I know, I know, it’s been 5 months since I visited Dublin and I’m only just posting about it, but holy smokes what a busy few months it’s been.
I’ve been itching to do an extreme day trip for months, and whilst this can’t be quite considered as an ‘extreme’ day trip, it’s a great trial run for a longer and busier day. Surprisingly, I’ve never been to Ireland, it feels criminal to say that at the age of 32 when I’m from the North West of England, it’s practically a stones throw away, but everyone told me about how expensive it is and I just favoured city breaks further a field.
The first thing I want to point out is: it’s not that expensive. It’s only as expensive as London, or virtually any city, it’s only as expensive as you want it to be/you make it. If you choose to stop for a few drinks, have breakfast, lunch and dinner in restaurants, have 3 takeaway coffees and snacks and pay for all of the tourist attractions, then yeah it’ll be expensive, but realistically, who is doing that? I’ll share my cost list at the end of the post.
When I was browsing Skyscanner for a day trip, I didn’t select a destination, I picked anywhere to see what options showed up. Ireland was one of the top options, as I say, never having been there I figured that was a good starting place to explore.
My flights were £42.98 return from Manchester - what. a. steal. I can’t even get return trains to Birmingham for that, so 2 plane journeys to a different country seems crazy. It started with a 7:35am flight which gave me a good amount of time to take the tram to the airport and grab a coffee before the flight (no bags to check in, what a breeze!), the flight was less than an hour despite what flight times say so I landed in Dublin before 8:30am.
You can only get a coach or a taxi to the city centre, it’s nice and cheap for the coach though and takes around 30 minutes with many stops you alight at. I opted for the standard Aston Quay stop by the O’Connell Bridge because it’s perfectly central and right in the heart of everywhere you’d want to go.
When I was planning my trip, my first stop was searching Instagram for places I wanted to visit, I knew I had (relatively) limited time so I wanted to hit all the spots that were me first before contemplating bigger tourist areas (I’ll add the list below to show where I went and where I’d like to go on my next visit). It was full of book shops, food places, sightseeing spots and areas to just wander.
I immediately checked out some bookstores, The Winding Stair & Chapters, it seemed like a great idea at the time but then I reminded myself that I actually couldn’t buy any books because I had no hand luggage allowance other than what I could fit in my handbag and boy did that hurt. They were both incredible, Chapters is massive and had gorgeous illustrative covers of books that I wanted to collect along with a large discounted section too. I followed this up with a trip to Arnotts department store to check out their Jellycat selection (even harder to pry myself away, kinda kicking myself to not buy the Shamrock as a commemorative souvenir).
At this point I was ravenous, there was a place that I was super keen to try out, it’s a little further out from the city centre but the weather was gorgeous and the walk was very welcome. I cannot rave about Alma enough! I was a little nervous when I arrived, I always am especially when eating alone, and the unit itself is very small but they have a good range of outdoor seating too. I opted for a table outside, they provide blankets too if the weather is a little cooler which is a lovely touch, everything felt so well thought out. I ordered a pot of tea and a granola bowl, when I say that it’s the best granola bowl I’ve ever had, I’m truly not exaggerating. It was perfection. Add sitting in the sun with my reading book, in a new city with the day ahead of me, it was an incredibly blissful feeling. There are those little moments where you’re bubbling and fizzing inside with excitement and happiness, that was one of them.
The one thing I want to do on every trip is get photobooth photos, they are such a cute keepsake and a fun little experience, I’d found that there was one in a vintage clothing shop, Nine Crows & Temple Bar, so I headed there next and told myself to stop being a big baby and go in there to get the photos (32 years old and I still get so nervous about everything). Okay, so they didn’t turn out great, but isn’t that the fun of getting photobooth pics? They won’t always turn out perfect, but it’s a snapshot of a particular time and moment.
The temptation to actually go into The Temple Bar was actually incredibly low, it so cool from the outside because it’s so iconic, but I really had no desire to go in. Instead, I wandered the grounds of Trinity College which was incredible, feeling like I was in an episode of Normal People. There is Book of Kells library in there which looked great but I’m not totally on board with paying to go into a library so I swerved that one.
By 3pm, and about a gazillion steps already, I was craving a sweet treat so I grabbed the last almond croissant from Bake House (delish), a pistachio iced latte from Starbucks (okay, that is massively expensive here) and set off for another wander. I stopped off in Book Upstairs and Hodges Figgis, before having a good explore of Grafton Street. George’s Street Arcade is a fun little walkthrough with shops, I especially loved Maktus for souvenirs, stationery, gifts etc. I could have spent a fortune in there on stuff I really didn’t need but absolutely loved (I stopped myself after a couple of postcards).
At this stage I was wandering, tiredness was starting to settle in because I’d only sat down for breakfast and it was already gone 4pm. There were plenty of things I could have done if I’d still had the energy but wandering around looking for a magnet was the only thing left on my agenda. Around 5:15pm, I’d found Bambino, a pizza place where you buy by the slice, the queue was massive but it looked so good I couldn’t not try it (it only took 15 mins). The food was delicious, reasonably priced and my level of excitement was raised by free stickers at the till. Let me repeat that, free. stickers. perfect for my junk journal.
By the time 6:15pm rolled around, I was ready to jump the coach back to the airport, full, tired and ready for chill. I did arrive at the airport super early because my flight wasn’t until 9:15pm but a little stop off with a cup of tea got me ready to board.
I arrived back at the airport, waiting for the tram back home, just after 10pm. I’d amassed 41K steps, a new city/country ticked off my list, and memories to last me forever. 24 hours might not seem like a long time when you’re in it, but look what you can actually achieve!
Dublin To-Do
Shops
- Book of Kells
- Carroll's Gift Shop
- Book Upstairs
- The Winding Stair
- Hodges Figgis
- Chapters
- Grafton Street
- Arnotts
Brunch
- Alma
- One Kinda Folk
- Bibi’s
- Tang
- TwirlyGate
Coffee/Sweet/Drink
- Elliot’s
- Éist Espresso Bar
- Bad Bobs
- The Temple Bar
Dinner
- Bambino
Sights
- Love Lane
- Dublin Castle
- Trinity College
- Ha’Penny Bridge
- Guinness tour
- Nine Crows & Temple Bar - Photobooth
- Arisu - Photobooth
Dublin spends
£42.98 - flights (return)
£4.00 - airport coffee
£12.31 - Dublin express return coach
£10.99 - Alma brunch
£4.40 - photobooth
£3.08 - almond croissant
£11.65 - Bambino pizza
£4.70 - tram
= £85.11
€5.45 - postcards and stickers
€3.99 - magnet
€1.75 - water
€7.50 - Starbucks coffee
€3.60 - airport tea
= €22.29 / £19.37 (paid with euros)
Where should I head next for an extreme day trip? Where should I head next time I go to Dublin?
S xo
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