During a trip to the UK with my husband, we spent a day in Dublin. This is day 1: a Day in Dublin of a 4-day Ideal Ireland Itinerary.
Since we were in Ireland to see the countryside and shoreline we only spent a day in Dublin. I thought this was more than enough time. In fact, there was so much beautiful countryside to see in Ireland. If I were doing it a second time, I would probably skip Dublin altogether. But since it was my first time, Dublin was a great place to begin learning the history and culture of the Irish.
Money in Dublin
While Scotland and England used Pounds, Ireland uses the Euro. Make sure to change over your money to be ready to explore.
Language in Dublin
The Irish government is attempting to bring back the national language of Gaelic. All of the street signs were in Gaelic first and English second. It was never really a problem, but it was interesting because we thought we were going to a country without a language barrier and we were surprised.
Transportation in Dublin
We rented a car for ease of getting around all of Ireland, but beware of driving on the “wrong” side of the road {post coming soon} If you are renting a car, you will need to pay for parking downtown, but it isn’t pricey. To do our full itinerary, we needed a car, so this is how we got around in Dublin.
The public transportation in Dublin offers the DART, light rail and buses, so it’s easy to get around the city without a car.
If you aren’t able to rent a car to see Ireland, Dublin has a bus guided tours to the most impressive sights around. You must do a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. I also highly recommend the ring of Kerry or the Dingle peninsula. Most of those tours start in Kilkenny so you may have to take a train there to do those tours.
A Day in Dublin Itinerary
Dublin Castle
I liked starting our day here because we got a full tour of the history of Ireland.
A self-guided tour was 7 Euro and the guided tour was 10 Euro. It was definitely worth the extra money and waiting for the tour times for a guide to tell us the history and answer our every question.
The guide started from early Irish history all the way into the recent break from England. The tragic events that lead up to the famine, the strained relations with England and the Irish way of life were especially interesting to me. Especially just coming from England and Scottland, I could see the laid-back and informal style of government of Ireland. {our Full UK Itinerary coming soon}
Make sure to walk through the peaceful castle gardens in the back once your tour ends.
Dublina at Christs Church Cathedral
Just up the street from the castle is Christs Church Cathedral. Inside this church area, you can find the Viking and Medieval History tour. Try on Viking clothes, travel back in time to a medieval village and climb to the top of Michaels tower for a city view.
For 9.50 Euro you can have access to a self-guided tour of the Viking and medieval villages (or purchase the Dublin Pass). The cathedral costs extra.
Book of Kells & Old Library
Just down the street from the Castle is Trinity University. 
You can walk through the Temple Bar district and along the river on your way.
The book of Kells is the 4 gospels from the Bible written in Latin around 800 AD. They display a page of 2 of the gospels under a glass case (no photos!). Make sure you take in the exhibit before the books. Once, you go into the room with the old Book of Kells there is not much left to see. The Old Library is the last stop before the bookstore. You can’t touch anything but just look at the old library. It is impressive in sight!
St. Patricks Cathedral
See the impressive architecture and a beautifully designed church for 7 euro.
Family History
Look up your Family History- If your ancestry comes from Ireland, it might be interested to visit parishes where your family was christened or married. We spent a few hours at the RCB library of Parish records. We were able to find my husband’s great-grandmothers marriage and birth records. It was so amazing to touch a book that our ancestors signed over 150 years ago! For this stop, you will need a car and 15 minutes of driving from downtown. It was worth it for us to find our family.
Riverdance Performance
End a day in Dublin by watching a River Dance show The classic Irish Dancing is a perfect finish to an amazing day!
You may be wondering why I left off the Guinness tour. We don’t drink, so we didn’t find much interest there. But it is rated as a top tour in Dublin. It costs 25 Euro and takes about 2 hours. Let me know if you added this to your itinerary and what you thought!
What do you plan on doing on A Day in Dublin? Please leave a comment with your favorite Dublin experience.
If you plan on driving to the Southern coast (and you definitely should!) check out Driving the Dingle Peninsula.
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