Dublin layover

It would be possible to get a quick look, and the best way to do that would be to take the hop-on, hop-off bus tour. You can get on and off at any point, and there is commentary along the way so you know what you are seeing. It's an enjoyable 90 minutes or so (if you don't get off). If you do see an area you'd like to explore closer, just get off, look around, and get back on the next one. Just be sure to leave PLENTY of time to get back to the airport and go back through security before your next flight.

Yes, it is about 14 km to the city center. You can get a shuttle in to town for 6 euros that takes about 40 minutes (rough guess since I don't know what traffic you'll hit). The immigration at that airport took a long time though! So be careful with that! It took almost an hour to go through.

For what to see....just walking around in Dublin was super charming, to me. The shuttle will drop you off at O'Connell Street. Suggestions: Have some fish & chips at Beshoff, have a pint in a pub, do some quick shopping, then shuttle back to the airport. If it's a Saturday and you're quick, you might make it down in to the Temple Bar area for the outdoor organic food market. That might be cutting it close with your layover time though. You'll have to really keep an eye on how long it takes to get out there and how long the security line going back in looks.

The €6 shuttle to which Tamara refers is the Airlink bus. There are two Airlink buses, #747 and #748. Take bus #747 to O'Connell Street. It's €6 one-way and €10 roundtrip. See here.

Note this paragraph on the linked page: "From 15:00hrs - 19:00hrs it can take up to 55 minutes to travel from O'Connell St. to Dublin Airport. Please allow sufficient time to catch your flight."

There is a special deal that combines the Airlink bus with the Hop On/Hop Off bus. You buy the tickets at a machine at the airport next to the bus stop. It costs less than buying the two tickets separately. I did not find that it took long to get through Immigration & Customs. I suppose it depends on what time you arrive and how many other flights are arriving at the same time.

Thank you everyone for the information! Our flight to Dublin lands around 9:15 with our connection leaving at 16:00 so hopefully we would miss some traffic back to the airport. If we left downtown between 13:00 and 13:30, do you think that would allow sufficient time to arrive at the airport? I have never traveled internationally so I'm unaware of going through customs, etc. Thanks again!

Allison - You will go through two different lines, one for Immigration and one for Customs. In Dublin neither one had a long line for us. We went through around 10:30 a.m. You may need to do the same when you come back through the airport to leave.

We recently went through Dublin airport, arriving at around 10:30, and had a HUGE line at passport control. Just be ready for anything.

Check at the bus counter, right by the door to go out and check the buses, about any day passes they have. The airlink buses are part of the Dublin Bus lines, and you can get a day pass for 6 euro, I believe. It took us half an hour to get from the airport to city center.