Guide

Dublin, Ireland

A few days in Dublin

The must-sees, good deals and tips for a first visit

Flight & transferMust-seesGetting aroundBeyond Dublin

For my first trip to Ireland, I chose to spend a few days in Dublin with my sister. Here are the main places and activities not to miss on a first visit, with the practical tips that go with them.

✓ Visited in August 2019

✎ Our trip dates from August 2019: the prices we paid are kept as a marker, with current figures alongside. Many have risen sharply — always check the official websites before you go.

01Flight and transfer into the city

Dublin is the largest European capital airport with no direct rail link to the centre — so it's buses or taxis.

Public buses 16 and 41

≈ €2 with a Leap Card, €2.60 in cash

By far the cheapest, but the slowest: allow 45 minutes to an hour, with every local stop and no luggage racks. Route 16 runs 24 hours.

Express coaches

Dublin Express, Aircoach · from €6 to €9

Direct, with luggage holds, 25 to 35 minutes into the centre. Cheaper booked online than at the airport desk.

Taxi

≈ €25 to €35

Pricier but simpler, especially late at night or in a group. Taxis are metered and regulated.

We took the bus on the way in, then the Airlink from O'Connell Street on the way back, for a 6:15am flight — a direct 30-minute run.

✎ Careful: don't count on the Airlink. The status of that blue express service has changed since our trip, and sources contradict each other: some say it was suspended and replaced by the Dublin Express and Aircoach coaches, others that it still runs. Check the airport website before booking, and keep routes 16 or 41 as a fallback.

On the way

02The must-sees

1. Guinness Storehouse & St James' Gate

Ireland means beer, and beer means Guinness. In an industrial setting on St James's Gate, in Dublin 8 — allow at least 3 hours, and a skip-the-line ticket is worth it. The visit ends with a pint at the Gravity Bar, with a 360° view over the city.

Our entry, pint included (2019)€25

Current price, from≈ €22 online · more at the door

✎ Book online: it's cheaper than at the door, and the Storehouse is one of the three Dublin sites that regularly sell out, along with Kilmainham Gaol and the Book of Kells.

Guinness Storehouse

2. Trinity College, Old Library & Book of Kells

A prestigious university founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I — the only one in Dublin open to visitors. Its Old Library holds the Long Room, a 65-metre barrel-vaulted chamber and one of the most photographed libraries in the world.

The Book of Kells itself is an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels, made by monks around the year 800 — begun on the Scottish island of Iona and finished at Kells, in Ireland, after Viking raids. It's the most visited attraction in the country.

Our entry, library and Book of Kells (2019)€8

Current price, "Book of Kells Experience"from €26

✎ The visit has been completely reworked: it's now called the Book of Kells Experience and adds a digital exhibition to the route. Entry is by timed slot, online only, and summer slots go days in advance.

✎ The library is also undergoing a major conservation programme. Part of the collection has been taken off the shelves and the Long Room's layout is changing: check what's on view at the time of your visit.

✎ The Trinity campus itself is free to walk through during the day. If the ticket feels steep, the main square alone is worth the detour.

Trinity College

Old Library

3. Ha'Penny Bridge & the River Liffey

The famous footbridge over the Liffey, built in 1816. Its name comes from the half-penny toll you had to pay to cross it, which wasn't dropped until the early 20th century.

Ha'Penny Bridge

River Liffey

4. Temple Bar

The liveliest quarter in the city — cobbled streets packed with pubs, Irish atmosphere and fiddles playing. Happy hour or early bird, everything is there for a memorable night out. You'll also find the Hard Rock Cafe, traditional and specialist restaurants, and plenty of souvenir shops.

✎ It's also, by some distance, where a pint costs the most in Dublin. Come for the atmosphere and the music, but walk a few streets further to eat and drink at normal prices.

Temple Bar

5. St Patrick's Cathedral

Founded in 1191 in honour of Ireland's patron saint — one of Dublin's most important monuments, in Dublin 8, surrounded by a large and restful park.

✎ Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, was its dean for more than thirty years. He's buried in the nave, under an epitaph he wrote himself.

St Patrick's Cathedral

6. Christ Church Cathedral

Also known as the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity — easy to reach, a step away from Temple Bar. Its medieval crypt, one of the largest in Ireland, is open to visitors.

✎ It holds Dublin's oddest curiosity: a mummified cat and rat, found stuck inside an organ pipe in the 19th century. Dubliners named them Tom and Jerry.

Christ Church

7. Dublin Castle

Founded in the 13th century in the heart of the city and largely rebuilt in the 18th. It was the seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922.

Our entry (2019)€4.50

Current price, self-guided≈ €8

Current price, guided tour≈ €12

✎ The castle courtyards are free to walk through — and the Chester Beatty Library, inside the grounds, is free too. Its illuminated manuscripts easily rival the ones people pay to see elsewhere, and it's far less crowded.

Dublin Castle

8. Kilmainham Gaol

A former prison built in 1796, where public hangings once took place outside the building — now decommissioned and turned into a museum. It has also served as a film set: The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Michael Collins, In the Name of the Father, The Italian Job. We didn't visit it ourselves.

✎ It is nonetheless the most history-laden place in Dublin: the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were held here and then shot in the yard, which shifted Irish opinion profoundly and opened the way to independence.

Adult ticket≈ €8

Guided tour length≈ 1h

✎ Visits are by guided tour only, and booking online is compulsory. Slots go days, sometimes weeks, in advance: turning up without a ticket means being turned away.

9. Grafton Street, St Stephen's Green & the shopping centre

THE shopping street in Dublin, with shops for every budget and street musicians from morning to night. At the end of the street, the St Stephen's Green shopping centre, recognisable by its striking architecture, with a view over the park of the same name from the food court.

St Stephen's Green

Shopping Centre

03Getting around the city

Dublin is a human-sized city, perfectly walkable. To go faster or further, buses and the tram — the Luas — cover the city.

✎ What has changed since our trip: the Leap Card. This rechargeable card covers bus, tram, DART and commuter trains at fares well below cash. Above all it applies the 90-minute fare: €2 for an adult, with every connection made within the following hour and a half included. There's also an unlimited Leap Visitor Card, for 1, 3 or 7 days.

✎ In cash, drivers still give no change: you drop the exact fare into an automatic box. All the more reason to pick up a Leap Card at the airport.

04Beyond Dublin

A full day booked for Connemara and Galway, through Get Your Guide.

Our full-day excursion / person (2019)€38

Return coach travel

Included in the price. Three possible pick-up points: Paddy's Palace, Suffolk Street, O'Connell Street.

The lakes of Connemara

The drive and photo stops through incredible landscapes.

The village of Cong

A walk round the village and the ruins of Cong Abbey. This is where John Ford shot The Quiet Man with John Wayne in 1952 — the village still lives off it.

Galway

Time in the city, European Capital of Culture in 2020.

✎ It's a very long day — more than four hours on the road, there and back. Bring snacks, and put it mid-trip rather than the day before your flight home.