublin, where should we look to go?

I liked Kinsale a lot.

[Susie]

My first trip my mom and I flew into and out of Shannon.  Drove to Galway, spent a few days driving in and around Connemara, took a ferry to Inishmore (Aran Islands). Then drove through the Burren, down through Doolin to the Cliffs of Moher, down to the Dingle Peninsula.  We drove around the Dingle Peninsula, skipped the Ring of Kerry, but went to Kenmare, Cork, and Cobh, then back to Shannon.  We aimed to stay about 2-3 nights per B&B.  It's tiring to move a lot more frequently.

I really enjoyed the Dingle Peninsula, the Aran Islands, and Connemara.  Someday I'll do ROK.  I'd also like to visit Skellig Michael.

On my second trip H and I flew into Dublin, stayed for the weekend, then drove north to Northern Ireland.  Saw Giant's Causeway, Bushmill's Distillery, then headed west.  Visited Derry, which, like I mentioned above, was a lot.  Then on to Donegal, which was quiet people wise, blustery weather wise, and lovely.  From there we went across Sligo, down through the Burren, and took a ferry to Inisheer (different island in the Aran Islands).  Then when it was time to go home, we cut across back to Dublin.

I missed Belfast area, and all of southeast Ireland.  Someday will go back for those.

What I would recommend depends a lot of what you want to do.  Are you into history?  Trad music?  Landscape/outdoors? 

[maudefindlay]

pandce.proboards.com/thread/625100/ireland-scotland-trip-2022

My response is in this thread. We only did a day or two in Dublin.

[Whitecaps]

Mar 10, 2022 20:37:54 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

So, if not Dublin, where should we look to go?

Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. A great combo of tiny towns, stunning scenery and nights full of Irish music in small local pubs. 

[letsgetweird]

Go to the west coast! I went on a 4 day tour starting in Dublin > Connemara > Galway > Cliffs of Moher > Dingle > Killarney

[Susie]

Also - early June is a great time to go!  I think my two trips were June and May.

If you opt to travel around rather than stay in Dublin, pay particular attention to renting a car with an automatic transmission if you will want it.  We did manual both times, but I drive manual daily at home, so it was not too bad.  I drove a lot both trips.  If you don't drive manual regularly, it's hard to adapt to driving on the left, going the opposite way around roundabouts, and shifting with your left hand.  At the same time, the gear box is arranged the same as at home (1st on the upper left), and the pedals are the same (clutch on the left).  The fact that some aspects of driving are swapped and some not is harder than if everything was.

[ellipses84]

I spent 3 days in Dublin because one of my BFFs was working in Dublin and living in a little town outside of it. We’d take the bus into work with her and do touristy things. One of my favorite things was the day we went to the Guinness Factory and had a carvery meal at The Brazen Head nearby which is the oldest pub in Dublin. That was a little further away from everything else. We did all the other touristy stuff, shopping and more pubs on the other two days since it’s all an easy walk and you can fit in a lot.

Her fiancé drove us around the countryside and we went to Newgrange, various castles and the Irish Sea. If I went in June I’d spend more time on the coast, and probably skip Newgrange unless you are very into archeology or the history of that region. Newgrange was interesting to see and the coast was freezing when we went in late March, so I was glad we did it.

[candreco]

How long are you going to be there? DH and I did Ireland for our honeymoon a million years ago, I think we were there about 12 days in April and found it to be a really easy place to hop from area to area. Our itinerary was:

- fly into Dublin, stayed a couple days before renting a car
- drove to Wexford Co. and saw Hook Head Lighthouse, spent the night at a fancy manor house hotel
- from there to Killarney (stopped in Waterford along the way) and stayed there for a few days with day trips out to Dingle, etc.,
- up to Ennis for a couple days, day trips to the Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher, the Burren from there
- then Galway, probably our favorite town to wander/hang out in, again based ourselves there for a few days
- back to Dublin, returned the car, spent a last couple of days there in a different part of the city (I think everything we did in Dublin was in what just posted)

We loved it so much that we're planning to take the kids back with us next year for our 15th anniversary.

