If you are visiting the UK, got some extra time and want to discover around the island, Ireland is an excellent destination(there might be a separate visa requirement so make sure that you check). I believe visiting the capital and the biggest city of Ireland, Dublin, is a good choice for the first time visitors, after that you can always come back to this lovely country for more. In this post I will be sharing my own weekend experience in Dublin as a first timer and hopefully I can provide some useful tips and suggestions for your trip to the land of Guinness.

Flights to Dublin from the UK are cheap in general, in my case I have bought the tickets around 2 months before my travel date which was May and they were around 30 pounds return, not bad at all! Dublin offers variety of accommodation choices, from fancy hotels to affordable yet clean hostels. But there was one thing that surprised me the most when I was looking for hostels, my choice of stay in many trips, the prices were higher than what I expected and many off them were fully booked. We did not end up booking the one we wanted but our random choice The Abrahams Hostel ended up being just great! You can always read the reviews and call in for more information when making a choice.

Discovering Dublin

I believe a weekend is plenty of time to enjoy Dublin. The transportation from and to the airport is really easy and cheap. You can discover the city and the museums during the day, maybe take a short trip to outside the city centre and do a nice pub crawl at night. The Temple Bar area with its medieaval atmosphere is a well-known tourist attraction to experience the famous Irish pubs. But if you are like me and want to stay away from the over-priced touristy places( even if you are a tourist), You can find many other pubs around the city to enjoy a pint of Guinness for couple Euros less. I would say go for a nice meal at least for one night to enjoy some Irish cuisine, my suggestion would be the oldest pub of Ireland, Brazen Head, but make sure to have a reservation or go early because it is always packed! There are plenty of places to explore in the city to chose from, the Guinness factory is known as one of these but to be honest I have skipped it during my trip as I am more interested in the final product:)

You can even have a little escape while you are having your Dublin trip. Howth is a beautiful fishing town only an hour away from Dublin. You can just take a city bus or train there and back for as little as 4 Euros. It is a great place for a little picnic by the water or for an early dinner. I will be sharing more activities to do in Dublin, I hope you enjoy it!