---
title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Dublin, Ireland | Wimup"
description: "The 10 best things to do in Dublin, from the Book of Kells and Kilmainham Gaol to the Guinness Storehouse, Phoenix Park and Glasnevin."
url: https://wimup.com/city/dublin
type: City guide
updated: 2026-09-03
publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com)
---

# Top 10 Things To Do in Dublin

Dublin, Ireland · Europe · By Wimup Editorial, 15 min read

Dublin is a small capital that behaves like a large one. Almost everything a visitor wants sits inside a square mile between two canals. The Vikings founded it on the black pool where the Poddle meets the Liffey, the Georgians gave it the doorways, and the twentieth century gave it the arguments.

## Quick answer

Give the first morning to Trinity College and the Book of Kells, then walk ten minutes to the National Museum on Kildare Street, which is free and holds the gold and the bog bodies. Day two goes west: Kilmainham Gaol on a pre-booked ticket, then the Guinness Storehouse. Day three is Phoenix Park and Glasnevin, or the DART out to Howth.

## Quick facts

- **Best months:** May · Jun · Sep
- **Ideal length:** 3 days
- **Budget per day:** €120–230
- **Language:** English, with Irish on every road sign
- **Getting around:** A centre small enough to walk, two Luas tram lines, the DART along the coast and buses on a €2 Leap fare
- **Tourism board:** [Official site](https://www.visitdublin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## The 10 best things to do in Dublin

### 1. The Book of Kells and the Long Room, Trinity College

Library · College Green, Dublin 2

Four gospels in Latin, written and painted around the year 800, of which two volumes sit under glass with a page turned every few weeks. The visit runs on into the barrel-vaulted Long Room. Entry is timed and non-refundable, so buy the week before, and take the first slot: the crowd doubles by eleven.

- **Time:** 1 hour
- **Cost:** Ticketed, book online
- **Best at:** The first slot of the morning
- **Tip:** Entry is timed and online booking is strongly recommended, with concession tickets for students and seniors. The cobbled campus around it is free to walk at any hour, and the front square on a wet Tuesday is one of the quietest places in the centre.

Links: [Trinity College Dublin](https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/book-of-kells/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 2. Kilmainham Gaol Museum

History · Inchicore Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8

Open from 1796 to 1924, and in between it held most of the people Irish history is named after. The lit Victorian east wing is the image that travels; the older west wing, cold and low and unlit, is the part that lands. Book the moment your dates are fixed: this is the hardest ticket in Dublin.

- **Time:** 90 minutes
- **Cost:** Ticketed, book online
- **Best at:** The first tour of the day
- **Tip:** The museum is open 10:30 to 17:15 from October to March and 10:30 to 17:45 from April to September, entry is by guided tour only and every visitor needs a pre-booked ticket. Tickets go on sale 28 days ahead at midnight Irish time, and returns are released online between 09:15 and 09:30 on the day.

Links: [Kilmainham Gaol Museum](https://www.kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 3. National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology

Museum · Kildare Street, Dublin 2, D02 FH48

The best free hour in Dublin, and the one most visitors skip. The gold room holds Bronze Age collars pulled out of bogs by farmers who had no idea what they had, and Kingship and Sacrifice holds four Iron Age bog bodies, preserved to the fingerprint. Nothing to pay either way.

- **Time:** 1 to 2 hours
- **Cost:** Free
- **Best at:** Weekday mornings
- **Tip:** Open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and Sunday and Monday 13:00 to 17:00, closed Christmas Day, St Stephen's Day and Good Friday. Admission to all four National Museum sites is free, and the Kildare Street building stays open past 17:00 for curated evenings on the last Thursday of the month.

Links: [National Museum of Ireland](https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 4. Guinness Storehouse

Brewery · St James's Gate, Dublin 8, D08 VF8H

Arthur Guinness took a 9,000-year lease at St James's Gate in 1759, and the brewery has been there since. Seven floors inside a 1904 fermentation plant, working up to the Gravity Bar, where the pint is included and the view runs to the Wicklow Mountains. Book online and take the earliest slot you can stand.

- **Time:** 2 hours
- **Cost:** Ticketed, dynamic pricing, cheapest online
- **Best at:** Opening time, or the last admission on a weekday
- **Tip:** Open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 19:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 19:00 with last admission at 17:00, and Saturday 09:30 to 20:00 with last admission at 18:00. Your ticket includes a pint of Guinness or Guinness 0.0 in the Gravity Bar, and the queue for the bar is longest between 14:00 and 16:00.

