Guiness tastes so much better in Ireland!

We absolutely loved everything about Ireland! What a beautiful country and wonderful people.

We traveled to Ireland over the 4th of July 2016. We spent 4 nights in Dublin and used that as our home base. Since we were there in the summer and so far north, it was light from 4am-10pm. This made our trip seem longer as it was light for so long. We would eat dinner and it would still be light out after for having a few more pints and listening to fun music!

Transportation from Airport: We used a bus, this was an easy and inexpensive way to get from the airport to center city: We used aircoach. https://www.aircoach.ie/

Accommodations: We stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel, this was right in downtown and walking distance to everything. The hotel was very nice, I would recommend. The hotel was very close to St Patrick’s cathedral, so you could go see the sun set, beautiful. https://www.radissonblu.com/en/royalhotel-dublin

Restaurants:

Pubs/quick bites: there are literally thousands of pubs. We popped in many for pints. You must go to the Temple bar area for drinks.

We ate lunch at the Hairy Lemon, was typical pub food

Guinness is so much better here! I also loved Smithwicks. Bulmash Cider is good if you like Cider.

Queen of Tarts – heard good things about this for breakfast/pastries, but we didn’t make it here.

Dinners:

The Winding Stair (make a reservation). This is on the opposite side of the River Liffey but excellent food. http://winding-stair.com/

We wanted to try Indian for something different. This was excellent. Dewali. http://diwali.ie/

Attractions:

There is a “Dublin Pass” – something to look into if you are trying to do a lot of these places, as each place costs $. https://www.dublinpass.com/

Jameson Factory: We loved this. Buy tickets in advance. https://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/us/visit-us

Guinness Storehouse: In our opinion, not a “must do” but cool if you have the time. https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en

Old Jail (Goal): We missed out on this as we didn’t book a tour in advance. Have heard great things. http://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/

Day trip to Cliffs of Moher and Galway – we loved this! This was an entire day trip from Dublin on a bus. We used the Galway Tour company/Dublin Tour company. This is a must do. The guides were great. Depending on time of year will depend on length of tour. We were able to do a lot b/c of the summer. http://www.galwaytourcompany.com/gtc/daytours.jsp We made some stops on the bus on the way to the cliffs including Dunguaire Castle and the Baby Cliffs before seeing the Majestic Cliffs of Moher. When you arrive at the cliffs, go to the left first. It is much more picturesque going that direction. Most people will go to the right as that is where the viewing tower is, but trust me, go to the left first!