This New Year's we decided to do something different and get away for a bit, resulting in a fun 4 days in Dublin. We spent New Years Eve in Dublin, plus visited the prison, the Guinness Factory and more! Here's our trip report of our 4 days in Dublin.
Day one
Our flight was scheduled for 6:50am with Flybe, flying straight into Dublin Airport. We only took hand luggage (no checked luggage!) so we were out in minutes and looking for the 'aircoach'. This is a bus service, which travels from the airport to a few stops in the city centre. A return is about €6 per person and we arrived at O'Connell Street in about 30 minutes!
We walked from O'Connell Street to the Ashling Hotel where we were staying. After a short walk through sunny Dublin, we dumped our bags at the hotel and headed to Kilmainham Gaol. We made the prison our first port of call, as we'd heard you couldn't book tours in advance and it was first come first serve. It was about 10:30/11:00am, but we arrived after a large tour group, which meant the next few tours were booked up until 2pm.
Guinness Storehouse
We instead popped to a pub for a drink around the corner and grabbed some lunch from La Dolce Vita, a restaurant above the pub. We were ready by 2pm when we had pre-booked tickets for the Guinness Storehouse. We arrived and the place was absolutely packed! But thankfully we sailed straight through the queue to the ticket collection machines.
When booking online you just need to select a date, and it's then a self-guided tour around the brewery. We were there longer than we originally thought and it was definitely one of our trip highlights!
As you make your way around, you learn about the history of Guinness, how it's made and what makes Guinness so different. There are also exhibits of their iconic advertising from over the years, along with the 'Guinness Academy' where you can learn to pour a perfect pint of Guinness. I'd had a swig of Oli's pint earlier in the day and it wasn't for me! However, I enjoyed the Guinness Academy and watching Oli and everyone else pour their pints.
The tour ends in their 'Gravity Bar' - a glass walled bar at the top of the building where you can cash in your complimentary Guinness (or soft drink) and take in the incredible views over Dublin city centre. The atmosphere was amazing and definitely ended the tour on a high.
Still feeling full up from lunch (almost 6 hours later), we headed to "The Bar With No Name" (or 'Number 3'). The entrance is attached to the side of a restaurant, with no sign of branding outside as you enter through a big door into a hallway (like you're stepping into someone's house). You head upstairs and on the 1st floor you'll find the bar. Beautiful high ceilings, low lighting and exposed brickwork, along with a choice of some amazing cocktails! The place was already busy, so we found a corner table and enjoyed the atmosphere along with a few cocktails.
By about 10pm, a full day on our feet had caught up with us, so we headed to the hotel, ready for an early start the next day!
Day two
We woke up early, grabbed some breakfast from Mochaland (Queen of Tarts had been planned, but they were opening late) and headed straight for Kimmainham Gaol to catch one of the first tours of the day. We arrived at 9:30am and got ourselves on the 10:00am tour.
We looked around their museum, learning about the history of the prison, some key inmates, how the prison fell into disrepair and how volunteers took on the task of bringing it back to life to preserve it's history and heritage.
We couldn't go inside the main prison area as they are doing works to the roof. However we did receive a slight price discount on this and the tour was enjoyable and informative none-the-less.
After our enjoyable morning there, we decided to head to Dublin Zoo as we were roughly "out that way" and wouldn't be venturing that way out the city centre again. But if I'm honest, I wish we hadn't and saved ourselves the money. The enclosures were small and the animals seemed stressed and unhappy. There weren't many places to hide, things to climb or things dangling for them to play with either - just a general lack of stimulation. We left straight after due to feeling so guilty.
We headed back towards the city centre via Phoenix Park which was nice and headed for the general 'Temple Bar' area to a pub called 'The Stags Head'. We were attending the 'Three New Years Festival' that evening, so it was good to scope out the area and get our bearings.
The pub was lovely! It was about 3pm by and already relatively busy, but quiet enough that we could get a table. There was a nice buzz and atmosphere as people revved themselves up for New Years Eve. We had 1 drink and rested our aching feet and ordered some bar snacks. The pub looks fantastic inside and the bar staff were lovely - a definite recommendation if ever you're visiting!
New Years Eve in Dublin
We headed to Temple Bar for drinks and our first port of call was the 'Vintage Cocktail Club'. The bar is completely black from the front; black paint job, blacked out windows and a black door, with no handle only the initials 'VCC'. You need to ring the bell to get in. Someone will greet you and take you up to the bar. We hadn't reserved a table (in hindsight probably foolish on NYE), but they managed to seat us and we spent the following 2 hours drinking cocktails.
The decor is fab - candle sticks on tables, low intimate lighting, 1930s decor and music, which all helped build a great atmosphere and buzz. At 7:30pm we left, ready to catch the 'festival of light' parade which was kicking off the NYE festivities. The parade was great and really got in the mood to celebrate New Years.
