If you like Guinness you will LOVE this museum. It traces the history of this delightful beverage...and has great presentations of the story behind the brewing process, in addition to advertising, storage, and transportation. Definitely worth a visit. (and even though I don't have kids, I saw several running around and they seemed to enjoy it too).

Everyone knows that Dublin and Guiness are synonymous with each other, so the Guiness Storehouse is, not surprisingly, quite a popular destination with the tourists. My friend and I included! We took the Dublin Bus Tour and hopped off at the Guiness stop - along with most everyone else on the bus, and began our tour of the brewery.

Arthur Guiness was an original man, who took a failing brewery and made it work. With quite an original lease on the building, good for 9000 years, he went from making just ale, to making both ale and stout, to turning his buisiness into focusing on just the stout business - his black gold.

The tour takes you up the 7 floors of the storehouse, throught the secret formula for the success of Guiness (without really giving you the secret.) The history behind Arthur Guiness and his brewery, the ingredients, etc.

Your ticket is a paperweight with a drop of guiness inside, and at the 7th floor sky bar, you can turn in the wrapper of that paperweight at the bar for a free pint of Guiness, and drink it while looking at the spectacular view that you have of Dublin through the glass windows.

Once you're done, take the lift back down to the first floor to make sure and visit the gift shop - where you can find anything with a Guiness logo on it.

Entrance fee was 12 euros, and worth every penny.

Guiness Storehouse

The Irish love their Guinness, and gradually the world seems to be getting won over by the famous black and white drink. So when in Dublin, it would be rude not to sample the famous stuff at its birthplace.

The brewery itself is a little away from central Dublin, but is easy to reach by bus or a long stroll. Entrance is reasonably priced - particularly since you get a free pint in the bar at the end of the tour.

The exhibition takes you through the brewing process which is relatively interesting. You can really get the feel of it all because the place stinks of hops.

There's also a video of the history of Guinness, which again is quite interesting. Lots of images of how important Guinness is to the Irish though.

What I really liked were all the adverts for Guinness around the brewery. They're very distinctive and often imaginitive. The toucan is pretty cool too.

No trip to Dublin would be complete without some experience of Guinness, even if its just a pint of the black stuff! But for the full story, why not visit the Guinness Storehouse, opened in December 2000? You'll discover all there is to know about the world famous beer and the man that started it all, Arthur Guinness.

The storehouse is open Monday to Sunday until 5pm in the winter and until 7pm in the summer. Admission rates are £9 for adults, £20 for a family (2 adults and 4 children) and this includes a free pint of the black stuff in the sky bar (with impressive views over Dublin).

You can get to the Storehouse on the Dublin City Tour buses, or a regular number 123 bus from O'Connell Street.

For more information call the information line on 01 453 8364 or check out the website at www.guiness.com