Dublin, Ireland
Go directly to our Dublin Recomendations or keep on reading our experience below:
Ireland has always been this idyllic place that we wanted to visit, maybe it is because of the national anthem that they sing during a rugby match, or perhaps we think that the luck of the Irish (or leprechaun) truly exist. Regardless, this has been a destination that we always dreamt about, but never seemed to make it to the top of our bucket list. We always thought it would be a quick trip across the ocean to get there and seeing as we don’t need a visa to go we kept on postponing, until this year. We found very cheap tickets on Aer Lingus during a Black Friday sale and decided to go for it.
With these kinds of cheap tickets there is also limited space available for packing. Thus, the planning and packing already commenced the weekend before. We challenged ourselves to keep within the restriction of only one laptop bag size per person that we could easily carry on our back. By keeping to our own packing tips, we managed to keep with this and even had some space for souvenirs to bring back.
We had an easy morning at the airport, the first in a long time. Quick and easy security check, followed by a quick and easy passport control check. Afterwards we could check into the lounge and enjoy a cup of coffee and croissant before heading to the gate for boarding where we met up with our friends that would be traveling with us for the weekend. It was a short flight from Amsterdam to Dublin. We grabbed a bus into the city and got off at a stop close to our hotel. Even though we were very early we went to the hotel to drop our bags, where we were pleasantly surprised that our room was already ready for check in. We can highly recommend this hotel, The Croke Park Hotel.
After a quick refresher we hit the streets and started walking towards the center of Dublin, with our eyes on the lookout for a supermarket to get some snacks and food for the kids. Tesco came to our rescue close to the Temple Bar district. We got some basic needs to survive the day and then went on the search for a proper pie. Grabbing a traditional pie at Hanley’s Cornish Pastries we were reminded of home in South Africa. It's not nearly the same memory as a “garage pie” at the Sasol on a Friday night, but it was great and we enjoyed it on this cold afternoon.
We started making our way towards the Guinness Storehouse brewery for our afternoon timeslot. On our way there we passed Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral for some awesome pictures. To be honest the one thing that did disappoint us about the city was that all touristy attractions charged a hefty entrance fee, even the Cathedrals. But regardless it is a stunning sight and it gave some opportunity for the kids to run around and stretch legs.
Arriving at the Guinness Storehouse we were surprised at how big it was and also kid friendly. We met up with our friends that we know from South Africa but have also been living in Ireland for the last 5 years. We were immediately escorted to an entrance that was easy to access with the strollers and the staff were super accommodating and friendly. We started our tour and thought that doing the “Stoutie” experience was something that is not the normal drinking a beer and moving on experience. Here we could take a selfie and this was printed on the top of the beer. As soon as we all had our beers ready we did the Guinness challenge to see if we could reach the middle between the harp and wording on the glass. Personally I struggled, but Robert hit it smack in the middle and won the competition. We made a reservation at the restaurant in the storehouse called 1837 Bar & Brasserie before the time and enjoyed a delicious meal. The staff was amazing. We had a great time catching up with friends and grabbed an Uber back to our hotel to get the kids into bed after a long and exciting day.
Guinness originated on a four-acre brewery site in the heart of Dublin city. The story of Guinness begins with Arthur Guinness, the original Master Brewer and pioneer at Guinness. His craft has been passed down from generation to generation and continues to inspire today. Arthur Guinness was just 34 when he signed the iconic 9,000-year Guinness lease, on a then-disused brewery site on 31 December 1759 for an annual rent of £45.
The next morning we were greeted with well rested kids not knowing that there is a time difference, which meant being awake from 5am and craving some good coffee. Luckily we had our great travel entertainment kit ready and could keep Amber entertained in the hotel until it was a decent hour to go outside.
We left the hotel and grabbed some delicious pastries and coffee at a bakery close to our hotel. We started walking towards the big shopping street, or as they call it the Champs-Elysees of Dublin. We walked into a couple of stores and also stopped for a refresh at Mark & Spencers for the kids' food. While we were strolling down this street we realized we made a mistake with our booking for our whiskey tasting and had to call the distillery to see if they could still accommodate us. Once again the staff was super friendly and quickly rebooked us. We then made our way to the Teeling Distillery. Upon doing our research upfront this was one of the only distilleries that allowed our kids to be with us during the tour and the tasting. Luckily they were truly well behaved and slept a great deal of the tour. During our tasting we were once again surprised at how friendly the Irish people are, as we made quick friends with our fellow tasters and spend a good deal of our time chatting to them and exchanging stories about rugby world cup games and golf. We are not really big whiskey drinkers, but this was a great experience and good tasting whiskey. We made our way back to the Temple Bar district for some late lunch/early dinner. The Porterhouse Brewing Co is a great looking pub, with a very Irish style interior and great food, the bangers and mash made our weekend. After an already long day we started making our way back to our hotel, as it was a slow walk we made a stop at a massive toy shop and of course a souvenir shop. The evening was spent with an easy and early night for the kids, moms relaxing and the dads watched some rugby in the hotel bar.
