Evening in Dublin; early flight - what to do
 

Hello everyone,

For my wife and I to get from Bruges to Leipzig we booked with Ryanair to fly from Brussels to Dublin to Berlin where our Leipzig friends will pick us up.

Ok . . . we arrive in Dublin airport on Fri 25 Aug at 6:10 p.m. and leave for Berlin early Sat a.m. 26 Aug at 5:55 a.m. (ouch!).

I'd love to hear suggestions on how to spend our short time in Dublin.

Also, I don't think getting a room would be very cost effective (maybe only 4 hours in it after an evening out and timely going back to airport?), so I am just thinking about returning early to the airport and camping out - unless I hear better ideas!

Thanks,

Branton

Well there's plenty of great places to kill time in the evenings in Dublin! I would suggest going for a nice meal in the city centre. SiobhanP has made some great recommendations in the past. L'Geuleton on Fade Street is excellent (and they don't take reservations so you would be able to get a table - generally you turn up, put your name down, go across the road to the Market Bar for a drink and by the time you've finished that your table will be ready).

After that, there are plenty of nice pubs around that area for drinks - you have a great selection.

Or you could go to a Comedy Club - there's on in The International on Wicklow Street (starts at about 9pm I believe). Or you could check out what's on in the theatre - try The Abbey, The Gate, The Gaiety, The Olympia, The Peacock and Andrews Lane Theatre.

Enjoy!

Just remember at night the airport is completely dead. Check with the airpot if there iss luggage storage and then hop the bus to town. Maybe book a place for a long and late dinner with a stop in a pub for a drink first. That should keep you busy till 11 ish if you book a late dinner for 9/9:30. After you could go again to another place with music or is open late. The Oliver St John Gogherty in temple bar I think is open late these days but not sure how long the music lasts.

Alternatively you could arrange for a night in Johnnie Fox's oin the Hooley room. It's in the Dublin mountains and if you go to town book a taxi in advance to and from you can go for dinner in the room which has shared tables/Benches and after the meal a show with trad music and irish dancing and the pub after also has music and closes late and then just head to the airport and wait for your flight. Might be a fun whirlwind. Its at http://www.jfp.ie

Thank-you, Cailin and SiobhanP, for your excellent advice. I am now looking forward to our layover in Dublin!

One thing neither of you mentioned on this thread was musical/literary crawls (although I have since seen some general references in other threads). Would you recommend we consider them? If so, do you have any specific recommendations?

SiobhanP, thanks for the tip on Johnny Fox. I went to their website and no prices were posted. Considering we'd need to get from the airport to Johnny Fox to the airport, what do you think the cost for transportation, dinner and show would be?

Thanks again, both of you, for your thoughtful and gracious replies. This is my wife's first Europe trip (we will visit Rome, Florence and Venice before Bruges-Dublin-Berlin) and it's for our 25th wedding anniversary. Our next trip will be focused on Ireland and Scotland.

Branton

There is a literary Pub crawl starting at the Duke Pub and it starts at 7:30 as well I think the Musical one starts at 7:30 also in the Oliver St John Gogherty. I am noty sure though you would make it in time with Customs, Luggage pickup and storage. That is why i suggested Johnnie Fox's but I also think there is no way you will make the dublin mountains by 7:30. Why not go for a meal and then head to the Oliver St John Gogherty for some music upstairs. What type of food do you like and price range? L'Gueleton is meant to be good but you cannot book in advance but give us an idea oof what you like. I think the comedy club Cailin mentioned is a fun idea as well.

Isn't there anyone other than me who thinks this plan is completely beserk ? If you've not paid a lot for your tickets, I strongly suggest booking some other route. I take it you know that Ryanair is the most no-frills of no-frills airlines; & that if anything goes wrong, you're on your own. If your flight from Dublin is cancelled & there isn't another with availability for a week, what then ? You are stuck much further away from your destination than when you started. Wouldn't it be much easier (& more reliable) to get a train ? (I'm assuming no direct flights are available ?)

I don't want to sound negative, but since this is your anniversary (congratulations !) and your wife's first trip to Europe, I think this is a bigger risk than you probably want to take, isn't it ?

This sort of problem does happen regularly with Ryanair - the papers here in Scotland recently had a story about a planeful of Ryanair passengers stuck in (I think) Germany when their flight was cancelled. All they were offered was their money back (not a lot of use if you only paid £1 to begin with) or the chance of getting on another flight in 4 days' time. So people had to pay to stay on indefinitely, or pay to get home another way. Some people had to fly to France & drive from there, I seem to remember.

Hello SiobhanP and Caroline_Edinburgh,

SiobhanP:

Thanks for the follow-up. We like almost any food and like to try new things. Basic rather than fancy is probably where our budget will be by this time of our trip. On the other hand, this is a special trip. Yours and Cailin's recommendation of L'Gueleton followed by a comedy club or John Gogherty sounds good. Any further thoughts from you or Cailin (or anyone else)?

Caroline_edinburgh

Well, I'm in a quandrary now, especially as we have also booked Ryanair from Venice to Brussels (for 22 Aug). We did this on the recommendation of my daughter who used Ryanair from Paris to Dublin and again from Paris to somewhere in Sweden a couple of years ago.

Our Brussels-Dublin-Berlin Ryanair is 187 USD. A train from Brussels to Berlin is $436 and we'd also have to pay another night's lodgings in Berlin (vs. the short stay in Dublin).

An evening in Dublin did sound like fun.

So, I'm not sure what to do. Please let me know your further thoughts and I'd be interested in anyone else's experiences with Ryanair as well as suggestions for alternatives.

Thanks,

Branton

There are Sommer-Spezial fares for 26 August available on bahn.de for Bruxelles-Nord to Berlin Hbf with a change at Koeln Hbf. The fares are only for the train leaving Bruxelles-Nord at 06:33. Arrival at Berlin Hbf is 14:10. The E39 and E49 tickets are sold out, but there still are E59 tickets available.

I forgot to tell you how to get from Brugge to Bruxelles-Nord in time to catch the 06:33 train. Take the InterCity train leaving Brugge at 04:51 and arriving at Bruxelles-Nord at 05:59.

Thank-you, TimS

I will look into this.

Branton