Dublin

Dublin is compact, walkable and expensive, and two attractions dominate the visitor list — the Guinness Storehouse and the Book of Kells. Both are ticketed, both get busy, and both are within twenty minutes of each other on foot.

This page compares live ticket prices and availability for Dublin attractions across our booking partners.

When to visit Dublin

May to September brings the longest days and the least rain, though “least rain” in Dublin is relative. June and July have daylight until well after 10pm.

St Patrick’s Day on 17 March fills the city and hotel prices multiply. Book months ahead or avoid the week entirely.

October to April is cool, wet and dark early, but considerably cheaper. Dublin is an indoor city in winter — pubs, museums and galleries — and it works.

Rain is possible any day, usually in short bursts rather than sustained downpours. A jacket beats an umbrella in the wind.

Guinness Storehouse

The most visited paid attraction in Ireland, and it operates on timed entry.

Seven floors built around the brewing process, ending at the Gravity Bar on the top with a 360-degree view over the city and a pint included in the ticket.

Booking online is cheaper than the door price, and afternoon slots are the busiest. Early morning is noticeably calmer.

The Connoisseur Experience is a separate paid tasting session with limited places.

Allow two hours minimum.

Trinity College and the Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is a ninth-century illuminated manuscript, displayed a page at a time in a darkened room.

The visit includes the Long Room of the Old Library — the barrel-vaulted chamber lined with 200,000 books that appears in every photograph of Dublin.

Note that the Long Room has been undergoing a major conservation project with books removed and displays altered. Check current status before booking if the room is your main reason for going.

Timed entry, sells out in summer, book several days ahead.

The Trinity campus itself is free to walk through.

Kilmainham Gaol

The former prison where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed, and the most historically significant site in the city.

Guided tour only — there is no independent entry — and tickets are released online on a rolling basis. They sell out consistently and quickly.

This is the one Dublin attraction where turning up without a booking reliably fails.

The tour takes around an hour and is genuinely affecting.

The pubs

Temple Bar is the district every visitor is told about and every local avoids. Prices there are the highest in the city and the crowds are entirely tourists.

Better traditional pubs sit a few streets away — around Camden Street, Dame Street and the area north of the Liffey.

Traditional music sessions happen in many pubs and are free. They usually start around 9pm and are not scheduled performances but musicians turning up to play.

Booking ahead vs walking up

Ireland’s national museums and the National Gallery are free, which is worth knowing in an expensive city.

Day trips

Cliffs of Moher is a long day — around three hours each way — usually combined with the Burren and Galway. Spectacular, and the most popular tour from Dublin.

Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains is closer, around an hour, and a monastic site in a glacial valley.

Newgrange is a passage tomb older than the pyramids, an hour north, visited through the Brú na Bóinne centre.

Getting around

The centre is small and walking covers nearly everything. Trinity College to the Guinness Storehouse is about 25 minutes on foot.

The Luas tram has two lines and a Leap Card covers trams, buses and the DART suburban train.

The DART runs along the coast and is a cheap way to reach Howth or Dún Laoghaire for a half-day by the sea.

Taxis are plentiful but expensive relative to the distances involved.

A first-timer’s two days

Day one — the historic centre. Trinity College and the Book of Kells in the morning, Dublin Castle, then Kilmainham Gaol in the afternoon with a booked tour.

Day two — Guinness and the city. Guinness Storehouse first thing, National Museum after lunch, then traditional music in a pub away from Temple Bar in the evening.