Dublin tourist recommendations...

[ScottyTeapot]

Hi all,

DH and I are child free for a few days at the end of October (3 days).

Neither if us have ever been to Ireland, so quite fancy a few nights in or near Dublin (we're flying over. )

Looking for recommendations for lovely food, drink, hotels and and craic !

TIA

Merrion Hotel. Gorgeous!

Guinness Brewery
Book of Kells
Shopping on Grafton Street
Open top bus tour
National Gallery

Newgrange.

The Little Museum of Dublin is ace. And 14 Henrietta Street is on my places-to-visit list.

Thanks all!

@WipsGlitter - The Merrion looks incredible, but is wanting £800+ for 3 nights - not sure I can stretch to that :-(

Any more hotel recommendations?

DH will be THRILLED that I'm putting together an itinerary :-)

#notsomuch

The Shelbourne but it's pretty pricy too!

There's lots of good hotels!

The Radisson is a nice hotel (the Royal - there are two others as well, one is close to the airport). Standard rooms cost around 300 euros a night though, so still pricey but a lot less than £800.

A boat trip is good, only takes 45 minutes and gives you a different view of the city.

Guided tour of the Castle.

A walk around Phoenix Park is a good way of avoiding the tourists of which there are a lot.

For restaurants try the Winding Stair and Osteria Lucio.

Oh you said £800 for three nights! The Radisson might be too expensive then - but I think hotels in Dublin are very expensive - and the £ to euro rate doesn't help.

The Guinness Storehouse always gets recommended, but honestly unless you’re particularly interested in stout and/or love being advertised to, the most interesting thing about it is the free pint and views of Dublin you see from the bar at the end.

Henrietta Street is excellent.

There is also a great exhibition on at the IFSC called Epic which is about Irish emigration and how it influenced different cultures throughout the world.

If the weather is good, getting the DART out to Howth would be lovely- some great seafood restaurants out there.

The Museum of Natural History (or The Dead Zoo) is interesting and quirky, and the National Museum or Ireland has some v interesting exhibits, including the bog bodies.

If you're going to be travelling around Dublin/environs, I would recommend getting a Leap card - more information here - www.leapcard.ie/Home/index.html
It will allow you to get on public transport (bus/Dart/Luas) which will expand where you can go.

I'd recommend getting on the Dart and going to Bray, walking along the sea front and enjoying some food in the Porterhouse:
www.theporterhouse.ie

In Dublin, for places to stay I'd check out some of the following hotels:
The Radisson Blu hotel on Golden Lane: www.radissonblu.com/en/royalhotel-dublin
The Bonnington Hotel - www.bonningtondublin.com/
The Skylon Hotel - www.dublinskylonhotel.com/
The Grand Canal Hotel - www.grandcanalhotel.ie/en/
The Mespil Hotel - www.mespilhotel.com/

You might want to visit the National Gallery - www.nationalgallery.ie/
or have a trip on the Viking Splash - www.vikingsplash.com

The Gibson hotel is gorgeous. I always stay there when I’m in Dublin.

LOL - that's mad @dinosaurkisses, you were suggesting one direction to go on the DART and I was suggesting the opposite one! Both have good food and great craic at either end of the journey OP!

Another place you might want to visit would be Áras an Uachtaráin (pronounced auras on ook-tar-oy-an, apologies any Irish speakers out there, it's quite difficult to break down phonetically ) and it's free to visit on a Saturday: president.ie/en/explore-visit/tours-visits

Haha @Whatchamacallit! When I lived in Dublin it was on the Northside, so I obviously have to stay loyal!

I was gong to suggest Dart as well but get off in Dun Laoghaire - get scampi and chips from the Fish Shack at the start of the pier, walk the pier, get a Teddies icecream in the old "battery" (army barracks) at the end of the pier, and walk back to get a drink in Olivetta's beer garden overlooking the sea (or even a gorgeous dinner if you don't do the fish and chips option) before getting the Dart back to town.

Or a great place for a walk and a wonderful view at the top is Killiney Hill - it's a fair walk from Dalkey Dart station, but worth it. (Lisa Stansfield lives on a road very close by, and you can see U2s houses on Vico road from the top!, as well as the whole of the city and bay spread out below you).

The "Dead Zoo" (natural history museum) is also near the National Gallery on Merrion Square, and worth a look.

The National Museum on Kildare street is interesting, and local to both previous, as well as the Little Museum of Dublin on the Green.

The ESB used to have a wonderful house, called "No. 29", which is a Georgian house done up as it would have been back in the 1800's, but I don't know is it currently open with a big redevelopment going on nearby.

Some great places to eat and get a pint around Merrion Row/Baggot Street. Doheny and Nesbitts would be my favourite, but lots of nice ones. And the Ely restaurant/wine bar on Ely place (just around the corner from Merrion Row) is great - they have great organic Irish food and do loads of different wine by the glass!

Definitely the LEAP card makes sense if you are doing any moving around. For ease of movement, and cheaper fares.

And check out if there might be a rugby match while you are there - either in Landsdowne Road (Autumn internationals) or RDS (Leinster's home grounds) as you can often get relatively cheap tickets and they are always good fun, and lots of local hostelries are worth visiting around the matches. Both grounds are easy to get to by Dart/bus.

What's the name of the avenue which is the longest in Europe with the two rows of trees? The taxi driver who took us back to the airport drove us along it, but I didn't see/catch the name.

O'Connell Street? With the spire up the middle, and the GPO (and its museum) on the left as you go up it away from the River Liffey?

The Irish Whiskey Museum
Guinness factory
Jameson's distillery
Leprechaun museum

We did all of these when we went 😊

I always suggest Mexico To Rome on these thread.A tenner for 2 courses and a drink.

Its in Temple Bar but the food is lovely.

Avoid Temple Bar and O'Connell St. In the city centre the nicer areas are south of the river; Grafton St, Stephen's Green, Baggot St, etc. There are nice places on the northside too like Phoenix Park, Malahide, Howth, etc, but they're further out of the city. Getting out and about on the DART is a good idea if the weather's nice.

Some nice places to eat are Trocadero (theatre themed restaurant, really traditional type of place and the food is fab), Market Bar (tapas) and Pichet.

Also if you like cakes go to Queen of Tarts!

@Satsumaeater - That would be Griffith Avenue. It is the longest avenue in Europe that has no shops on it, just houses/churches/schools. Is that the one you're thinking of?

I'd highly recommend Kilmainham jail and the little museum of Dublin on the corner of Stephens Green. We loved both of them.

Also our kids really enjoyed the duck boat tours and it's a good way to see the grand canal area too.

We recently stayed in Trinity City Hotel which was a great location and nice hotel, not ridiculous prices. Near the book of Kells too (book in advance).

Last time we were there we did an air BnB apartment near the grand canal. It was just behind the Clayton hotel which is also nice. Stephens Green Hotel was good but its been a few years since I've been there.

Aww, I'm really grateful for those - thank you. Can't wait to start planning!

WhatchaMaCalllit That's the one! Thank you.

We've been to Dublin 3 times this year DD is at Trinity). We Air BnB; it's a lot cheaper.

We loved the Book of Kells and the library, also enjoyed the Protestant Cathedral (looked up DH's grandad's brother in the book of remembrance)
We like Mulligans Grocers in Stoneybatter and Farmer Browns in

Rathmines.

Bewleys was a big disappointment from what I remember 25 years ago.