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Dublin Sights & Itinerary Help

Posted by (Michigan, United States) on

We are planning a trip to Ireland next May. I'm working on planning how many nights to stay in Dublin & wanted to ask for input to see if my proposed itinerary would work.

Day 1 Arrive Dublin early morning (8:25am), leave luggage at hotel then visit Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral & Dublinia. Back to the hotel for a rest before dinner at a pub.

Day 2 We will have until 2pm before joining a tour so I thought see the National Gallery and/or National Museum. If there's time, I would do both. Our CIE tour plans a visit to Trinity College and the Book of Kells as well as a walking tour of Dublin. Dinner is on our own so I thought we'd head to the Temple Bar area and find somewhere to eat, drink & listen to music. The next morning we leave Dublin to tour Ireland.

Day 3 After the tour, which ends after breakfast that morning, see Kilmainham Gaol (which I shall prebook before we leave home), Guinness Storehouse, St Patrick's Cathedral and St Stephens Green. I definitely want to find the Brazen Head so if we haven't already, will do it that night. Dinner at a pub. (Can you tell we like pubs? LOL)

  1. Am I missing anything that is a Do Not Miss?
  2. This is 3 nights in Dublin. Is that enough?
  3. Yes we did end up deciding to join a tour instead of self touring. Not sure if we'll regret that or not but at least its less for me to plan & worry about.

Thanks for any input you have. This will be our first time in Ireland, where my roots are and I am SO EXCITED about our trip!

Posted by
1172 posts

Depending on jet lag and how well you slept or did not sleep on the plane, Day 1 may be a little activity heavy. I know our first day was a bit of a write off for us :)

Brazen head was fantastic. The food was amazing so I would eat there and not just go for the evening. In Temple bar, we really enjoyed The Boxty House.. try the coddle which you will only find in Dublin.

We all fell in love with Ireland.. I am sure you will too :)

Posted by
3895 posts

Take away fish and chips at Leo Burdock's. There are a few around Dublin, one close to the castle. Check their website. I can equate every trip with food!

Posted by
3122 posts

Will your first nights in Dublin be a Friday and/or Saturday night? We made the mistake of staying those nights in a hotel on what we thought was a quiet street, well away from Grafton St. and Temple Bar area . . . but from 1 AM to 5 AM each night there was so much partying noise out in the street that we got almost no sleep. A taxi driver told us people fly in to Dublin from all over Europe for bachelor/bachelorette parties ("stag" and "hen" dos) and general carousing. If you haven't settled on a hotel yet, my advice is to inquire about nighttime noise.

Posted by
703 posts

Thanks for the food tips. They are much appreciated. We are all about the pub food. Loved it in London 2 years ago when we went and the portions were so generous that we shared meals. Looking forward to doing the same next year.

Our hotel for the first two nights is through the tour - Clayton Hotel Cardiff Lane which looks quite a bit out of the noisy area. Our last night of the tour is another out of the way hotel, Croke Park Hotel. Neither are weekend nights. We are looking at a more centrally located hotel for the extra night we are spending in Dublin before leaving for Liverpool so I'll be sure and read reviews, making a point to find out about noise levels. Thanks!

Posted by
15607 posts

Dinner in pubs is usually upstairs and away from the action. I believe you can get a pretty limited selection of food downstairs, depends on what's more important to you, the food or the joy. Do put pub lunches on your itinerary - the staple is a big bowl of thick vegetable soup, made daily, served with brown soda bread and butter, for about €5. That and a pint is all you need between your hotel breakfast and dinner . . . well, you may want another pint as a pick-me-up later in the afternoon.

What I learned in Temple Bar: walk into a pub and check it out - if you like the music and the ambiance, get your drinks from the bar and find a place to sit or stand. If not, just amble out and go into the next one. There seemed to be live music at a few pubs from early afternoon, more as the sun dropped. Explore the pubs. Each one is a warren of rooms, and you never know what you'll find - interesting photos, a game of darts, a cozy nook.

One of my favorite things was the Literary Pub Crawl. One of my least favorite things was the StoryTelling evening at Brazen Head. It was way too touristy, the story-teller was often hard to hear and pretty boring, and the food was mediocre. As I left, the music and atmosphere downstairs was terrific. I wished I'd not spent a huge sum for the performance and just spent the evening at the pub, listening to great music and getting some chips or whatnot.

My favorite museum in Dublin was the National Archaeology Museum - it is really, really, really interesting and well worth a couple hours. I was underwhelmed by the National Gallery. National Museum - do you mean Collins Barracks? I enjoyed it, mostly military stuff.

Quirky thing - I went to the Leprechaun Museum. It's gimmicky but fun. The guide (it's a guided experience) was very enthusiastic and her stories were excellent (many more than at the Brazen Head) and I did learn a lot about leprechauns as folk history.

I also went to plays at the Gate and Abbey Theatres. Both were excellent and a lot cheaper than they would have been in London. I was in Dublin for 2 days at the end of a 2 week tour and then on my own for 5 days. If 3 nights is all you have, so be it, but if you can manage 1-2 more, you won't regret it.

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