My Husband and I will be spending 4 days in Dublin the end of November. We are interested in doing a day trip to see a traditional small Irish town/ village or site. We will not have a car, so we need to use public transportation or a tour company.
Any Ideas? I saw some information on Howth or Kilkenny, but are these destinations possible without a car?

Howth and Kilkenny would both be good options and can be visited without a car. To get to Howth you can take the DART from Dublin city centre (several stations). The trains run very frequently all day.

You can get a train to Kilkenny from Heuston Station. For timetables see www.irishrail.ie.

Newgrange is also a fantastic daytrip site. You can take a bus trip from the station in Dublin. I forget the cost but it was well worth it.

I would also consider getting the train to Wexford. The rail line is extremely picturesque and the town quite interesting and famous. Being a coastal town you can eat quite well there and less expensively than in Dublin.

For something cheaper, Malahide and Howth are easily reachable by DART. Malahide has a lovely harbour/marina and there are good easting houses to cater for a wide range of tastes. The castle is well worth a visit and you can be back to Dublin in nice time for an evening out!

http://www.hidden-dublin.com/metro/metro01.html

Have fun,

Peter

My husband and I made a similar trip last November and went to Howth for dinner reservations at the Abbey. We traveled on the DART and found a very cold and windy, mostly closed down for the winter fishing village. I'm sure it is absolutely lovely in the summer but was a huge waste for us, as the dinner and show we had confirmed reservations for had already ended for the winter months!! We settled for a pint and shared a cold seafood tray. They acted like I was crazy, no aplogy was offered, and we paid for our bill. I came home to an apology via email. My contact offered me a free (normally 80euro per person) dinner and show for anyone in my next party...
But my memory of Howth in November was a dissappointing one.

we visited Howth ( only 15 min. or so ) in the summer and it was lovely . So were several other places on he Bay reached by DART ( 20 min.) like Monkstown and Sandy Cove.
November may be a different story.

sorry,( only 15 min. or so by DART)

danon wrote: "November may be a different story."

And November 2007 is a whole 'nother story.