The Best Sights of Dublin in 24 Hours
After a last minute flight cancellation I suddenly had to find new flights to Las Vegas or I’d lose out on a tonne of deposits/payments for stuff. After a little searching, planning and plotting I realised it’s easier to fly from Dublin than the UK! Not only was it cheaper including the Manchester – Dublin flights and one night in a hotel. It was also more convenient as you go through U.S. security in Ireland!
The best part was adding Dublin on to an already big trip, I hadn’t been for about 7 years and was looking forward to exploring. Dublin is the capital City of Ireland and sits on the bay of the river Liffey. It started off as a Viking settlement in the 10th century and Dublin means “Black Pool”.
I’d booked a hotel in between the airport and the City. Mainly because it was cheap but also because it had good bus links to both. It’s called Dublin Skylon and it was pretty decent. As it was a nice day I decided to wander down into the City, I’m glad as I saw this wonderful fox mural above.
My first spot to visit was the docklands to check out the Famine memorial. It was absolutely haunting and remembers the great famine between 1845-1849 which saw the population of Ireland halve through death and emigration! It was created by Irish sculpture Rowan Gillespie.
The docklands are pretty nice to wander around too, with lots of little cute bridges crossing the river. My aim now was to go check out the house and statue of famous poet Oscar Wilde!
Oscar Wilde was one of THE poets/playwrights of his time . His most famous play was Dorian Gray, but he was criminalised for his ‘homosexual acts’. His former house is on the corner of Merrion Sq North and there’s a fun statue in Merrion Park.
You can’t visit Dublin without checking out the Guinness Storehouse. Guinness is synonymous with Ireland and the storehouse is really fun AND educational!
It’s a bit of a walk from Merrion Park but I was stopping off for breakfast at one of Dublin’s other institutions, Bewley’s. Now I may be biased because my family would always go here when I was younger after arriving on the ferry. It’s a great building and cool interior though, and the breakfasts/teas etc are delicious!
Nice and full it was time to get walking, I passed a couple of cool murals and Dublin castle, which is a nice building but not super interesting. It’s easy to find the storehouse but make sure you spot some cool Guiness related bits on the way up like the Guinness Toucan.
There are a few tickets you can buy for the storehouse but I went for the basic one at 26E. This includes entry and a free pint of Guinness or other drink at the Gravity bar at the top of the building. It truly is an interesting and well done tourist attraction. Even if you don’t like Guinness it’s interesting to learn about the history of Guinness and beer making in general!
There are also loads of interactive moments, and brilliant selfie spots! The top floor Gravity bar is the icing on the cake though. There you grab your free beer or soft drink and enjoy the views over Dublin and beyond.
Leaving the storehouse behind, I wandered back into Dublin and stopped for another Guinness in The George. An LGBTQ+ bar that was originally a shellfish tavern in 1780. It was stood proudly as a gay bar for the last 30 years! I even got a baby guinness – a shot of kahlua and baileys. After two pints and a shot I decided I should get food. After a wuick search I found BigFan, an award winning Chinese restaurant!
Located on the busy Aungier St the food was delicious, and the cocktails were amazing too. They also had really good vegetarian options. The place itself had a ncie vibe and was really cool. There are a lot of interesting places on Aungiers St so have a wnder and see what draws you in!
Now it was time for a few more Guinness! So I headed down towards the Temple bar area – renowned for it’s pubs and bars this is the tourist centre of Dublin. Most pubs host live music and serve good Irish food. On the way I passed through Love Lane – a cute alley with lots of love themed street art.
I was heading to a very famous bar in particular, Pantibar! Home to Ireland’s most famous drag queen Panti! It’s an LGBTQ+ Dublin institution serving since 2007 and I had to check it out. I got another Irish stout and watched the world go by, it wasn’t super busy but it was early evening midweek. I wish I could have stayed out longer and really enjoyed the night life, but my flight was really early the next day so did the sensible thing and headed back to my hotel.
ALWAYSANOVICE 