Looking for the top sights for a weekend in Dublin? Here’s how to make the most of a weekend in the vibrant Irish capital.
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Want to travel around Ireland more? Check out my blog posts on outdoor adventures in the Dingle Peninsula and Connemara National Park to get inspired. And I’d recommend getting this really useful travel guide and map ready for your trip to Dublin (affiliate).
Where to go in February? The weather’s cold and rainy, you’re saving your annual leave for the summer, but it feels a long time since your last holiday and you need something to keep you going until the spring. The answer: a weekend in Dublin!
A short flight from the UK (and super cheap in February), it’s easy to fly out on a Friday night and back on a Sunday night. The city is small, so despite having just a weekend there, I felt I saw the main things and got a good taste of Dublin.
I arrived late on the Friday evening, but there was still time to have the first Guinness at the Hairy Lemon pub (great name).
1. Trinity College, Dublin
The perfect start to a weekend in Dublin is a trip to Trinity College. The front quad was nice in the winter sunlight,
2. Book of Kells Museum and Library
The real highlight of Trinity College for me was the Book of Kells museum, and the library. The queue wasn’t too bad, and the museum about the Books of Kells was interesting and gave a good background before you actually saw the book. I loved the library.
3. Oscar Wilde statue
The Oscar Wilde statue is definitely worth a visit. I remember reading A Picture of Dorian Grey years ago when I was still at school, so it was cool to stand outside the house he lived in. The quotes written next to the statue were amusing too.
4. Dublin street life and River Liffey
We then walked through the centre, taking in the Dublin street life. As a tourist from the UK, Dublin felt very familiar. Everyone speaks English, they drive on the left, and so many of the shop chains we know in the UK are there, so in many ways it felt like it could be a small city in the UK. It had a nice friendly and relaxed vibe – maybe more so than a lot of UK cities.
We were lucky with the weather in February to have a sunny day so the river looked lovely. Got to love a bridge photo.
5. Temple bar
Temple Bar is one of the most famous pubs in Dublin, probably because of the song (which I listened to on repeat for about a week before and after this trip…). It’s a nice pub, but there are so many nice pubs in the city every few metres so without the song I’m not sure I would have taken particular notice of it. But it was still a nice excuse to stop for another Guinness.
6. Dublin Wax Museum
The Wax Museum was fun and weird, and I still have no idea what the point of most of the stuff was. The wax models looked nothing like who they were meant to (which added to the amusement). There were weird things to poke and make light up for seemingly no reason at all. The mirror maze was great fun, and that led into an even weirder room with a dinosaur you could ride around a blue-lit room with a cityscape in the background and models of the Simpsons in the corner. Who wouldn’t want to spend an afternoon doing that?! The final room was just as weird, dragons and toadstools and pink trees. If you like weird stuff, this museum is definitely underrated as a tourist attraction in the city!
7. Saturday night live Irish music
Saturday night in Dublin means live music in many pubs. Which means a pub crawl with a Guinness in each pub, taking in the atmosphere of the world-famous Irish pubs. Pubs I’d recommend are McNeill’s Pub and The Stag’s Head and Foggy Dew – all these had a great vibe. But this is Dublin, so you’re never far from a pub, a good laugh with some local people, and a pint of Guinness.
8. Dublin castle
Dublin Castle was first founded in the 13th century, although a lot of the current building is more 18th century. It plays an important role as a government building, but it’s also a tourist attraction with some really interesting history and state rooms.
9. Dublin Escape Room
On Sunday morning, we did an Escape Room at Escape Dublin www.escape.game/escape-dublin and it was great. For anyone who’s not familiar with escape rooms, the idea is you get locked in a room and have an hour to solve a series of puzzles that will eventually lead to you finding what you need to find to escape. The clues in this one were complicated in the sense they were non-linear, but solveable, and we escaped in 57 minutes (wearing some red cloaks that we’d discovered along the way).
10. Guinness Storehouse
For the Guinness storehouse, I’d recommend booking tickets online if you know when you’ll be going. We didn’t book and the queue was reasonably long, but this was February so I imagine it can get really busy in the peak tourist season, and no one wants to waste important Guinness drinking time standing in a queue in a windowless room.
The museum part was cool, there was interesting information about the brewing process and I particularly liked the area about the ways that have been used to advertise Guinness. Who doesn’t want to see a fish riding a bike?
The highlight for me was the end, where you get to a bar at the top of the building with a great view over the whole city. You got a free pint of Guinness with your entrance ticket. It was busy and it took a bit of time waiting for a space next to the window to become free, but once you got to the window it was great to be drinking Guinness while looking over Dublin. A really fantastic way to end a great weekend.
But I have to admit, by this point on the Sunday evening the joy of Guinness was beginning to fade…I was glad this was the last pint…and I haven’t wanted to drink any since…
Enjoy your trip to Dublin! Remember to get this great guide and map ready for your trip to Dublin (affiliate). Want to travel around Ireland more? Check out my blog posts on outdoor adventures in the Dingle Peninsula and Connemara National Park to get inspired.