Links: [Guinness Storehouse](https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 5. Phoenix Park

Park · Phoenix Park, Dublin 8

The largest enclosed park in any European capital, laid out as a royal deer park in the 1660s. The fallow deer are still here, usually near the Papal Cross in late afternoon, and they are wild animals rather than an attraction. Walk in at Parkgate Street and out at Castleknock without meeting a shop.

- **Time:** 2 to 3 hours
- **Cost:** Free
- **Best at:** Late afternoon, for the deer and the light
- **Tip:** The Victorian walled kitchen garden beside the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre is open daily 10:00 to 17:00. Dublin Zoo inside the park is separately ticketed. The park takes about 10 million visits a year and still absorbs them, but the Chapelizod Gate end is always the quiet one.

Links: [Phoenix Park](https://www.phoenixpark.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 6. National Gallery of Ireland

Museum · Merrion Square West, Dublin 2

Free, central, and holding one painting that would justify the trip alone: Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ, lost for two centuries and identified in 1990 in a Jesuit dining room a mile away. Around it, Vermeer, Goya and the Yeats rooms, the closest thing Irish art has to a national voice.

- **Time:** 1 to 2 hours
- **Cost:** Free, some temporary exhibitions ticketed
- **Best at:** Thursday evening
- **Tip:** Open seven days: first admission 09:15 Tuesday to Saturday and 11:00 on Sunday and Monday, last admission 16:15 most days and 19:15 on Thursdays. Admission to the permanent collection is free. Merrion Square across the road is the best picnic in the city on a dry day.

Links: [National Gallery of Ireland](https://www.nationalgallery.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 7. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum

Museum · CHQ, Custom House Quay, Dublin 1

Ten million people left this island, and the museum about them sits in the vaults of an 1820s warehouse on the quay many sailed from. There is no object in it: twenty galleries of projection and sound. The better choice for anyone travelling with teenagers or a family name to chase down.

- **Time:** 90 minutes
- **Cost:** Ticketed, cheapest booked in advance
- **Best at:** Late afternoon, after the tour groups
- **Tip:** Open seven days 10:00 to 18:45 with last entry at 17:00, and a standard ticket includes a free return visit within 10 days. The Jeanie Johnston famine ship replica is moored a few minutes upriver and is a separate ticket.

Links: [EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum](https://epicchq.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 8. St Patrick's Cathedral

Landmark · St Patrick's Close, Dublin 8

Founded in 1191 and the largest church in Ireland. Jonathan Swift was dean here, wrote Gulliver's Travels while he held the job, and is buried in the nave. Choral evensong is the way to see it without paying and with the acoustic doing the work.

- **Time:** 45 minutes
- **Cost:** Ticketed
- **Best at:** Evensong on a weekday
- **Tip:** Opening times move with services, so check the cathedral's own calendar the day before rather than trusting a listing. Marsh's Library, built in 1707 next door, is a separate and much quieter ticket.

Links: [St Patrick's Cathedral](https://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 9. GAA Museum and Croke Park stadium tour

Sport · Croke Park, Jones' Road, Dublin 3

Ireland's largest stadium, filled several times a summer by amateurs playing two sports almost nobody outside the island plays. The museum explains hurling well enough to follow a match, and it does not skirt 1920, when British forces fired into the crowd here. If a championship match is on, go to that instead.

- **Time:** 90 minutes
- **Cost:** Ticketed, book online
- **Best at:** A non-match weekday
- **Tip:** Booking in advance online is essential and walk-ups are not accepted. Tours do not run during matches and the schedule thins in high summer, so check before crossing the river for it.

Links: [Croke Park](https://crokepark.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 10. Glasnevin Cemetery

History · Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11

The national cemetery, opened in 1832, and the best place to understand two centuries of Irish politics, because everybody who argued about them is here. Take the guided tour rather than wandering: the plots are unremarkable and the argument between them is the point. The pub at the gate has served mourners since 1833.

- **Time:** 2 hours
- **Cost:** Ticketed tours, grounds free
- **Best at:** Morning, on the first tour
- **Tip:** The visitor centre opens at 10:00 Wednesday to Sunday and tours run daily, with seasonal variations worth checking. The O'Connell Tower climb is 198 steps to the top of the tallest round tower in Ireland, booked as a morning or afternoon slot with the last climb at 16:30. The cemetery is about 3 km from the centre on the Finglas Road.

