julia_t

Dublin had never been particularly high on my list of places to visit. If I had a free 4 days I would normally have headed off in the other direction from the UK towards mainland Europe - Paris, Rome or Venice.

However, when my son was invited to join the biennial school sports tour of Ireland with the final match in Dublin, with Ryanair flights for less than 1 GBP, there was no excuse Not To Go!

My almost-15 year old daughter - to be referred to hereafter as Imo (short for Imogen) as opposed to IMO - had been on the sports tour 2 years ago and had waxed lyrical about her time in Ireland and was keen to go back. Fait accompli, I booked the tickets and started to research Dublin.

Flights from Bristol Airport - just 35 minutes. It took longer to get into the city centre by aircoach…

Hotel - I looked at www,hotel-ireland.co.uk, and booked The Stephens Green Hotel for 114 euros a night, a discount of over 60%. This hotel was in a really great location on the corner of St Stephens Green, 3 minutes walk from Grafton Street, and as a 4* hotel we were very pleased with it. To start with we had rooms on the 6th floor with a good skyline view to the mountains to the south of the city, and fabulous sunrises, but I think there was the heating plant/boiler on the roof as there was a constant roaring noise in the room. I asked about it at reception on the third morning, and immediately was offered another room. I accepted and the changeover took 15 minutes, no hassle at all. This room was on the 4th floor, so we lost the views but gained in quietness.

Breakfast - the hotel offered a very comprehensive breakfast menu for 13.50 euros. As neither Imo or I are big breakfast eaters we felt this was out of our league (and budget), so we looked elsewhere. Bewleys on Grafton Street is a traditional place and very good. Our favourite was the Lemon crepe and coffee house on Dawson Street, almost at the junction with Nassau Street. We came here twice and had excellent food for around 5 euros each.

Lunch - one day was at the airport, another travelling to the rugby match in Blackrock, so we only had 2 lunches in Dublin, and both were at the Epicurean Food Hall on Lower Liffey Street. Here you can eat fish’n’chips, Thai, Mexican, pizza, almost anything that takes your fancy! Buy wine and drinks from the bar in the centre, grab a table and eat your choice of lunch. We loved it here.

Afternoon Tea - our take on this was a cup of tea in a café, except on the afternoon following the match, when all of us visiting parents of those on the tour repaired to the nearest pub in Blackrock for celebrating our boys’ win (27-20) with copious quantities of red wine and/or Guinness. This filled up the holes we had from missing lunch - and we were all old enough to have known better….. Imo and the other young children sensibly had ham sandwiches, fries and lemonade/coca cola.

Dinner/Supper - the first night Imo and I went to Aya on Clarendon Street and ate sushi. We opted for the 26 euros menu where you eat as much as you like in 55 minutes! This price includes unlimited green tea, miso soup and any drink.
Although at first I thought we wouldn’t get value for money, in fact we ate well over that 26 euro threshold and therefore felt we had done very well. The following night we met up with some friends over for the tour, and ate somewhere on South St Georges Street. To my great dismay this place was chosen by the youngsters and wasn’t licensed, so I had to grit my teeth and drink water. However as soon as we had finished it was over the road to Café Bar Deli for wine and chocolate brownies and ice cream! One of the few bars that allow youngsters in after 8pm, I believe.

The 3rd night we had an after-theatre supper at Wagamama on South King Street - huge bowls of ramen soup which were just what was needed at 10.30pm, and on the final night 10 of us, parents and assorted children (siblings of those on tour) went out together. We had a little trouble at 7.30pm finding somewhere to accommodate the 10 of us - we had mostly sobered up by now - and we settled for Al Casalinga on a street somewhere between Clarendon Street and William Street, and had a very good Italian meal for around 20 euros a head, including drinks and wine.

Sightseeing - well, the hop-on-hop-off bus was excellent. We bought our tickets by Trinity College at 11am on one day, and were still using them at 11am the next day. We obviously did the full tour, albeit in separate chunks. The Guinness Factory was the main stop, but we also used the bus for getting around the city. We saw the Book of Kells, National Gallery, but unfortunately didn’t manage the cathedrals, castle or museum. There’s my excuse or reason to return!

Theatre - there was not a lot we were interested in actually showing in Dublin, but at the Helix at DCU they were putting on The Secret Garden, and I booked seats online. The theatre is very new and beautifully designed in a spiral shape, as the name might suggest. The play was very good, the story stayed very close to the book, the young actors (and the older ones) were exceptional, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The only problem was with getting a taxi back to the city - we ended up in the middle of a dual carriageway trying to flag one down! But that’s another story, though a safe one. Taxis to/from here were 15 euros.