[Bernadine]

Mar 10, 2022 20:40:57 GMT -5 laurack said:

Eh Dublin is just another city. Now those of us from Cork like to call that the “real capital”🤣

Seriously though I agree a day or two in Dublin is fine but if you have a week or more there you can see quite a bit of Ireland! In fact I’d rather fly in and out of Shannon and explore the west coast -it’s beautiful! You can visit the cliffs of Moher, take the ferry from doolin to Inishmore for a day or a night after flying into Shannon, then drive down the coast and explore the Kerry way.

Pack a raincoat 😀



ETA you can also fly into Dublin and explore the west coast - everything in Ireland is not very far

So, Dublin is by far the cheapest to fly in and out of. Rick Steves recommends like 2-3 days in Dublin, then the Dingle Peninsula. Thoughts?

[aspentosh]

Mar 11, 2022 9:57:26 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Mar 10, 2022 20:40:57 GMT -5 laurack said:

Eh Dublin is just another city. Now those of us from Cork like to call that the “real capital”🤣

Seriously though I agree a day or two in Dublin is fine but if you have a week or more there you can see quite a bit of Ireland! In fact I’d rather fly in and out of Shannon and explore the west coast -it’s beautiful! You can visit the cliffs of Moher, take the ferry from doolin to Inishmore for a day or a night after flying into Shannon, then drive down the coast and explore the Kerry way.

Pack a raincoat 😀



ETA you can also fly into Dublin and explore the west coast - everything in Ireland is not very far

So, Dublin is by far the cheapest to fly in and out of. Rick Steves recommends like 2-3 days in Dublin, then the Dingle Peninsula. Thoughts?

Dingle was my favorite place we went. I also posted in the link that maudefindley linked about our itinerary, but we did all that laurack said, too. We were there for almost 2 weeks and did a clockwise circle starting and ending in Dublin. Saw a ton and was happy with time in each place (no more than 3 days). I'm glad we did Dublin, but 2.5 days was plenty.

[laurack]

Mar 11, 2022 9:57:26 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Mar 10, 2022 20:40:57 GMT -5 laurack said:

Eh Dublin is just another city. Now those of us from Cork like to call that the “real capital”🤣

Seriously though I agree a day or two in Dublin is fine but if you have a week or more there you can see quite a bit of Ireland! In fact I’d rather fly in and out of Shannon and explore the west coast -it’s beautiful! You can visit the cliffs of Moher, take the ferry from doolin to Inishmore for a day or a night after flying into Shannon, then drive down the coast and explore the Kerry way.

Pack a raincoat 😀



ETA you can also fly into Dublin and explore the west coast - everything in Ireland is not very far

So, Dublin is by far the cheapest to fly in and out of. Rick Steves recommends like 2-3 days in Dublin, then the Dingle Peninsula. Thoughts?

Dingle is wonderful!! We were there last august and it was delightful. So yes, that would be great! There’s some good hikes too if you’re into that.

[wise_rita]

Book your entry to Trinity College library/Book of Kells in advance otherwise you'll waste time waiting in line.

Eat boxty somewhere.

Bring serious cold and wet weather clothes. I have never seen such horrendous summer weather in my entire life and am still traumatized by it 4 years later.

[bittybomb]

Mar 10, 2022 20:40:57 GMT -5 laurack said:

Eh Dublin is just another city. Now those of us from Cork like to call that the “real capital”🤣

Seriously though I agree a day or two in Dublin is fine but if you have a week or more there you can see quite a bit of Ireland! In fact I’d rather fly in and out of Shannon and explore the west coast -it’s beautiful! You can visit the cliffs of Moher, take the ferry from doolin to Inishmore for a day or a night after flying into Shannon, then drive down the coast and explore the Kerry way.

Pack a raincoat 😀



ETA you can also fly into Dublin and explore the west coast - everything in Ireland is not very far

We are Irish American (my grandparents were all born in Ireland and came to the US at various ages) and my husband's paternal grandfather also came to the US from there.  Our son just came home last week and told us Cork is the real capital of Ireland and it spurred a family debate.