Links: [Dublin Cemeteries Trust](https://www.dctrust.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best pubs & bars in Dublin (2026)

Eight rooms that were here before the stag parties, from Victorian snugs to the city's trad institution.

1. **The Long Hall** (Victorian bar · South Great George's Street): A Victorian bar barely touched since the 1880s: carved mahogany, red velvet, clocks that disagree. No music, no screens, and conversation is possible on a Friday.
2. **Kehoe's** (Snug · South Anne Street): The classic Dublin snug, a wooden box with its own hatch to the bar. Upstairs is the old publican's flat, and where to go when the bar is three deep.
3. **The Palace Bar** (Whiskey · Fleet Street): The journalists' pub, a Victorian room with a skylit back parlour where the Irish Times crowd drank for a century. A serious whiskey list and its own bottlings.
4. **Mulligan's of Poolbeg Street** (The pint · Poolbeg Street): Established 1782, unrenovated on principle, and long claimed to pour the best pint in Dublin by people who will argue for an hour. A pint takes as long as it takes.
5. **Grogan's Castle Lounge** (Art and toasties · South William Street): A pub that doubles as a gallery, with paintings by regulars on every wall and a toasted cheese sandwich that is an institution in its own right.
6. **The Cobblestone** (Trad sessions · Smithfield): A self-described drinking pub with a music problem, in Smithfield, and the reference point for traditional music here. Sit down, and do not talk over the tunes.
7. **John Kavanagh, The Gravediggers** (Old pub · Glasnevin): At the wall of Glasnevin since 1833 and run by the same family throughout, with no music, no television and no interest in changing. Pair it with the cemetery tour.
8. **Toner's** (Beer garden · Baggot Street): A Baggot Street bar with the original shelving from its grocer days, a proper snug, and a back yard that works in every weather Dublin has.

## Best museums & galleries in Dublin

Eight collections beyond the Top 10, most of them free, for the days the weather decides for you.

1. **Chester Beatty** (Free · manuscripts · Dublin Castle): A mining magnate's manuscripts given to the state: Qur'ans, jade books and some of the earliest New Testament papyri, in the grounds of Dublin Castle. [Website](https://chesterbeatty.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Irish Museum of Modern Art** (Free · contemporary art · Kilmainham): The national modern collection, in the 1680s Royal Hospital Kilmainham, modelled on Les Invalides. The formal gardens are free whether or not you go in. [Website](https://imma.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Hugh Lane Gallery** (Free · Bacon studio · Parnell Square): A municipal gallery on Parnell Square, holding the Impressionists Hugh Lane left the city and the entire contents of Francis Bacon's studio, moved here dust by dust. [Website](https://hughlane.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts and History** (Free · design and history · Collins Barracks): The Collins Barracks branch, covering Irish silver, furniture and the military history of the state, including a hard-headed exhibition on 1916. Free. [Website](https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Decorative-Arts-History?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Natural History Museum** (Free · Victorian museum · Merrion Street): Known to everyone as the Dead Zoo: a Victorian cabinet museum deliberately not modernised, with giant Irish deer downstairs. The most atmospheric hour here. [Website](https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Natural-History?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **14 Henrietta Street** (Guided tour · tenement history · Henrietta Street): One house on Dublin's grandest Georgian street, taken from townhouse to tenement holding a hundred people in seventeen rooms. The most affecting hour on this list. [Website](https://14henriettastreet.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
7. **Museum of Literature Ireland** (Ticketed · Joyce · St Stephen's Green): MoLI, in the house on St Stephen's Green where Joyce took his degree, holding the first copy of Ulysses off the press. A good lunch in the garden café. [Website](https://moli.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
8. **Dublinia** (Ticketed · with kids · Christ Church): The Viking and medieval city reconstructed room by room beside Christ Church, pitched at families. The ticket includes the bridge to the cathedral and the tower climb. [Website](https://www.dublinia.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best restaurants in Dublin (2026)

Eight tables across every price, from a Michelin dining room on Parnell Square to a chipper that opened in 1913.

