Dublin
 

Get outta' town!! See the countryside/coastlines!
 

Are you up for a day trip???? Yes, there's plenty to see and do in Dublin, and I mean no offense to Dublin locals here----but for me (and I know many others) getting out of the city and seeing the incredible scenery of the Irish countrysides or coastlines was awesome.
There's a couple of outfits that do day tours, so a little Googling around will help. You could do a day trip to Ireland's southeast region of Counties Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny. You could do one up to Belfast, and catch an interesting black taxi tour there. Or, you could snag a day trip thru the beautiful Wiklow Mountains area.
I'd recommend either a day tour or renting a car yourself and taking in the Cliffs Of Moher (incredible!) and Galway Bay, Burren, etc.
If you're not confined to Dublin for both days--free to overnight between the two days somewhere else--that's deifnitely something to consider.

If you want to do something that you'll really remember, walk to the top of Killiney Hill. Killiney is about 25 minutes down the DART rail from Dublin - from there, walk up Vico Road, admire all the beautiful mansions along Killiney Bay, and then walk the trail up Killiney Hill to the monument/park at the top. The view is absolutely breathtaking. The walk from the station to the top is about 25 minutes, the walk back down is about 20. You can see the Wicklow mountains, all of Dublin, the Bay, and Bray in the distance. When the winds are howling it feels great.

On the way back, I'd go to a pub or restaurant in Dun Laoghaire or Dalkey, both great towns to walk around.

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. Leo Burdock's has the best fish and chips in Dublin, if you call that an attraction ;).

If I think of anything else, I'll post... most of all, relax and enjoy yourself ^.

Galway and the Cliffs of Moher are definitely too much for a day trip, but if you could overnight in Galway (stay at a B&B, don't stick to chains!) that'd be the way to go.

If you do have your own car, you can drive to the park at Killiney Hill and walk to the top from there, and then continue driving south to the Wicklow Mountains. Powerscourt, IIRC, is where there are absolutely massive gardens and a nice waterfall, I think there's a golf course somewhere around there too. Glendalough is also a great excursion, a little Googling will tell you all you need to know about it.

All the really great places to go are out of the city... it's a nice charming city, but it's not exactly full of museums and monuments.

[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.

Yeah, there are some great little B&Bs along the road to Salthill (about a mile-long road to Galway Bay)... should be anywhere from 60-100 Euros a night.

Thanks for answering back
 

I just joined this site yesterday. I found out about it from a person I met traveling to London in Nov. of this year. I was interested in finding out where to donate the travel kits that are given out in 1st and Business Class as I have quite a few of them. Anyway thanks for the info on Ireland.

travel kit donations
 

Well, I work at a school for visually impaired kids and we're always in need of kits like those to help our students learn their grooming skills, etc. So, if you've had no luck with a local charity where you live, you'd be more than welcome to send 'em our way :D.

PS...not sure if you're AA or not, but if so, AA is running their "one class" cabins on one or more of their Ireland routes (Shannon, 'tho, I'm not sure about dublin). What makes it a good deal is that if you or a travelling companion of yours has elite status w/ AA, you can select seats in what would normally be the first class cabin. You'll still pay the coach price and on paper fly in coach class, and a you won't get first class service, etc. but you will get a bigger, more comfortable seat for the trek across the pond. AA has had success with configurations like that to Manchester, etc. Just fyi.....


Of course, now with all this talk of Ireland, I've got this bug in my head to go back there now :D :D

Whenever I am in Dublin, I buy a DART dayticket and ride all the way north to Howth (fabulous harbor/boats etc) and then go down south to wander around Dun Laogherie.

Check out the following website for a lot of ideas:

http://www.ireland-withpatpreston.com/insider-tips.htm

Do what I'm thinking of doing - combine it with the BCN Do in October using the one class service to SNN/MAN - Wed/Thu in Dublin, Fri/Sat in Barcelona, Sunday afternoon back to Dublin, fly home Monday DUB-SNN-BOS-ORD (although I'll probably stay in BOS on Monday night).

bag the upgrade copay
 

Yeah, that one-class service to SNN/MAN opens up some alternatives to getting across the pond (w/o that _______ copay from AA to ride up front). Rode in J on the AA segs for the SIN do, and while glad I got my u/g req. in before the co-pay, I really had to think: Would I pay another 500 for this? Not. I'll have to start becoming familiar with the fares & booking codes for eqms from SNN/MAN for Aer Lingus, BA, etc. Had HUGE problems w/ Aer Lingus flights counting for miles at all, let alone eqms, the last time I was in Ireland.

If you like the pubs and are cultured as well (a good specification for a FlyerTalker :) ) then the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl is great. They exist in other cities now but this is the original one.

If you only have 2 days, then stick to Dublin itself and don't bother with renting a car. The rest of the country is well worth seeing but you can't do much in 2 days. If you're dying to get out of town, try a day tour to Glendalough or maybe up to Newgrange.

To eat, I'd hit Gallagher's Boxty House in Temple Bar and order a boxty, which is a potato pancake filled with stew (beef, lamb or chicken). It is also the only place in Dublin you can get Murphy's stout, which is Cork's competition to Guinness. For a quick bite, try Beshov's on O'Connell St for great fish and chips. Order for a side of curry sauce to dip the chips in.

As far as tourist sites go, it depends on your preferences. If you like to drink a bit, the Jameson Tour is OK, but the Guinness tour is probably more interesting, although the brewery is a bit of a walk from the city center. Many visit the Book of Kells at Trinity College and you get to see the library there too, which is impressive. There are also a few museums in town that have ancient artifacts that have been dug up from all over the country. And if you're the literary type, you can go on a James Joyce tour and see the sites from Ulysses.

There are so many pubs you won't have trouble finding one. Famous ones include Doheny and Nesbitt's, Davy Byrne's, and the Brazen Head, which is almost 1000 years old. Stick to Guinness or whiskey. Once you open your mouth and the locals hear your American accent, you will be inundated with new friends with all kinds of questions and stories. The best part of Ireland is the people you meet, not the sights you'll see.

While I agree with almost everything else you recommend, I'll take exception to your Boxty House rec. I found the food there disappointing & bland & would not recommend it at all.