7 Things To Do In Dublin

Last week I travelled to Dublin with some of my friends from uni. We had booked this trip a long time ago, in fact, we booked it in February. We were all very excited for it, as it was our first trip together and we were going to one of our favourite countries, even though just two of us had already been there. I must say first that Dublin is not the most beautiful city I have ever visited, however, what I liked the most about the city was its people. Dubliners, and Irish people in general, are very kind and cheerful. If you need any help, they’ll do their best to help you, and always with a smile on their face.

Our trip lasted five days and we all had so much fun. Even though we could not do everything we wanted to do, we did so many things. For this reason, I thought I could share with you my favourite ones, so that you can do them too. I would absolutely recommend you visiting Ireland, and if you have already been there, I am sure you are also willing to go back. I am, and hopefully it will happen soon, although I have some other trips in mind too.

Join a Free Tour

I feel like this is probably one of the things I always do in every city that I visit. It is probably the best way to know the history of that place and some really nice monuments that you can find there. Moreover, it is free or, if you think you liked it, you can give them some money, which is perfect if you are on a budget. It is also great because they are normally very good tours and the guides are usually very nice too. It’s also very useful if you want to know a good pub or restaurant to have lunch or dinner, because they have probably been to a lot of them around there. Among the places we visited, the most interesting ones were the castle and Trinity College, although I still need to go into that library, maybe next time.

Isaacs Hostel

We didn’t want to spend too much money on this trip to be honest, this is why we looked for a hostel to stay in. However, we are very happy with our choice, as the hostel we chose was really nice. Okay, it wasn’t as clean, comfortable and nice as a good hotel, but compared to other hostels I’ve been to, it was one of the best. First of all, I’d like to say that the people working there were very nice, especially Andy, the receptionist. The hostel had so many things to enjoy too, it even got a sauna. I was quite surprised about that to be fair. I also like the fact that we had a shared kitchen in which we cooked our dinners. It was a bit of a chaos when everyone was there, but we all managed to do what we wanted. I would definitely recommend you that hostel if you don’t want to spend too much money on your trip, it was really nice.

Temple Bar

This is the most beautiful part of the city in my opinion, maybe because it is the one with the oldest kind of buildings. It is also where the majority of pubs are, so you can imagine the amount of people that goes there, especially at night. However, it is also very chilled and perfect for a walk, as you can find so many interesting places there. There is also a pub called after the neighbourhood, The Temple Bar. I didn’t have anything there, but I’ve been said it is not the best pub (which doesn’t mean it is a bad one, though) but it is one of the most expensive ones. However, I went in and I must say that it is beautiful, especially now that it has a lot of Christmas decorations.

Grafton Street

Grafton Street is the most famous street in Dublin. It is quite nice and although it is very busy most of the time, it is a great place to do some shopping. You have a lot of different shops to choose, but most of them are the ones available at any other big city in the world. What I liked the most about this street was the amount of musicians playing there. These people were really talented, some of them should be more successful than they are, they really deserve it. Also, there is a very nice shopping centre at the end of the street. You can find so many other shops in there, and it has a sort of art gallery too. What really made me love it was the Christmas decorations. I know, I am obsessed with Christmas, but I just love it so much and the Christmassy atmosphere that you can find in Ireland is lovely.

Phoenix Park

Parks are also a great way to enjoy a city, and I always try to have a little picnic wherever I go. This park is huge though, so you need to walk a lot or, as we did, you can rent some bikes and have a ride around there. We rented them for an hour and it cost us 5€. In an hour we did not see much of the park, so imagine how big it is. However, we had so much fun and it was a great experience. We even saw some deer and we stopped near them for a while. I had never had a deer that close, and I must say they are beautiful although they are also a bit scary. I recommend you doing the same because it is a very nice way to spend your morning and it makes you feel very relaxed and happy.

Go to a Pub

If you go to Ireland you MUST go to a pub, no excuses. There are so many different kinds of beer, of course, although you should have a Guinness, which is the most typical thing to do. You can also have dinner there, which is in fact what we did. We went to The Celt, near O’Connell Street, which was really nice and the staff were lovely. We had some Irish food such as the Irish stew and the Beef and Guinness stew. They were absolutely delicious, I would go there every week if I could. The most special thing about pubs is being able to listen to live music. The songs may be quite recent, but they play them in an Irish style that I loved. I would try to describe the atmosphere in there, but I just can’t. It is something that you have to experience, so if you go to Ireland, go to a good pub. I am sure you’ll enjoy it, even if you don’t drink too much.

Visit the Cliffs of Moher and Galway

This is not in Dublin, but it is definitely worth visiting. We booked a trip to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway which costs 50€ each, although it cost us 45€ because we are all students. We went to the cliffs first and, honestly, they are AMAZING. There was mud everywhere and it was a bit difficult to walk though. However, the views were absolutely gorgeous. The worst part is the weather because sometimes it is too foggy to be able to see them properly, but we were very lucky. A scene on Harry Potter was filmed there, which is something very cool. There is also a little castle that you can visit. After that, we went to Oughtdarra, which is also absolutely beautiful. The rocks, the sea, everything was amazing. We didn’t spend too much time there, but I think I’ll never forget it. Then, we arrived to Galway which is a very cute city. It has a lot of nice little shops and pubs, and their Christmas decorations were also very nice (yep, I’m talking about Christmas decorations again, sorry!). Again, if you have the opportunity to visit these places, make sure you go because it is totally worth it.

There are so many other things that you can do in Dublin. In fact, if I go back, I’d like to go to Howth, which is said to be gorgeous too. Hopefully, this little travel guide is useful to those of you planning to go to Dublin. Let me know if you want to go or if you have already been there or to any other place in Ireland and which thing you enjoyed the most. I really want to go back, but I have already booked my flights to somewhere else, so I guess it’ll have to wait a little bit.