1. **Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen** (Michelin-starred · tasting menu · Parnell Square): The city's benchmark fine-dining room, cooking Irish produce through French technique with a famous hand for sauce. Book weeks out, or take the lunch menu. [Website](https://chapteronerestaurant.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Variety Jones** (Michelin-starred · live fire · Thomas Street): A small Michelin-starred room on Thomas Street cooking most of its menu over live fire, with a bar counter facing the flames. Pleasantly unceremonious. [Website](https://www.varietyjones.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Bastible** (Modern Irish · set menu · Portobello): A neighbourhood restaurant on the South Circular Road named after the pot its bread is baked in, doing a short seasonal menu. The sourdough course is not a throwaway. [Website](https://www.bastible.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **The Winding Stair** (Irish · river view · Ormond Quay): Above the bookshop of the same name, with tall windows over the Ha'penny Bridge and a menu of farmhouse cheese, fish from the west and brown bread. [Website](https://www.winding-stair.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Etto** (Wine bar · Italian leaning · Merrion Row): A narrow wine bar and restaurant on Merrion Row, ten years into a reputation for Italian-leaning cooking and small-producer wines. Lunch is the value. [Website](https://www.etto.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Uno Mas** (Spanish · counter seats · Aungier Street): Spanish cooking on Aungier Street from the Etto team, built around a plancha and a sherry list. Sit at the counter if the tables are gone, which they will be. [Website](https://unomas.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
7. **Fish Shop** (Seafood · small room · Smithfield): A tiny room in Smithfield doing what its name says, with a blackboard that depends on the boats and a short natural wine list. Book. [Website](https://fish-shop.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
8. **Leo Burdock** (Fish and chips · since 1913 · Werburgh Street): Trading since 1913 and the chipper every Dubliner argues about, a few steps from Christ Church. Cod and chips on the wall outside is a respectable dinner here.

## Historic sites in Dublin worth an hour

Six places, Viking to 1916, that fill in what the Top 10 leaves out.

1. **Dublin Castle** (Ticketed apartments · free courtyards · Dame Street): The seat of British rule for seven centuries, handed over in 1922, and now a state complex you can walk into free. Only the State Apartments are ticketed. [Website](https://dublincastle.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Christ Church Cathedral** (Ticketed · Viking foundation · Christ Church Place): Founded around 1030 by a Norse king and rebuilt hard by the Victorians, with the largest crypt in Britain or Ireland and a mummified cat found in an organ pipe. [Website](https://christchurchcathedral.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **GPO Museum, Witness History** (Ticketed · 1916 · O'Connell Street): Inside the General Post Office, where the Proclamation was read in Easter week 1916. The columns outside still carry the bullet marks.
4. **Marsh's Library** (Ticketed · 1707 interior · St Patrick's Close): Opened in 1707 as the first public library in Ireland and effectively unchanged: dark oak stalls, chained books, and alcoves where readers were locked in. [Website](https://marshlibrary.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **St Michan's Church** (Ticketed · crypt tour · Church Street): A north quays church whose limestone vaults have mummified their occupants, so the tour is a walk between open coffins. Handel is said to have practised on the organ.
6. **Casino at Marino** (Guided tour · Georgian folly · Marino): A 1770s folly that looks like a single-room temple and holds sixteen rooms over three floors, with hidden chimneys and columns that drain the roof. Guided tour only. [Website](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/casino-marino/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Parks & coast around Dublin

Six green and salt-water escapes, all reachable on a €2 fare from the city centre.

1. **St Stephen's Green** (Free · city park · St Stephen's Green): Nine hectares of Victorian park at the top of Grafton Street, opened in 1880 with Guinness money. Office Dublin eats lunch on the grass the moment the sun appears. [Website](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/st-stephens-green/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Iveagh Gardens** (Free · quiet garden · Clonmel Street): The secret garden behind the Green, through a lane off Clonmel Street, with a cascade and a rose garden most visitors never find. Free, and empty. [Website](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/the-iveagh-gardens/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Howth Cliff Path Loop** (Free · coastal walk · Howth): A signed loop around the head of the peninsula, on cliffs above the Irish Sea with Ireland's Eye offshore. Two hours at the shortest option, then fish at the harbour. [Website](https://www.visitdublin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **Bull Island and Dollymount Strand** (Free · beach and biosphere · Clontarf): A five-kilometre sandy island thrown up behind a sea wall built to stop the port silting, now a UNESCO biosphere with brent geese and seals. [Website](https://www.dublinbaybiosphere.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Dún Laoghaire East Pier** (Free · pier walk · Dún Laoghaire): A granite Victorian pier a kilometre into the bay, with a bandstand halfway and a lighthouse at the end, walked by half the south side every Sunday. [Website](https://www.visitdublin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Irish National War Memorial Gardens** (Free · Lutyens gardens · Islandbridge): Lutyens laid these terraces for the 49,400 Irish dead of the First World War, and the state let them go to ruin because the memory was inconvenient. Almost always empty. [Website](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/irish-national-war-memorial-gardens/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Dublin neighbourhoods worth your time

Six districts and what each one is actually for, including the one to visit and not sleep in.

