[QUOTE=platbrownguy]In Dublin itself, the Jameson Distillery is always fun (ask to be a taster and you and 3 others will get 7 half-shots to taste ) and only 7 Euros. The Guinness Storehouse tour is very well put together but massively huge and if you want to go to every floor it would take forever. I looked around for about an hour then went to the top for my 'free' beer. Fantastic view of Dublin from there too but no chairs!

Most of the bars in the Temple Bar area are very touristy but they can still be fun - I like the music in the Oliver St. John Gogarty and they have tables toward the back left. A lot of the nicer quieter pubs are away from city center, I went to a couple nice ones in Rathmines but I forget where exactly.

If you're not staying near the river, take a stroll down it... as far as attractions, Trinity College is worth having a look at, and you can see the Book of Kells in the library if you want to, though I've never done that.QUOTE]

I'd second that about the Guiness Storehouse, and also found myself bolting for the top floor after an hour or two. The view from the top is cool, you'll get your "free" guiness, you'll get some token of your visit (a clear stone with a drop of guiness in it for me)..it will remind you of things like the top of the Space Needle in SEA, top of the Stratosphere in LAS, top of the Arch in STL, etc. etc. The Temple Bar area is indeed touristy---many more Americans and other "foreigners" there than locals to be sure. You'll get better pub experiences outside of Dublin. But, if Temple Bar is what you're stuck in, then I'll second that yes to Oliver St. John Gogarty's as cool. They actually have a "musical pub crawl" that was a blast! Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was kind of a touristy thing to do, but it the musicians were both great musicians, great stand-up comics, and you took in some decent pubs. I didn't make it to Trinity College either, but those I knew that did said the Book of Kells was a good visit.

Yep, the Cliffs would make for quite a trek of a day trip...you'd have to start early...or, as Platbrownguy suggested, (and it's what I was kinda' referring to in my earlier post) overnight over there in Galway or any nearby city along the coast--BUT, the Cliffs are indeed awesome, as is much of the Irish Atlantic Coast, and Galway and cities nearby were great for an overnight. IIRC it seemed like there were lots of inexpensive B & B's & small hotels to be found, even the hostels out in the country aren't too bad at all.