Last month we took a day trip to Dublin and it's fair to say that we had an incredible and jam-packed day!
The last time that I visited Dublin was over 7 years ago for my dad's birthday. We had such a wonderful trip that I have been desperate to get back to the Irish capital and show Chris what an incredible city Dublin is.
One of my favourite past times is scanning Skyscanner for affordable flights to European cities. I searched for a random day in April and set my search to 'everywhere', and you can imagine my excitement when flights to Dublin came up as a £19 return for an early morning departure flight and a late return flight. Luckily the flight from London to Dublin is less than an hour so we would have plenty of exploring time. Remembering the incredible time I had in Dublin on my last trip, I did a little bit of research to jog my memory about the best way to get from the airport to the city centre. Then I discovered that there was an affordable bus from the airport to the city centre, so I quickly booked the tickets and excitedly informed Chris that we were heading to the capital of Ireland for less money than we would spend on a return train ticket to central London.
When the day arrived, we left our house at 3:30am to head to the airport for a 6:30am flight. We were surprisingly energetic for two people who had very little sleep and we enjoyed a breakfast in Spoons before boarding our flight. Our flight duration ended up being 45 minutes and we both fell asleep just after take-off and woke up to the announcement that we were 10 minutes away from landing. It's safe to say that this was one of our best flights that we've had! We arrived in Dublin before 9am and by the time we arrived at the city centre, it was just before 10am, which is when the famous Temple Bar opens. On the way to the bar, we stopped at Ha'Penny bridge to take in the history of Ireland's first iron bridge. Dublin was quite rainy when we arrived but we didn't let that dampen our spirits, as we were very excited to be heading to Temple Bar.
When we arrived at Temple Bar, there was already LIVE music being performed which reminded me why I love this city. Every bar or pub you visit in Ireland, you are welcomed by a friendly atmosphere and a chilled vibe. We managed to find a table next to the performer where we were able to enjoy the incredible sound of LIVE authentic, Irish music whilst sipping on Guinness and Jameson whiskey. Please don't judge that it was early in the morning, we had already been up for 8 hours😅 We stayed in the Temple bar an hour or so, before heading to the Guinness Storehouse. We had pre-booked Guinness Storehouse tickets for 12pm so had to leave in plenty of time for a 20-minute walk to the storehouse. If we didn't have tickets, then we likely would have stayed in the Temple bar for the majority of the day, enjoying the amazing atmosphere.
On the walk to the Storehouse, we came across Christ Church Cathedral where we were able to witness the amazing architecture of the cathedral and admire the symbolic sculpture 'Homeless Jesus'. This is a prominent sculpture created by a Canadian artist, which encourages visitors to reflect on society.
We admired the stunning church and sculpture for a few minutes, before continuing our scenic route to the Guinness Storehouse. It was an easy walk, full of things to look at along the way, which made the journey go quickly.
When we arrived at the Guinness Storehouse, we went straight through to the start of the tour, due to purchasing tickets in advance. I would highly recommend this option because although the queue for tickets wasn't that long when we arrived, I can imagine that it gets quite busy, particularly on weekends. I am a keen Guinness drinker and have visited the Guinness Storehouse before and I enjoyed it just as much the second time. There were a few advancements from the last time I visited, including a chance to print a picture on a Guinness, and an oyster restaurant. Apparently oysters and Guinness are the perfect match, so we of course had to put the theory to the test. It was my first time trying Oysters and they were of course, absolutely delicious. We spent about 2 and a half hours exploring the Guinness Storehouse and we managed to have 2 pints each during our tour, alongside a taster Guinness. Chris isn't a massive fan of Guinness but he really enjoyed the experience which proves that you don't have to be a Guinness connoisseur to visit the Guinness Storehouse.
Once we finished at the Storehouse, we made our way back to the city centre and made an additional visit to Dublin Castle. There was lots of construction work happening around the castle, so it was a little disappointing but is definitely a good sight to add to your tourist stops. By the time we had visited the castle, we didn't have long to go until we had to start making our way back to the airport. We decided to finish our Dublin day with a trip to the oldest pub in Dublin, The Brazen Head. Here we enjoyed some Irish coffees and chicken wings before making our way back to the bus stop, to catch our bus to the airport. Dublin airport is a lovely airport with plenty to do and after looking around the shops, we found a lovely bar to grab some more food and drinks before flying home.
Overall, our day in Dublin was jam-packed and went very quickly! I would highly recommend a Dublin day trip, if you are able to, however we will definitely be back to Dublin to spend some more days there exploring, because we still have a long list of things to see. If you are planning a day trip, my top tips would be to plan in advance for the things that you would like to see/do and to take comfortable shoes, as it will likely be a very full-on day.
