Dublin - Pub Crawl suggestions?

Just an FYI - if you love fish-n-chips, look for Leo Burdocks. It is a take away place, a few around Dublin.

On our September 2018 trip, we didn’t do a Pub Crawl, but we did spend some time at The Cobblestone pub, which had fantastic traditional music. Musicians came and went, playing together as people joined or headed out. It was a fairly cosy space, and we got seats arriving in late afternoon, but some later arrivals stood. It’s been historically known as an Irish music scene.

One place to avoid is the much-hyped Temple Bar area. Didn’t frequent pubs there, so don’t know what it’s like earlier on the say or evening, but walking through it, back to our apartment from the theater at night, it was drunk kids less than half your age, and guys urinating on the sidewalks outside. Not fun.

We took this pub tour in Nov. 2019. Our guide was amazing--a young man who loved Dublin, good drinks, and loved to talk. We all felt like we were old friends with him by the end of the tour. I wish we had taken the free Dublin city walking tour by this same company. Would have tipped him (he also does the free city walking tour) a lot more than the guide who we paid for from a different company who wasn't very good.

ETA: The tour did not visit the touristy Temple Bar area. The last stop was a pub with traditional music--a very small place with locals performing. You could stay and enjoy as long as you liked.

We were there in August 2018 and had great time doing a musical pub crawl.
https://www.musicalpubcrawl.com/
We also used Dublin Tour Company for our day trip to Cliffs of Moher. They even had an option to stay over night and come back the next day. Both were in RS Best of Ireland book.

Are you looking for day trips from Dublin or a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher from Dublin? If the former, there are a number of tours to consider. One would be to the Neolithic sites of Newgrange and the Boyne Valley. The Mary Gibbons tour is probably the best. Other day trips include those that go to the monastic site of Glendalough, the gardens of Powerscourt, the Rock of Cashel and the town of Kilkenny. There are a number of different tour companies that include stops at any of those locations.

Day trips to the Cliffs of Moher from Dublin exist but it is an extremely long day - start at 6:30 AM and back at 6:30 PM with about half that time spent on the bus in transit. Visiting the Cliffs from Galway would make much more sense.

A number of people have asked questions about castle stays in Ireland. If you search the forum (grey bar at the top of the page) you can find those threads.

We enjoyed the Sunday afternoon gig at the Brazen Head so much that our trip next summer is being planned around putting us in Dublin on Sunday. We stayed around the corner from the Cobblestone and were there at least once a day. They have pretty much continuous music all day. There's actually a lot of good music all over the city.

Even in June, crowds can be a problem everywhere. Getting to the bar or a seat takes patience or well timed arrival.

If you're more interested history and atmosphere, you probably want to start early before the crowds build. Since most music starts at 9:30pm or later, maybe that's not that hard.

Maybe try John Kehoe, O'Donoghues, and Dawson Lounge outside of Temple Bar. I'd also wander through Temple Bar and hit a few of them there as well.

We liked Searson's. Good food. Lively atmosphere. We did not enjoy anything in Temple Bar.

The Dublin Literary Pub Crawl is superb. Hopefully it will be up and running by the time you visit. The tour is led by two actors who alternate telling stories while the other keeps the group together. My tour stopped at 3 pubs, just long enough to enjoy a half pint before moving on.

I enjoyed pub crawling on my own in Temple Bar. There's live music in a lot of the pubs from early afternoon. Best to linger for a while in a pub and decide if you like the atmosphere/music before committing to a drink. The music varies from pub to pub.