1. **Temple Bar** (Central · loud after dark · Dublin 2): The cobbled quarter between Dame Street and the river: a cultural district by day, a very expensive drinking street by night. Walk it in the morning.
2. **The Liberties** (Historic · distilleries · Dublin 8): The old brewing and distilling quarter west of the centre, outside the medieval walls and proud of it. Guinness, Teeling, and the best of the new restaurants.
3. **Stoneybatter** (Independent shops · coffee · Dublin 7): A grid of small red-brick terraces north of the river, now the coffee and independent-shop district without having lost its old pubs. Ten minutes to Phoenix Park.
4. **Portobello** (Canalside · restaurants · Dublin 8): Along the Grand Canal south of the centre, with the towpath, Victorian terraces and bars around Richmond Street. Kavanagh has a bench on the canal here.
5. **Ranelagh** (Village · dining · Dublin 6): A leafy Victorian suburb four Luas stops out, with more good restaurants per hundred metres than anywhere in the city and no tourists in any of them.
6. **Grand Canal Dock** (Modern · waterfront · Dublin 2): The docklands rebuilt in glass around a Victorian basin, with the theatre, the tech offices and a waterside square. The shortest walk to the 3Arena and EPIC.

## Best day trips from Dublin

Six trips, four of them on a train or a bus you can board without booking.

1. **Howth** (DART · 30 minutes · North county): A working fishing harbour and a cliff walk half an hour up the DART, with seals in the harbour and fish restaurants at the pier. The easiest good day out from Dublin. [Website](https://www.visitdublin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Glendalough** (Bus or car · 1.5 hours · County Wicklow): A sixth-century monastic city in a glacial valley in the Wicklow Mountains, with a round tower and two lakes. Inside a national park, so the site is free. [Website](https://wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Brú na Bóinne** (Car or tour · 1 hour · County Meath): Newgrange and Knowth, passage tombs older than the pyramids at Giza. Access is only by shuttle from the visitor centre and tickets sell out, so book ahead. [Website](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/bru-na-boinne-visitor-centre-newgrange-knowth-and-dowth/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **Malahide Castle and Gardens** (DART · 25 minutes · North county): Eight hundred years of one family in one castle, with a walled garden and 260 acres of parkland, twenty-five minutes up the coastal line. [Website](https://www.malahidecastleandgardens.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Powerscourt Estate** (Bus or car · 1 hour · County Wicklow): A Palladian house above Italianate terraces in the Wicklow foothills, with the highest waterfall in Ireland a few kilometres away. Best in early summer. [Website](https://powerscourt.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Dalkey and Killiney Hill** (DART · 35 minutes · South county): The far end of the DART line: a village with a Norman castle on the main street, and a hill walk onto a bay people insist on comparing to Naples. [Website](https://www.visitdublin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Festivals & annual events in Dublin (2026)

- **TradFest** (Late January): Ireland's largest traditional music festival, using city churches, Dublin Castle and the pubs as venues. Pub sessions are free.
- **St Patrick's Festival** (14 to 17 March 2026): Four days across the city, ending with the national parade at midday on 17 March. Free and unticketed, down O'Connell Street.
- **Bloomsday Festival** (11 to 16 June 2026): A week of readings, walks and Edwardian costume around 16 June 1904, the single day of Ulysses. More than a hundred events.
- **Dublin Pride** (Late June): The parade fills O'Connell Street and the quays and ends in a free open-air party. Central hotels price up for the weekend.
- **Dublin Horse Show** (5 to 9 August 2026): Five days of showjumping at the RDS since 1864, with the Aga Khan Nations Cup as the set piece. Ballsbridge fills months ahead.
- **All-Ireland finals at Croke Park** (July): The hurling and football finals in front of more than 80,000. Tickets go to clubs first, so a pub with the match on is the plan.
- **Dublin Theatre Festival** (24 September to 11 October 2026): Founded in 1957 and the oldest in Europe, filling the Abbey, the Gate and a dozen smaller rooms. Headline tickets go in summer.
- **Irish Life Dublin Marathon** (Late October): The Sunday of the October bank holiday, through the Georgian squares and Phoenix Park. Entry is by ballot months ahead.

