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Dublin itinerary and your recommendations

Hi everyone—we will be in Dublin for 4 nights before heading elsewhere in Ireland this May. I’d love to get some input on my draft itinerary, and I also have some questions.

Thursday—scheduled flight arrival 7:30 am. Get through the airport and transportation into the city. Drop luggage at hotel (near St Stephen’s Green). Walk on the Green, grab breakfast or lunch depending on when we actually arrive. Afternoon: Jennie Johnson Famine Ship and EPIC combo ticket (I chose this because I’m sure we’ll be jet lagged and the Jennie Johnson tour is only 50 minutes long and even if we only spend a small amount of time in the EPIC, the tickets are good for a return visit for 10 days). Do you think we’d be safe booking for 1:30 or should we book later in case the flight is really delayed? Early dinner and reasonable bedtime.

Friday— morning 3 hr walking tour (including Book of Kells) with a recommended private guide. This is the only thing already booked. We figured we’d navigate the chaos of the Book of Kells crowd and understand/appreciate it more with a knowledgeable guide). Lunch. Afternoon Killmainham Gaol if we can get tickets. Dinner. Evening???

Saturday— morning 14 Henrietta Street (swap this with Killmainham Gaol if we can’t get Gaol tickets for Friday afternoon). Lunch. Afternoon options include Archeology Museum, or whiskey museum 1 hour tour and/or return visit to EPIC. Dinner. Evening?

Sunday — morning anything previously listed that we didn’t get to do or Georgian Walking Tour. Afternoon Chester Beatty Museum; afternoon trad session at Brazen Head. Dinner.

Monday — mid morning train to Galway.

We had hoped to take the Mary Gibbons Newgrange Tour on Saturday or Sunday but I contacted her in December and she was already booked both days. We decided against the other tour operator (Hilltop Treks) or going on our own because either of those options would take several hours longer than the MG tour and we have a lot of traveling once we leave Dublin. We may try to visit Newgrange at the end of our trip the day before we fly home from Dublin.

Questions: I am really torn as to whether to book one of Rick’s recommended Pub Tours— either the traditional pub crawl or the literary pub crawl. If you’ve taken either, what did you like/ dislike and would you recommend? I’m kind of put off by the “maximum group size 65.” Sounds like such a large group. If we don’t do these tours we’ll definitely find a place with trad music on at least one or two nights in Dublin. Plus we’ll be spending time in Galway, Ennis, and Killarney and expect to enjoy a lot of music in those places.

Is there anything I haven’t included that you’d recommend? I’d originally planned on the Guinness Museum but it is expensive and will be very crowded on the weekend (yes I know it would have been better to schedule Dublin for mid week, but that didn’t work for this particular itinerary). Should I rethink and add it in?

How does the itinerary detailed above sound to you?

Thanks!

Posted by
732 posts

AirBnB has a lot of tours you can book--pub crawls, history tours, day trips. They call these "experiences." I wouldn't really recommend the one I did, but the guide was a self-employed human being who knew what he was talking about. An added bonus was that his father and grandfather were born in the same very small village as my grandmother.
Have a look. Maybe you'll find something that appeals to you.

Posted by
1180 posts

There's never any control over delayed flights, so it could be on time; an hour late; 12 hours late. So it's all a guess.
But, in the event your flight arrives on time, you'll likely be on St Stephens Square by 9:30am. So booking a tour at 1:30pm on day of arrival seems more than probable.

We took the Literary Pub Crawl. It's a silly, sort of comical experience. The number of attendees is sort of irrelevant. You meet up in a private room at some pub and then you are in pubs with other pub goers; so they have crowds anyway. It's not like an intimate experience kind of a tour anyway.

I feel like you are overthinking the crowd situation. It's a big city. There are crowds every day of the week. It's just what it is. You aren't going anywhere where there won't be crowds; but everything is manageable. I don't think having a private guide means avoiding a crowd at the Book of Kells. We were on a RS tour and had a local private guide for the Kells but it wasn't like we were the only ones in there. It's perhaps more informative. You'll have a wonderful time in Dublin. Enjoy!

Posted by
577 posts

We really enjoyed the Guinness experience. I am sure there are plenty of YouTube videos that show it. They time tickets so it should not be too crowded. Now Book of Kells does too, but in their case the rooms are tight & I wish they let in less people.

Enjoy