Dublin Dilemma!! need advice.

At that hour you're going to have to rely on a taxi from the city center. It shouldn't be a problem at that hour, your hotel can easily call one for you, if its a larger hotel there should be taxis waiting.

The Dublin city center is very compact and easily walkable, but there is also great bus service throughout. I would suggest the hop-on, hop-off bus for a nice overview tour of the big sites. You can get off at any location, see what you want to see, and get back on when you are ready. The ticket is good for 24 hours. As for tours of the surrounding area, I have two suggestions: Newgrange and the Boyne River valley, and Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains. You'll find lots of tours available to both areas.

Last year, I had a similar situation. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. It was a great(!!!) hotel and quite decently priced. They have a free shuttle. Look them up on line and give them a call (remember they speak English)to check on details about their shuttle. In Dublin, I stayed at the Avalon Hotel (hostel) which was also good value for the money and near a wonderful veggie restaurant. But for the last night, so I wouldn't have any issues getting to the airport on time, I chose the Express. It was a great decision for me.

The Holiday Inn Express would be a great choice. I doubt if their shuttle runs that early but you can check. It is only about 10 minutes or less from departure terminal.

There is an airport shuttle that services all the major clusters of hotels in Dublin. I don't know how early it runs, but I caught the shuttle from the Ballsbridge section of town as early as 5 AM.

I went through the same thing last year while I was in Dublin. We called the night before (you can have your hotel do it for you) to arrange for a taxi to pick us up and bring us to the airport. It wasn't too expensive, but unfortunately, at that time of the morning, there are no other options. No shuttle services (airlink/bus/hotel) run at that time of the morning. Good luck!

Tom is probably referring to aircoach. Their service is 24/7 from the city centre to the airport with stops at major hotels.

I would ask at the front desk about buses to the airport. The airlink bus I took started at around 5:30am. Dublin was so much fun. Do the musical pub crawl. They will give you tips on where to go afterwards for traditional music.

Stay at the the Premier Travel Inn at the Dublin Airport. A taxi will be cheap, and I think they have a shuttle, but it might not run all night. They are a great, budget hotel chain throughout the U.K. and they have 3 inns in Ireland. Good luck

Thanks for all the great advice, I have filed them so that what I don't use this time I might next time! Decided to stay in town and take a cab this trip ...we will see how it works out! Thanks very much!