Sunday morning, our friends had an early flight and we found that we were a bit stuck on what to do. We took a train to the town of Howth, and spent the day walking around and having some lunch while Amber enjoyed the kids play area. Unfortunately we could not travel directly to the airport from this small town and had to first go back to Dublin and then made our way to the airport, were we had an easy security check, but a delayed flight and ended up getting home later than what we expected.
Overall we had a great weekend, but I am not sure if I would recommend a winter time travel with kids into the city of Dublin. The options of activities to do with our kids at their current age were limited and our kids got bored easily as the city was busy and play options were few. We would love to come back during the warmer months of the year and then spend more time in the countryside traveling to smaller towns and make more day trips to areas that might be more kid friendly than the city center. We also found that Dublin was quite expensive in terms of food that we bought, both in restaurants and supermarkets. The one thing that did truly surprise us were the people and how good the food was, we can honestly say that the Irish people we encountered were friendly, helpful and so entertaining. We loved every moment of talking to the people and tasting the food that the Irish people had to offer.
Maybe we had a bit of the Irish luck, or people, but we can understand why people travel here and we would definitely come back with a bit more preparation in terms of where to go and what to do. So until our next Guinness beer or Irish whiskey, we leave this blog encouraging you to book that trip that you have always wanted to do but kept on postponing! Go on that adventure!
Our Recommendations for Dublin:
Being used to the high prices for food and restaurants in the Netherlands we had an expectations that this would be better priced in Dublin, however mostly we found food and experiences expensive to say the least. That does not mean we did not enjoy it, Dublin was just not as budget friendly destination as we thought, considering our flights were very well priced.
Accommodation:
This was a lovely kids friendly hotel, which offered us an option for a double bed and a single bed or even two double beds. Upon arrival each kid received a coloring book with pencils that recommended some kid friendly activities to do in the city.
Restaurants/Food:
This bakery was a couple of meters from our Hotel, with the nicest selection of things to grab for breakfast. We found it a bit on the expensive side, but still lovely as a treat in the morning. The coffee was also great.
Coming from South Africa, we had this intense craving for a pie. We found this gem in Temple Bar district. Loved the pies and it took us back to our student days of eating a garage pie in the morning hours. Although the pies were fantastic there is no seating area and we walked around with pie in hand.
1837 Bar & Brasserie at Guinness Storehouse
We decided to have dinner right after our Guinness experience. This restaurant is located within the Guinness storehouse and offers a great menu, even for kids at a good and reasonable price. They were super accommodating with the kids and we can highly recommend making a reservation here together with your Guinness experience.
Porterhouse Temple Bar
Amazing food and great vibe and experience. If you think of the most child friendliest place, this will probably not be it, but we did not feel strange having our kids with us in a this pub, they were welcoming and accommodating.
Other recommendation made by fellow bloggers that we did not get to due to time limitations, but what we would want to try should we visit Dublin again:
Experiences:
We found this to be excellent and super child friendly. We were helped in at another entrance that could accommodate our strollers and were shown to the elevators to have easy access to all floors. We decided to do the “Stoutie Experience” to do something slightly different from the usual beer tasting. This included a selfie to be printed on the top of the beer. The staff was very strict that kids are not allowed to be in the photo, as this is part of Guinness policy and we were happy to accept this as our kids were still allowed to be there. The staff was happy to give the kids an alternative drink during the beer tasting.
Teeling Whiskey was a very nice distillery that is accommodating with kids and even their distillery has more than enough space for strollers to go around with. The tasting was also great and we learned so much about the history of whiskey.
The Castle is located very centrally and easy accessible. There is a fee charged to visit inside the museum, however we opted to rather walked around and not have our toddlers running around in side at the risk of ruining something.
The church is an amazing building that you cannot miss while strolling in the city. There was a fee charged to enter, which we also decided against with the kids, but it still remains an impressive building and had lots of space outside for the kids to run around and stretch their legs.
Jameson Distillery Bow St.
We wanted to do the Irish Coffee master class, however they did not allow kids to be part of this class and we could not experience this.
This was an activity that we thought suited a bit older kids and we did not do this, however reading reviews and what people have to say about this, it seems that this is a very nice experience with older kids.
National Leprechaun Museum of Ireland
This was an activity that we thought suited a bit older kids and we did not do this, however reading reviews and what people have to say about this, it seems that this is a very nice experience with older kids.
The Dublin Zoo comes highly recommended by a lot of people, but seeing as time was limited we felt that our time could be better spent elsewhere. If you have some spare time this would be great for kids.
Based on reviews this is a picturesque building and also houses one of the oldest libraries in Dublin.