Any suggestions on what to do first in Dublin, shopping, sightseeing?? Thanks for your ideas.

IF you have 5 days, it should be more than enough to get in the major sights and some shopping also. Visit Trinity College for the Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Jail (where the 1916 rising leaders were executed) Guinness's brewery, Jameson's Distillery, do the litrary trail and pub crawl. There are many tours of the city including one which takes a ride in the river liffey, and if you hire a car, the Newgrange Neolitic burial mound is only a few miles from Dublin. So lots to do and see, and you won't be disappointed. Check out Bord Failte's website for more details.

Buy a day-pass for the DART and ride it from end to end, stopping at Dalkey, Howth, Bray and Greystones and exploring them and their immediate surroundings. Greystones and Howth are especially good bets. Make sure you see the Dublin Writers' Museum up on Parnell Square, and for a real treat eat at Chapter One in the Museum basement (probably one of the five best resto's in Dublin). Take a bus-ride out to Glasnevin Cemetery, get a printed guide from its office and wander around for an hour for a truly atmospheric experience. Hit as many pubs as you can without choking to death--every pub in Dublin stinks of stale cigarette smoke, but they're charming for all that. Take tea at the Shelbourne Hotel and walk through St Stephen's Green and around Merrion Square. Do not miss the Hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Dublin run by Dublin Bus Lines (the green and cream ones). It's the best E10 you'll spend (do it first and take the whole day). Besides the things you've mentioned, this is what we did in Dublin recently, and coincidentally as hell, it took us five days. You've got a great trip coming. And for great location and comfort, stay at Brooks Hotel. My wife, who has a seventh-dan black belt in shopping warns that shopping can be expensive but that Powerscourt and Brown thomas will take a half-day and are of interest.<BR><BR>DES

I suggest also taking a guided tour of Trinity. They only last about an hour, and include the Book of Kells/Long Library entrance fee, but I had been to Trinity before and on my third time there (showing more friends around) we took the tour and learned quite a bit more from a Trinity student leading the group.<BR><BR>Don't forget St. Patrick's Cathedral. I second a trip to Kilmainham Gaol as well, and I also enjoyed Glasnevin Cemetary (burial place of Michael Collins, de Valera, etc.) And I highly recommend a bus trip out to Newgrange (can pick up buses from the tourist offices on O'Connell Street)

We just got back from Ireland- we spent 2 days in Dublin and unfortunately, did not get to see much since the whole damn country shuts down for a week between the holidays. We did see the Guinness Storehouse tour and were appalled by having to pay 12 euro to see an advertisement for Guinness. It is over the top. &quot;If you listen carefully, you can still hear the sounds of the men who used to make the heavenly brew.&quot; <BR><BR>Fodors actually has a 5 day itinerary in their book. We stayed at a B&amp;B about a 20 minute walk from downtown and would recommend paying the extra for one in town if you don't have a car. Also, they get expensive. Ours was 34 euro per person per night and was very shabby.

If you go to St. Patrick's Cathedral (which someone already mentioned), be sure to go across the street and see Marsh's Library. It was built in 1701, and was the first public library in Ireland. The interior (which is open to the public) is beautiful: carved oak bookcases, and wire &quot;cages&quot; where readers who were looking at rare books were locked in to make sure they didn't abscond with the books. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to walk around, so I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to see it, but it's very close to St. Patrick's so you can easily combine it with a visit to the cathedral. For pictures of the library, and information on its hours, see www.marshlibrary.ie.<BR><BR>I'd also recommend the National Gallery of Ireland (www.nationalgallery.ie), and the James Joyce Centre (www.jamesjoyce.ie), which is interesting even if you've never read anything by Joyce.<BR>

You can see The National Gallery free in Merrion Square.Also free is the National Museum in Kildare St and Collins Barracks.All three are well worth visiting,especially the first two which are near one another.

Are you going anywhere else in Ireland or are these your only five days?<BR><BR>Either way, there are great day trips from Dublin that you can do with a tour. You won't need to rent a car to get around the city. You can take day trips if you want. Using Dublin as a base is more expensive, but if you don't have a car, would be more convenient if you are in the city center.<BR><BR>You can do day trip tours to places like Glendalough, Newgrange, the Wicklow Mountains etc. Let us know if there are more days planned in Ireland.<BR><BR>Bill

One of my favorites in Dublin is the National Museum's history and archaeology collection -- amazing metalwork from pre-Celtic era.<BR>http://www.museum.ie/index.asp