Dublin recommendations for five days with my 12 year old daughter

[againstalloddsss]

After a tough couple of years, my 12 year old daughter and I are off to Dublin for 5 days for the last week of May.
We are staying near Dublin Castle and I wondered if anyone had any recommendations of any must sees/do and any nice places to eat (Italian especially).

Dunne & Crescenzi is the best Italian restaurant. Delicious, friendly, nice atmosphere and just a bit swanky (lovely glassware etc).

Perfect thank you. Sounds right up our street.

Pack lots of waterproofs

Good point! Thanks.

My teen really enjoyed the Viking Splash tour. And, predictably, the shops.

Thanks. I hadn’t seen the Splash tour, so I’ll look into that.
Indeed. Can imagine we will be spending a lot of time shopping too!

Guinness Storehouse is genuinely really good - I took my then 9 year old and he loved it.
FIRE for steak was a lovely treat.
Paulie's for pizza (we had tickets for a match at the Aviva) was a surprise as well - really good pizza!
The 'dead zoo' fascinated my ds as well.
We went to Temple Bar Pub and had a drink while listening to the music, sure its a tourist trap but it was a fun place.

I have really fond memories of Dublin, I hope you have an amazing time!

Thank you for those suggestions. They look really interesting and hadn’t crossed my radar, so I’ll do some investigating.

Definitely. We’re both really looking forward to visiting.

Have a look into Dublinia, we went on a school trip and it was pretty cool. Kilmainham gaol is an old Irish jail museum which is interested (if your daughter has any interest in that kind of thing). Brown Thomas is similar to Harrods and is quite posh so handy to have a mooch about in.

Make sure to get a Visitor LEAP card to cover all modes of public transport while you're there. Very handy to have especially if you want to go a little outside the city centre to the likes of the seaside towns of Howth, Malahide, Dun Laoghaire etc. They are great places to go for a change of scenery.

about.leapcard.ie/leap-visitor-card

The main shopping areas are in Henry and Mary Street - bustling and down to earth, or Grafton Street and the Stephen's Green shopping centre - a bit more upmarket and the walk up Grafton Street is great when all the buskers are out, the standard is very good and the atmosphere is great!

I would hire a car 1-2 of the days and explore the country. There isn’t 5 days worth of stuff to do in Dublin tbh

Avoid O’Connell St and side streets and Parnell St area at night.

5 days in Dublin is a long time, I'd take the train to Belfast for the day.
Malahide is also very pretty by the sea, it's about 30min by train from the city centre. There's a small castle (with an excellent cafe), and you can walk down to the coast.
Or maybe do a day bus tour?

My 13 year old niece loves the dundrum shopping centre you can get the LUAS tram there and nice places for lunch there too

Thank you all for these wonderful suggestions.

Its really given us food for thought.

The Little Musrum of Dublin was a huge hit with my kids. TBH we only went in to escape the pissing rain but I’d really recommend it.

Dublin Zoo and Phoenix Park are worth s visit if the weather is decent and you can escape the shopping for a while!

Museums in Dublin are free so the National museum beside the parliament building Leinster House is a good place to have a look - bog bodies, gold and Vikings. Military history is on show in Collins Museum. 5 days is a long time though. Try and get out of the city if you can. Kilkenny is accessible on the train and a nice day out.

You can get minibus tours to the Wicklow Mountains for the day - v pretty.
You can also get mini bus tours north to Belfast with some stops on the way up.
Also Dart to Howth (great walking around the headland and lovely food in the harbour). Or Dart to Bray or Graystones to the south.
The Church cafe bar is a tourist spot but pretty/instagrammable, has irish dancing and decent food.
Dublin itself - lots to do but maybe for 2 or 3 days.
Little Museum of Dublin is excellent

Omg this 100 times. Best bruschetta I've ever eaten.

Dart to Dun Laoghaire, walk to Teddy's for the finest ice cream you'll ever eat. Then onto sandycove, past the James Joyce museum and onto Bullock Harbour and then Dalkey for lunch.

Look out for Bono Et Al in the Corner Note cafe. Walk down to Coliemore Harbour then up to the Vico Baths for some wild swimming ala Matt Damon and Harry Styles. Then down to the Dart back to Dublin or wherever you are staying.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Looking like some gorgeous places to visit outside of Dublin as well.
With all the suggestions I’m beginning to think 5 days may not be enough.

Dundrum shopping centre as mentioned above is good if you want shopping and maybe it's a rainy day. Airfield is lovely house/garden/farm right beside the Dundrum centre (LUAS stop)
Dart to Dun Laoghaire/Howth/Dalkey/Bray depending on what you want to see and do. If you have room for two ice creams, have a Scrum Diddlys after your Teddys (preferably different days!) Both in Dun Laoghaire.
Go to the theatre/concert there's usually loads on.

The bog bodies in the National Museum are gruesome but worth a look if not too squeamish (free). Eddie Rockets (lots of them around) is a fun diner.

Glendalough on the St Kevins bus is amazing if you get good weather.

Get out of the city centre as much as you can to really see what Dublin is about.

We went to EPIC - the museum about Irish migration - and the Jeanie Johnston last year. It was really interesting, particularly if you have some Irish heritage.

If you go out to Bray, check out Platform Pizza, it's next to the Dart station on the seafront.

A day out to Powerscourt - the gardens ad waterfall - is also worth doing. If you like gardens, the Dublin Botanical Gardens are lovely too.

For the love of god don’t go to Dundrum. It’s just a shopping centre and won’t offer you anything you’ve not seen before.

There's a lot of history in Dublin if you are so inclined. The hinterland is fantastic (mountains and seaside) and I often feel that those who regularly say that Dublin was/is Meh, never left the pubs in Temple Bar! No self respecting Dub would be found dead anywhere near there. Camden Street, Sth William Street, Fade Street, Georges Street are where it's at for every type of restaurant you could think of, and brilliant non touristy pubs.

There are so many hidden gems but the main sights are accessible and on every visitor trail.

One day trip that I really recommend if you have the time is to take the St. Kevin's Bus from St. Stephens Green to Glendalough in Wicklow. It is stunning.

EDIT - I see @SomersetBrie agrees about Glendalough!