It was high on our bucket list to experience Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland! We only stayed in Dublin for two days, but took in all of the sites and then hit the road to drive around the country. Check out our separate road trip list in the Ireland section. Here are our favorite experiences!

Where we stayed: Morrison Hotel Double Tree

When we went: March 2019

#1 Dublin on Saint Patrick’s Day

We arrived in Dublin on March 16th and spent the day seeing all of the sites before Saint Patrick’s Day the next day. Our favorite places we saw are below, but the #1 spot deserves to be Dublin on Saint Patrick’s Day. Along with thousands of other tourists, we decked ourselves out in green and fun hats and drank Jameson all day. We attended the parade in the morning followed by bar hopping and traditional music all afternoon. If you are thinking about a trip to Ireland, it’s well worth it to go during this holiday.

#2 Jameson Whiskey Tour

We signed up for a tour at the Jameson Distillery, which was fun and informative. We learned a lot about the differences between American and Irish Whiskey, and got to taste whiskeys they only sell there.

#3 Temple Bar

Wow. Temple Bar is unlike any district that we have gone out in before. So fun! We spent our first night and Saint Patrick’s Day here and had a blast. We were a little disappointed that the music was mostly Top 50 US hits and not traditional Irish, but some of the smaller bars had fun traditional music if we looked hard enough.

#4 Saint Patrick’s Cathedral

Like many European cathedrals, Saint Patrick’s is beautiful, traditional, and great to see. Tickets were less than $10 and right off our Hop On Hop Off tour route.

#5 Book of Kells at Trinity college

This is one of the most popular attractions in Dublin…and we had a hard time being excited about the Book of Kells. However, the library is absolutely stunning and the college campus is beautiful. It was easy to get to so we recommend visiting if you have time, but we would have been okay passing on this one.

#6 Guinness

Confession. We sadly didn’t make it inside Guinness because the line was HOURS long and we were only in town with 1 day for visiting the sites and 1 day for the Saint Patrick’s Day celebration. If you are going to go to Guinness arrive early and buy tickets in advance. It looks awesome! Instead of going here we hopped around multiple small pubs and had a really authentic experience.

Last Tips:

• Take the Airlink Express to Dublin from the airport for 7 euros. You can buy a pass in their pick up zone outside the airport. Dublin is a bit far from the airport and this very nice bus has stops all over the city.

• If you want to see the city quickly, do the Hop on Hop Off tour…we do this in every big city we go to in order to learn the area and have cheap transportation all day.

• Don’t order Irish Car Bombs...this is actually a really insulting drink and may get you kicked out of a bar. Someone gave us a heads up before we went, so we’re passing along the advice. :)

• If you have time, road trip around Ireland. See our Ireland road trip list for all of the details on Galway, castle stays, Cliffs of Moher, and kissing the Blarney Stone.

Safe Travels!

The Cecils