## Must-try dishes in Dublin, Ireland

- **Dublin coddle**: Sausages, rashers, onion and potato simmered pale in stock. Exactly what a wet January evening wants.
- **Irish stew**: Mutton or lamb, potato and onion, cooked long and seasoned lightly. Whether carrots belong is unresolved.
- **Seafood chowder**: Smoked haddock, salmon, mussels and potato in cream. The good ones taste of the smoke rather than the cream.
- **Dublin Bay prawns**: Langoustines from the bay the city is named for, served with garlic butter. Most of the catch is exported.
- **Brown soda bread**: Wholemeal, leavened with bicarbonate and buttermilk rather than yeast. Dense, faintly sour, good with chowder.
- **The full Irish breakfast**: Bacon, sausage, egg, tomato and both puddings. Eaten properly it replaces lunch, which is the point.
- **Oysters and stout**: A pairing the city has made a habit of, and the bitterness does what it claims. Autumn and winter.
- **Spice bag**: Chips, salt-and-chilli chicken, peppers and onion tossed in a bag. The national late-night dish.

## Dublin transport & airports

- **Dublin Airport** (DUB): About 10 km north, and the thing to know is that there is no rail or tram link. Buses do all of it, from city routes on a Leap fare to express coaches reaching the centre in half an hour. [Dublin Airport](https://www.dublinairport.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- **Luas trams and the DART** (Rail): Two tram lines crossing in the centre, and the DART, the electric coastal line, which is the most useful train in Ireland for a visitor: Howth north, Dalkey and Bray south, on a bus fare. [Transport for Ireland](https://www.transportforireland.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) · [Irish Rail](https://www.irishrail.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- **Buses and the Leap card** (Bus): Buy a TFI Leap card and stop thinking about fares: the 90 minute fare is €2.00 across bus, Luas, DART and commuter rail in Zone 1, with later journeys free inside the window. [TFI Leap Card](https://about.leapcard.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) · [Dublin Bus](https://www.dublinbus.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- **Taxis, bikes and walking** (Taxi): The centre is small: Trinity to the Guinness Storehouse is a 25 minute walk. Taxis are metered and plentiful except at closing time on a Friday. Dublinbikes covers the centre. [Visit Dublin, getting around](https://www.visitdublin.com/plan/getting-around?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Dublin at a glance

- **Country:** Ireland
- **Region:** Leinster · the east coast, on Dublin Bay
- **Population:** 1,458,154 in County Dublin at the 2022 census, up 8 per cent in six years
- **Founded:** A Viking longphort on the Liffey from 841
- **Nickname:** The Fair City, from the song. In Irish it is Baile Átha Cliath, the town of the hurdled ford
- **Language:** English, with Irish as the first official language and on every road sign
- **Currency:** Euro (EUR)
- **Time zone:** GMT (UTC+0), Irish Standard Time (UTC+1) from late March to late October
- **Calling code:** +353 1
- **Airports:** DUB
- **Power:** 230V · Type G, the same three-pin plug as the UK
- **Emergency:** 112 or 999

## Interesting facts

- Phoenix Park covers 707 hectares, the largest enclosed park in any European capital. It was fenced as a royal deer park in the 1660s.
- Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at St James's Gate in 1759 at £45 a year. It is framed on the ground floor of the Storehouse.
- Dublin has been a UNESCO City of Literature since 2010, and its most famous novel is a walking route read out loud in public every 16 June.
- Trinity College was founded in 1592, and the manuscript in its Old Library was made around the year 800, eight centuries earlier.
- North Bull Island is an accident, built up behind a sea wall raised to stop the port silting, and now the core of a UNESCO biosphere.

## Watch

[Dublin Travel Guide](https://wimup.com/watch/dublin.md), 8:24

## Dublin travel FAQ

### How many days do you need in Dublin?

Three. Day one is Trinity, the National Museum and the National Gallery, all within ten minutes of each other. Day two goes west to Kilmainham Gaol, IMMA and the Guinness Storehouse. Day three is Phoenix Park and Glasnevin, or the DART to Howth.