Shopping - well with Christmas almost upon us, shopping was the primary reason for going, so we went everywhere there were shops and shopping centres!! I was really impressed and will definitely return to Dublin if only for the shopping. I’d probably choose it over London in future, seeing as hotels are the same cost and the flights are pretty much the same as train tickets for us. There are many of the same shops as we have in most of the UK high streets and Imo and I tended to avoid those, but Dublin has its own shops, ideal for teens such as Dunnes, A-Wear, Penneys. We adored Brown Thomas (the Harrods of Dublin!) - their Christmas windows were fabulous fairy tales, and everything about this store felt lovely. The gift wrapping service was most welcome as I was straight back into work 4 days on the trot on our return!

We found (as mentioned on this forum by LucieLou and Siobhan) St Georges market, and this was really great for my teenage daughter. I found a carpet bag (think Mary Poppins) for my elder teen daughter and it was just what she was wanting. We had the most incredible hot Valrhona chocolate shots at Lara Lu, the little food stall here. We also found lots of quirky stuff here. Also in Temple Bar, with shops like Urban Outfitter (overpriced), any teenager would have fun. We didn’t come over here in the evenings as with an underage youngster there wouldn’t have been much point.

Dynamic Currency Conversion - I have been to France and Italy this year and always been charged in euros. However in Dublin I paid for almost everything with my Visa card, and was always given the choice to pay in euros or sterling. It was only when I came to settle the hotel bill I was not given a choice and charged in sterling. I queried this but did not argue the point. In fact when I got home and did the calculation it only cost me 4 GBP more that it would have had if I had insisted on paying in euros.

We travelled out there light, but with large suitcases so on our return we travelled much heavier, luckily just scraping through without any extra charges with Ryanair.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable 4 days, a particularly good place to visit with a teenager especially one who loves to shop), and Dublin is now well up there on my list of places to return to one day soon!

And finally, many thanks to all those who have posted on Dublin, whose advice I have found most valuable when planning this trip.

Worktowander

Nice report. Thank you!

SiobhanP

Sounds like you had a great weekend! Well done. I cannot for the life of me think of a place with no wine/beer license on Georges street? Cafe Bar Deli will allow children after 8 as it is a restaurant not really a bar. The desserts are great here and i think it's a great place for kids and adults.

Casa Linga is a sister restaurant to Pizza stop which is our regular haunt. Casa Linga is never packed and both places take no reservations but you will usually be squeezed in. Glad you found this place.

You really got around Dublin for a short time span. Sounds like a fun trip.

lucielou

Julia

What a wonderful report, you reported on every aspect of the trip with much finesse, you would make a great travel writer, i really enjoyed reading your piece, I'm glad you enjoyed Dublin, its a nice change to hear good reports about it, as its a bit disheartening to hear it constantly getting knocked.

Well done
Lucie

ter2000

Bet the "dry" restaurant was the South Street Restaurant which is opposite CafeBarDeli on Sth Great Georges St. It serves pizzas and it run by charming - but obviously quite devout - muslims. I eat there quite a lot - the staff are very friendly and their early evening deals are a real bargain.

SiobhanP

Since when is south street dry???!! We used to go there in the old days before renovation and late pub hours to get a sneaky boottle of wine after hours. I know a few places run by musslims selling alcohol. They ruined the place when the renovated and I went after they opened and it was no way near as nice as they used to be ...shame. Very surprised it's dry.

julia_t

Yes, that's the dry restaurant! Actually the food wasn't bad - I had pasta and the other 3 each had large salads which they thought very good. Less than 10 euros a head too. The desserts over the road at Cafe Bar Deli were scrumptious!

Lucielou - thank you for your kind comments, I appreciated them. I did like Dublin - and I will be back.

flanneruk

Penneys in Ireland is actually Primark over here, and there really should be no significant difference between them, except for the currency the price tickets are printed in.

I'd be interested to hear whether you saw any differences, or whether you'd just been avoiding shopping at these islands' most admired (by their peers) clothing retailer ("Most influential chain on the High St": Drapers' Record)

WillTravel

Julia, thanks for the great report. I had been wondering if my daughter would like Dublin, should we decide to go, and I think she would!

julia_t

We were aware that Penneys is Primark, and didn't find anything we wanted to buy in there. The stores (whatever the name) always seem to be large, overcrowded, with clothes just thrown anywhere and everywhere. I never know where to start looking! That said, it is true that one can find bargains there and for incredible prices. It is a really great place for teenage girls who don't often want to wear anything more than once or twice.

We did tend to avoid places we could shop in at home, such as River Island, Principles, H&M, because we felt that the main differences would be in the pricing, rather than the actual clothes, and we were looking for something slightly different. My daughter wanted clothes she knew her friends would NOT be wearing. And why buy something we could get at home in a day or so and have it take up suitcase space? We noted in Penneys and H&M there was pretty much the same stuff as in our Gloucester stores, allowing for the latest stock to have come in. However, due to teen snob appeal (a temporary phase, she'll grow out of it!) had we bought something in Penneys, at least if asked where she got it, she could have replied "Penneys in Dublin", which would have slightly more cachet than saying "Primark" in that age group.

Me, I love nothing better than a bargain and was sorry not to find anything I liked in Oxfam on South St Georges Street, or the other charity shops we came across in Dublin.