Family Weekend in Dublin

A bus from the airport is a pretty economical way to get into central Dublin. In all the reading I did, I hadn't learned about the 10 euro Dublin family bus pass. The bus options from the Dublin airport that one commonly hears about are the express Airlink bus for 6 euros/person or the regular city bus for about 2 euros. But for a family, there is a better, more economical option. The Family bus pass gives your family of 2 adults and 2 kids unlimited rides on Dublin buses for one day, including the express bus to/from the airport. The express bus takes about 45 minutes to central Dublin. We later took a regular (many stops) bus from Dublin out to the airport and it took closer to an hour. There wasn't bad traffic, just lots of stops.

Premier Inns are a chain found all across the UK and Ireland. This one near the airport is bigger than most, but is very nice. It seemed to be a step up in quality from what we thought of as usually pretty basic hotels.

We, and many others, picked this hotel because it is extremely conveniently close to the airport, perfect when you have an early morning flight out.

The rooms were spotlessly clean and have the American-standard two double beds, nice linens, and color TV. The bathroom was a little small. Free parking and a restaurant and bar are all on the premises. We drove into downtown suburban Swords for dinner. There are plenty of quick-food restaurants and take-aways for relatively inexpensive food, but I think the prices in Swords are a little jacked up because of the airport proximity.

The Premier Inn Dublin is really a great, reasonably priced hotel where we were treated very nicely. A bus ride will take 45-60 minutes to get to Dublin, which makes it a little inconvenient for seeing tourist Dublin.

Trying to find hotel in downtown Dublin that can accomodate a family of four in a single room (like most standard hotels in the US) can be a bit difficult. Most only fit two, and a few will take three. Trying to find a reasonably priced place on a weekend in August really compounds the problem. So I was pretty happy to find the Glen Guesthouse, not far off of O'Connell Street, in walking distance to most of the central attractions.

We booked their family room, which has beds for four and ensuite toilet/shower. The room isn't air conditioned, which given Ireland's pretty cool weather, even in August, wasn't horrible. There is a window but with the way the building is situated, not much breeze comes in. The room could really have used a ceiling fan! For cleanliness and amount of space, the room wasn't bad. You reach the room by a couple flights of narrow, slightly off-kilter stairs. The full Irish breakfast was very nice.

The location wasn't too bad. About 5-10 minutes walk to O'Connell Street or the bus station where the airport bus drops you. It's a pleasant 20 minutes (roughly) walk to Temple Bar or Trinity College.

We didn't have a bad stay, and I have to agree that their prices are pretty much in-line with the cost of accomodations in central Dublin, but we really didn't feel we got very much for the money.

There are several companies which give walking tours of Dublin. These walks are a great way to get an introduction to the city. Most of them charge about 10 euros/person. But there is a free walking tour organized by the Sandemans company which offers similar tours in many cities across Europe. After meeting near Dublin's City Hall in front of Dublin Castle, we set off with our guide for a great three hour tour which showed us most of the highlights of central Dublin. Our guide was very entertaining and informative. As we visited the highlights such as Dublin Castle, Christchurch Cathedral, Trinity College, and St. Stephen's green, besides the basic descriptions, he included some fun anecdotes and pointed out a few little details most unguided people would miss. Along the way, he gave a great explanation of the various uprisings and movements which let to to the independence of the Republic.

The tours are offered free of charge. They work for tips. If you want to be a heel and walk away without tipping anything, you can do so. Most people on ours tipped a couple euros at least, which is pretty inexpensive for 3-hours entertainment.

I think these free tours do get some resentment from the traditional paid walking tour companies. As our guide was mentioning to us that the Duke of Wellington (defeater of Napoleon at Waterloo) was born in Dublin, a rival tour leader gave out a curt "No, he wasn't" refutation as he passed. (I checked after we got home. Many readily available sources say he was, although a few imply he was just born nearby.)

Look for fliers in most hostels and guesthouses. It really is a great tour and the best bargain in town!

If you're visiting Dublin, you'll probably be told that the Temple Bar area is the prime location to hear some good Irish music in a pub. While we enjoyed the tourist-y district and it is great fun to people watch there (especially the "hen" parties on Saturday night) we didn't hear a lick of Irish music while we were there. We walked in places with "traditional music" signs, and would hear BeeGees (no kidding!) or Billy Joel or similar. So we gave up and started walking back to our hotel after dinner. We were nearly back when we heard some great Irish music coming out of the Celt. After a short walk to drop off the tired daughters at the hotel, my wife and I returned to the Celt. It was just a trio of musicians singing and playing guitar, violin and flute, but, as promised by the sound filtering out to the street that had beckoned us, they were great.

We also returned the next night and the same trio were there, this time joined by a bodhran (irish drum) and accordion and the reels, airs, and ballads were fantastic.

The Celt is located about two blocks straight east from the Dublin Spire, so it is pretty easy to find. The prices were reasonable compared with other parts of Dublin (4 euros for a pint of Guinness). On a Sat. night it was very full, but we were able to get a pair of seats after waiting around a bit. They keep the crowd under control. We saw one really drunk guy purposely bump one of their waiters and get immediately escorted out.

I have to mention the washrooms: They are in the basement, and when I learned this, I was thinking, "old, dusty pub, toilets in basement, they are going to be gross". But this place had the cleanest, shiny-tiled, sparkling restrooms that I have ever seen in a bar!