2 days in Dublin
 

I'm in Dublin for a work conference and will have Friday and Saturday jan. 20 and 21 to myself. I thought one day I'd walk around the city, and one day take a day tour to see the countryside. Any suggestions on where would be the most beautifully rolling, dramatic, quintessentially Irish landscape? Wicklow? To the north? Any recos on a tour company? Thanks!

I would recommend for the day you plan to walk around the city that you may want to start with one of the hop on hop off buses in the morning to get familiar with the city and then go back to any of the sites that interested you. I did this last May and felt it was very helpful in getting an all around view of the city.

Sorry I can't recommend any tour companies for a day trip outside the city but I believe that there are several.

Have a great time!

The national bus company, Bus Eireann, runs good-value day trips from Dublin. They leave from Busaras bus station next to Connelly station and you can book either there, at CIE office at the airport, tourist info or online. See https://www.buseireann.ie/asp/TourList.asp for what's available in the winter. You'll see there are Saturday trip to Newgrange and Boyne Valley and Sunday trip to Wicklow and Glendalough.

Mmack
I wouldnt walk around Dublin alone, if you dont know which area's to go to, but i would highly recommend the hop on hop off bus tour, and for day tours, then the bus Eireann are good, Glendalough and Newgrange are good choices as Alec already said. Kilkenny is not too far and a nice city to visit for a day trip.

Thank you! The hop-ons sound perfect! And I'll check out Kilkenny!