Dublin layover

You're going to need to be inside the airport by 9:30 am to check in for your Prague connecting flight, and earlier than that the main tourist points of interest in Dublin will not be open. Not to mention morning rush hour traffic. And then it's always possible your incoming flight may not be on time.

Although spending 6 hours in the airport doesn't sound very interesting, the Dublin airport actually has a really nice shopping area (buy a bunch of postcards and spend an hour writing them -- you can buy stamps to post them home from the airport) as well as food concessions, and newsstands where you can get oriented to magazines and newspapers of interest to Irish readers.

If you are really, really determined to leave the airport and see some of Dublin, your best bet is probably to hire a taxi to simply drive you around to get a glimpse of architectural landmarks like the General Post Office (scene of the 1916 rising) and the psychedelically painted Joyce Hotel. Make sure the driver knows what time you need to be back inside the terminal.

Ah, this question was made for me - a Dublin native who lives in Prague.

If you have to collect your bags and re-check them: there is a left luggage facility in the Excess Baggage shop in Terminal One (you will arrive into Terminal Two). Make your way to Terminal One and drop your bags there.

The easiest way in and out of town is the Dublin Bus 747 service. It costs 10 euro return and it takes 25 minutes go get to the Docklands. You'll head straight down the motorway and through a tunnel, before emerging on the waterfront. Get off the bus at the Convention Centre and then walk along the quays towards the city centre.

Find coffee along the way and then make your way to Trinity, where Old Library opens at 8.30am. I would hit it up as soon as it opens. Then afterwards I would go for breakfast somewhere in the Wicklow St area. After breakfast, talk a walk through Georgian Dublin (Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square) down towards the Grand Canal Dock, cross the river on the Samuel Beckett Bridge and get back on the 747. It goes back down the tunnel and you'll be in the airport in 20 minutes.

Check in for your Prague flight (EI644) will close at 10.45. Therefore you should be in the airport by 10.30. Accordingly, you will need to get back on the bus at 10.00. The tunnel is by far the quickest way to get to the airport.

However, if your bags are already checked through, and you don't have to store and re-check them, then you'll be in plenty of time getting back to the airport at 10.45. Security shouldn't take any more than 10 minutes, and Terminal Two is small and easy to negotiate.

Wonderful!!! I hit the jackpot wth your advice... thanks. Ireland is next on my bucket list .... with a middle name like Kilwarden how could it not be. Trinity is where my ancestors studied and there's a house of significance outside Dublin by the name of 'Fornaughts' .... lots of dots for me to connect. But right now it's my husbands turn to explore his family roots in Nohemia and Bavaria.

Well, Marcus Bradshaw has much more confidence in airport speed & efficiency than I do. "Security shouldn't take any more than 10 minutes, and Terminal Two is small and easy to negotiate." Maybe it's my numerous experiences at US airports in major metropolitan areas, but I always aim to be in the airport 2 hours before departure time.

Our most recent departure from Dublin was a cliff-hanger because the airline had somehow not coded us for the automatic machine check-in. We had to wait in several lines, still could not check in, and finally found a human airline agent who had to hunt for us in the computer for several minutes before we could proceed to security.

Getting there too close to departure is a little stressful for me as well, but don't think we'd need 2 hours. We arrive in Term. 2 and depart for Prague from Term. 2 (Aer Lingus both times).