Dublin for 2 nights & 1 day. Recommendations?

[sellebrayshone]

We're visiting Ireland in August, flying in Sunday evening. We want to stay that night and the next night in an area near the city, so we can spend a full day there, before heading to the Atlantic coast. Which area in or near Dublin would you recommend we look for accommodation? (We will have a hire car, but can leave it at the accommodation and use public transport for exploring Dublin).

Also, if you had a day to explore Dublin for the first time, how would you spend it? All recommendations welcome!

What sort of thing do you actually like doing? It’s a capital city theirs plenty to do!
There are a billion good brunch spots (and plenty of tourist traps), loads of good galleries and museums (I particularly recommend Hugh Lane), it is a bit of a tourist trap but I enjoyed the Guinness brewery and getting (very pricy) pint at Temple Bar. Loads of really cool buildings to just walk around and look at.

We like walking, so happy to explore on foot and take in the sights. We'll have our two teenage sons with us, who are also happy to walk and explore, so long as there are lots of food stops along the way. They quickly tire of museums and galleries, so we would ideally stick to free places that we can dip in and out of.

I’d always do a hop on / off bus tour if I’m short of time in a city. I’ve done the one in dublin but it was years ago so can’t remember much about it other than we stopped at the Guinness factory and did the museum thing.

Around St Stephen's Green is a nice area to stay. Agree with pp about the hop on hop off bus - you can cover a lot of ground! The Little Museum of Dublin is great (even if you're not a museum person). The museum at 14 Henrietta St is on my to do list.

Great, thanks. Any more suggestions welcome.