We then headed to La Caverna for dinner. We booked in advance for a table for 8pm - we were a little early but we got seated straight away. We sat downstairs in the cellar which was brilliant! Bare brick walls, low lighting, music and lots of excited bustle, which created a great atmosphere.
Dinner was delicious, we had garlic bread and cured meats to share for starters. Oli ordered the garlic chicken and I had a pasta dish which was lovely! We thought we'd celebrate NY's and ordered a bottle of prosecco too!
We left about 10pm and headed straight to Dame Street for the New Years Festival. Admittedly we didn't know the bands playing... they were evidently massive in Ireland, but hadn't quite made it over here in the UK? So while everyone was singing around us, we just stood and watched a little awkwardly. That didn't stop us having an amazing evening though, everyone was in great spirits and the atmosphere was fantastic.
The bands were good and we really enjoyed the countdown at midnight, followed by a small firework display. Shortly after we called it a night and headed back to the hotel - unconscious within minutes!
Thursday 1st December
We woke up about 9am and headed out in search of breakfast. We had planned to go to Queen of Tarts again, but sadly they were closed. Instead we found a little French place at the top of the road. Oli had a panini, while I had pancakes which were delicious!
As it was New Years Day we figured most things would be closed, so we took advantage for an 'exploring' day. We headed up to Christchurch Cathedral and viewed the other churches around that area.
Around midday, we found a pub near the Gaiety Theatre and rested our achy feet from all the walking and had a drink. Next on our list was a trip to the Jameson Distillery for our 3pm tour - which we cannot recommend enough! We booked our tickets online a few weeks in advance - prices were about €11 per person, and was worth doing as all the afternoon tours were booked up!
Our guide was Niall and he was amazing! He was very engaging, knowledgeable and full of quick wit and a dry sense of humour. He took us around the distillery, teaching us about how Jameson Whiskey is made, it's history and what it is that makes it different from others. The tour lasted about 30 minutes and ended in a small whiskey tasting session.
Johnny Walker (left) Jameson (middle) and JD (right) was our selection. Niall taught us about the differences and the different tastes. After this, we headed into the bar area for a complimentary Jameson. There were a number of different Jameson's in the shop, which you could only buy at the distillery. Unfortunately due to only bringing hand luggage with us we couldn't bring any back with us - but for any of you whiskey fans out there, this should be a must for you!
We enjoyed our time at Jameson so much we decided to stay for one more drink in their downstairs bar. Oli stuck to a Jameson & ginger ale, while I had one of their warm cocktails - which was like a mulled wine, but with Jameson (it was delicious!)
In the evening, we caught the tram back down to Jervis and had dinner at Koh, a thai restaurant which had caught our eye. We had chicken satays to start, some crackers and then a curry each for main. Oli had the green thai curry, while I ordered a red thai curry. Both were SO hot! We both love spicy food, but we had to have a few breathers. They delicious though and by far the best meal we had in Dublin.
We finished the night with a couple of drinks in Brogans down Dame Street, which was a nice, quiet but atmospheric pub.
Friday 2nd December
Our last day in the city - boo! We wanted something quick and easy for breakfast, so we stopped back off at Mochaland as we knew they were a good price and were near by.
We spent our morning walking along the river down towards the docklands. It was a beautiful sunny day, though the wind was strong and it was pretty damn chilly (insert picture of windy faces!)
The walk was beautiful and although there's not much to see towards the docks, it's still a pleasant walk and there are lots of interesting looking buildings and pretty bridges looking back towards the city.
We also passed the famine sculpture, which did freak us out a bit - the sculptures are really scary (although poignant).
We walked as far down as we could go, crossed the bridge at the bottom of the docks and then came back on ourselves on the other side of the river.
We walked back up towards Grafton Street where we stopped off at Kehoe's for a drink. The pub is full of little 'snugs' and cubby holes to sit in which was lovely. We grabbed an early lunch and then finished exploring the general Temple Bar area before making our way back to The Bar With No Name for our last drinks in Dublin. We enjoyed the bar so much we figured we had to go back. We grabbed a window seat, sipping on Jameson's for an hour or so.
About 5pm, we headed back to our hotel, collected our bags and caught the tram to the city centre. From here we checked out the General Post Office and Dublin Spire, before catching the 'Aircoach' back to Dublin Airport. We arrived at the airport in about 20 minutes and were whizzed through security. We boarded our Flybe plane at 8pm, ready for our 8:15pm departure and arrived in Southampton in 25 minutes!! Half our flight time!
Thank you Dublin - we had an amazing 4 days in Dublin. We hope to see you again soon!
