Ireland is a popular tourist location for an obvious reason being the home of such rich culture and heritage which draws thousands of tourists every year. What many people don’t realise is that there is a wide variety in a holiday to Ireland that even some Mediterranean holidays can not compare with.
Dublin is top of the list of places for tourists to visit and is popular the year round with young and old visitors. Being the home of Guinness the popular drink, many groups come to taste the dark stuff in the city which is well known for pouring a much better pint of Guinness than you’d get back home. As someone who has been I can assure you that it tastes so much better and whether it’s the shorter journey it makes from the brewery (just down the road in one bar I visited) or just the magical Irish touch there’s no denying you get a better drink in Dublin.
Even if drinking isn’t on your agenda taking a tour of the Guinness Storehouse is a vital trip to take when staying in the city. Inside you’ll learn the history and the processes that go in to producing one of the world’s most popular beverages.
Aside from the drinking heritage there are still plenty of other aspects of Dublin to explore, the shops and streets of Dublin retain their traditional appearance whilst modern tram services and taxis can easily aid you to traverse the large city. Most hotels are a stone’s throw away from a tram stop and they’re cheap enough to use as your primary mode of transportation for a weekend or a weeks trip.
The city is built around the river with many bridges providing crossing points along the river Liffey and depending on the time of year you visit you could spend a nice relaxing afternoon walking alongside the river, it’s not so much a good idea in winter as in December the city can become bitterly cold.
The coldest of these places is definitely the ferry port; with the winds coming in off the Irish Sea it can be very cold when you get off the ferry and have to wait for a taxi or a bus. Of course you can avoid this by flying to Dublin instead. There are many UK airports that fly to Dublin and best of all flights to Ireland are very inexpensive, for the same price of ferry and train tickets you could fly in comfort to Dublin instead.
Staying in Dublin is very convenient as there are many popular hotels in the city centre, especially around the famous Temple Bar district, it can be tough to get a room in this area on short notice so if you want to be right in the thick of it then you’d need to book early. There’s no need to panic though as most of the tram stops are surrounded by hotels providing quick links to the heart of the city.
The food is always plentiful and delicious, when travelling with friends there we all commented on how much the food was piled on our plates and hamburgers over an inch thick were big hits. There were many restaurants and bars serving food including one bar that we visited in the afternoon for lunch and then later on in the evening to have a few pints of Guinness and watch some live music.
There seemed to be bands and individual musicians in nearly every bar in town, it certainly gave off a sense of a different culture where music is key, not surprising when you consider many famous bands are Irish.
Overall Dublin is an excellent choice for a city break kind of holiday; even if it’s only for a weekend you’ll still fall in love with the culture and the atmosphere and want to come back in no time.
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