6 Days in Dublin

To see the Cliffs of Moher as a day trip would make for an extremely long day whether you did it by rental car or took a train to Galway and take part in a tour (the Cliffs are about 1.5 hours from Galway and Galway is about 3 hours from Dublin). Same with the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

While your Dad has work obligations and can't leave Dublin, maybe you and your Mom would want to consider spending 1 night in Western or Northern Ireland.

If you go to Howth for the day, King Sitric is a very good place to eat if you like seafood. But it may be full of tourists now as Anthony Bourdain profiled it in one of his shows on Ireland.

One "museum" you might be interested in is a tour of a Georgian home, 29 Georgian House, at 29 Lower Mount St. It is walking distance from the Temple Bar area, and is just off Merrion Square.

As for your other day trip, you might consider Newgrange and the Boyne River valley area. You could do Hill of Tara or Trim on the same day, easily.

Newgrange would be a good option for a day trip as mentioned above. Its less than an hour north of Dublin city centre. Hire your car from Dublin airport if you can rather than the city. It maybe handy for getting back to the airport for your flight home. Cliffs of Moher would be a very long day trip, about 4 hours drive from Dublin and thats going good. If you leave dublin early get there for noon its your only chance. But it will be along day. If you had time 2 days would be better.

If you are an "American twenty-something" then read this blog post on Dublin, seems right for you: http://blog.isango.com/2009/04/07/dublin-ireland-tourist-style/

At least this is for the "tourist" part of your stay!

Irish Rail Tours does day trips to both the Giants Causeway and the Cliffs of Mohr. www.irishrailtours.com. I have taken the Causeway tour and it certainly is worth while. Either one of these trips driving on your own would make for an extremely long day.

Newgrange is a good choice for a day trip and you have an option to add Knowth to your tour. It is another neolithic tomb like Newgrange. Do keep in mind that there is a procedure to visit these sights and it does take some time. You purchase a ticket at the visitor center and are assigned a specific time for the bus that takes you to each of the sights. Depending on how busy they are determines how long you may have to wait. It could be an hour or more. Rick covers this in his book.

If you rent a car, there are some other interesting sights in the same area: Monasterboice, Old Mellifont Abbey, Hill of Slane and Bective Abbey. These are all free (except Mellifont if you take the tour) and you can spend as much time as you want to just roam around. Trim Castle has a guided tour and there are a few other ruins close by that are worth a look if you are interested. Trim Castle was used in the film Braveheart.

Powerscourt and Glendalough are excellent choices. In case you missed it just before St. Patrick's Day, the Today Show was at Powerscourt for two days.

While in Dublin, if you like Guiness, do the tour thing and have your pint in the Gravity Bar for a great 360 view of Dublin.

I spent a week in Dublin in March, and wished I was there for a longer period of time! You don't say when you are going, but right now pretty much all museums in Dublin are closed on Mondays, but in May/June a few of them will be open.

Here was my itinerary:

-arrived Monday afternoon, walked around to get my bearings, visited St Patrick's and then attended an evensong service that evening
-Tuesday visit to Dublin City Hall to see the exhibit on the history of Dublin, then to the Chester Beatty Library (highly recommended!),visit to Museum of History and Archeology (also highly recommended!)
-Wednesday day trip with Mary Gibbons Tours to Hill of Tara and Newgrange - it was a great tour to take; Musical Pub Crawl at night
-Thursday day trip with Wild Wicklow Tours to Glendalough
-Friday visit to Kilmainham Gaol, Christ Church, wandering and souvenir shopping
-Saturday met up with tour group, toured Guinness factory, visit to Jameson distillery
-Sunday went to mass at St Mary's, visited the Book of Kells and Trinity College, and then the Museum of Decorative Arts & History (I enjoyed it, but if you have to pick, I'd do Archeology over Decorative Arts)

That was my week in a nutshell! I was worried at first that it was way too long to spend in one place, but in the end it went by so fast - but then again I am a person who easily spends three hours in each museum and each time was wishing for more time. Definitely make the tourist center one of your first stops.

we went to Johnnie Fox's Pub in the Wicklow mountains one night for dinner. We had a table close to where 2 guys played guitar later in the night maybe around 10pm or so. First song the played was Take Me Home, Country Roads...I think maybe a Snow Patrol song also, some Irish songs...was a bit of a struggle to find the place. Some of my Irish internet friends say they take out of towners there. They also have a separate area where they put on a small show- costs extra. We ate at Gallagher's Boxty House in the Temple Bar area. A boxty is an Irish potato pancake and they stuff it like a crepe. We also stopped for tea and scones at Bewley's Cafe on Grafton Street. Had a drink at the Octagon Bar...just went because I love U2. They own the hotel it is in.

Did the Book of Kells and Trinity College little tour with a student guide. The best thing about the Guinness brewery tour is the pint at the Gravity Bar. The view is amazing. The rest of the tour is pretty much all self guided. Supposed to be good seafood in Howth. St. Patrick's had a service and we just walked around the outside. Golf in Ireland is the best! Played Druids Heath in Wicklow and later at Lahinch on the West Coast.

Thanks for all the feedback, keep it coming!

Yes I am a "20-something", parents are in their late 50's but very active.

We're going the 3rd week in September.

Sounds like at least one of the days we'll try to go to Newgrange and Boyne Valley or one of the other longer trips.

We've already got plans to hit up the Guiness Factory, the convention we're going to is actually renting the place out for a dinner - should be great!

Keep it coming!! I did a 3 week trip to Italy this past fall and my RS advice was awesome!!