### What do you need to book before you arrive?

Kilmainham Gaol above everything: it is guided tour only, every visitor needs a pre-booked ticket, and tickets are released 28 days ahead at midnight Irish time. The Book of Kells is timed entry and worth booking a week out. Croke Park does not accept walk-ups. The free national museums and galleries need nothing.

### What is the cheapest way to get around Dublin?

A TFI Leap card. The TFI 90 minute fare is €2.00 for an adult and covers city buses, both Luas lines, the DART and commuter rail inside Zone 1, with every journey after the first free if you tap on within 90 minutes. Cash fares cost more and drivers carry no change. Most of the centre is walkable in any case.

### How do you get from Dublin Airport into the city?

By road, because there is no rail or tram link. City bus routes take a Leap fare, express coaches run to the centre in about half an hour, and taxis queue outside both terminals. Allow more time than the distance suggests: the approach roads are the busiest in the country.

### When is the best time to visit Dublin?

May, June and September. Long days, mid to high teens, and a busy festival calendar without the March or Christmas price spikes. It rains in every month, usually briefly, so the plan is a jacket rather than a different month. Mid-March is the exception in both directions.

## Nearby guides

- [Kilkenny](https://wimup.com/city/kilkenny.md): Day trip · 10 picks
- [Sligo](https://wimup.com/city/sligo.md): Ireland · 10 picks
- [Cork](https://wimup.com/city/cork.md): Ireland · 10 picks
- [All of Europe →](https://wimup.com/europe): 158 cities

Part of the [Ireland guide](https://wimup.com/country/ireland.md) · [Europe](https://wimup.com/europe.md)

## Sources

- [Dublin tourism board](https://www.visitdublin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Book of Kells and the Long Room, Trinity College: Trinity College Dublin](https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/book-of-kells/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Kilmainham Gaol Museum: Kilmainham Gaol Museum](https://www.kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology: National Museum of Ireland](https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Guinness Storehouse: Guinness Storehouse](https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Phoenix Park: Phoenix Park](https://www.phoenixpark.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [National Gallery of Ireland: National Gallery of Ireland](https://www.nationalgallery.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum: EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum](https://epicchq.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [St Patrick's Cathedral: St Patrick's Cathedral](https://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [GAA Museum and Croke Park stadium tour: Croke Park](https://crokepark.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Glasnevin Cemetery: Dublin Cemeteries Trust](https://www.dctrust.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Chester Beatty (official site)](https://chesterbeatty.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Irish Museum of Modern Art (official site)](https://imma.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Hugh Lane Gallery (official site)](https://hughlane.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts and History (official site)](https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Decorative-Arts-History?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Natural History Museum (official site)](https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Natural-History?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [14 Henrietta Street (official site)](https://14henriettastreet.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Museum of Literature Ireland (official site)](https://moli.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Dublinia (official site)](https://www.dublinia.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen (official site)](https://chapteronerestaurant.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Variety Jones (official site)](https://www.varietyjones.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Bastible (official site)](https://www.bastible.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Winding Stair (official site)](https://www.winding-stair.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Etto (official site)](https://www.etto.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Uno Mas (official site)](https://unomas.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Fish Shop (official site)](https://fish-shop.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Dublin Castle (official site)](https://dublincastle.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Christ Church Cathedral (official site)](https://christchurchcathedral.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Marsh's Library (official site)](https://marshlibrary.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Casino at Marino (official site)](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/casino-marino/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [St Stephen's Green (official site)](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/st-stephens-green/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Iveagh Gardens (official site)](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/the-iveagh-gardens/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Bull Island and Dollymount Strand (official site)](https://www.dublinbaybiosphere.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Irish National War Memorial Gardens (official site)](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/irish-national-war-memorial-gardens/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Glendalough (official site)](https://wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Brú na Bóinne (official site)](https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/bru-na-boinne-visitor-centre-newgrange-knowth-and-dowth/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Malahide Castle and Gardens (official site)](https://www.malahidecastleandgardens.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Powerscourt Estate (official site)](https://powerscourt.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Dublin Airport: Dublin Airport](https://www.dublinairport.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Luas trams and the DART: Transport for Ireland](https://www.transportforireland.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Luas trams and the DART: Irish Rail](https://www.irishrail.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Buses and the Leap card: TFI Leap Card](https://about.leapcard.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Buses and the Leap card: Dublin Bus](https://www.dublinbus.ie/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Taxis, bikes and walking: Visit Dublin, getting around](https://www.visitdublin.com/plan/getting-around?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.