I am looking at a flight on Are Lingus through dublin. On the way home, the flight has a 12+ hour layover arriving in dublin at 1030 pm and leaving again at 11 am. Would we be able to leave the airport, go to a pub and stay in a hotel? Or, will we be stuck in the airport during this time? It is a full $300 cheaper per ticket and we would like have go to a real Irish Pub...:).
Yes, you can leave the airport. Go check into a hotel and get some sleep after visiting the pub.
You won't get into Dublin until close to midnight by the time you get off the plane, get to ground transportation and travel in, let alone finding and checking into a hotel. Unless you really want to go into the city, you might consider checking in somewhere near the airport and going to the nearest local pub. It would save you a lot of time. I'm not sure how late pubs are open on the day you would be there.
Seems to me that by the time you pay for your hotel, meals and ground transport, you've spent nearly $300, plus you are exhausted. I would question whether or not this is really a better deal.
What Nancy said. There are hotels near the airport that offer free shuttles. One we've stayed at was Bewleys, which offers shuttles 24 hours a day, so the hotel part is certainly doable. We snagged a $56/night deal last April thru Orbitz...nice business-class hotel; breakfast is pricey, but they do have coffee/tea in room. Not sure how late any of their restaurants or bars stay open, & don't remember anything much being close by.
The pub bit may be unrealistic because of time & logistics...getting into Dublin (if that's the idea), what to do with luggage, etc. (Dublin airport left luggage facility is only open until 23:00) I suppose, if you could locate a late-open pub near the airport, you could use your hotel's airport shuttle to go back after you check in, and return after you eat. That would make an awfully late night of things, though.
Thank you for all the replies. I actually decided to book round trip tickets from my home airport to dublin. We will be arriving at about 9 am and then booked one way tickets to frankfurt at 7 am. Then on our way back, we fly from naples as we are spending most of our time in Germany and Italy on this trip. We will actually get a day in Dublin on our way in and out. It works out well for us and we can do a a little exploring and are still paying less than if we were to fly into FRA and out of Rome.