The 12 best things to do in Dublin

Dublin could keep you interested for a lifetime. The collection of museums in Ireland's largest city is as fine as you'd expect for a European capital. You'll taste incredible food and drink in authentic pubs, the style of which have spawned imitators from Miami to Mongolia. You'll encounter whiskey and old prisons, ancient books and monuments. And the showstopper Georgian streetscapes and a truly beautiful university campus are a clear nod to the sophisticated city's inner elegance.

Easy to get around without a car and with a generous selection of budget-friendly options to fuel your stay, Dublin gives and gives to its visitors. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Settle in at a traditional pub

In all likelihood, you don’t need us to tell you that the pub is a quintessential Dublin experience, but here we are. It’s where you’ll meet Dubliners at their convivial, easygoing best and get a sense of what makes this city tick. Few institutions are as fawned over and written about as Dublin's traditional pubs – probably because so many of the city’s best-known writers were regulars in them.

In Ulysses, Leopold Bloom muses that a "good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub," to which the only logical answer is that it can be done by going into every one you see. Given that there are around 800 spread about the city, it’s probably not the wisest thing to do if liver function is important to you, but you can select a few that will make your Dublin stay all the more memorable.

Local tip: One of my favorites is Mulligan's of Poolbeg St, which was also a favorite of Leopold Bloom’s creator, James Joyce.

2. Stroll across the cobblestones at Trinity College

Since its founding in 1592, Trinity College has become one of the world’s most illustrious universities. It's the alma mater of Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, and it's where you'll find the most spectacular library in the country, the home of the most famous illuminated Gospel, the Book of Kells. The library’s 200,000 books have been removed as part of a landmark restoration project, but the consolation prize is an enhanced digital experience that tells the story of the Book of Kells in dramatic, impressive detail. Trinity’s 16-hectare campus is an oasis of aesthetic elegance, its cobblestone quadrangles lined with handsome neoclassical buildings that lend an air of magisterial calm that's evident as soon as you walk through the front arch.

Planning tip: If you’re visiting outside of the academic term during the summer (June through August), you can stay in student accommodations for a fraction of the cost of a hotel on the other side of the walls. 

3. Embrace a singularly messy studio at Dublin City Gallery

The Dublin City Gallery (aka the Hugh Lane, after its founder) contains the actual London studio of Dublin-born artist Francis Bacon, brought over piece by piece and painstakingly reassembled in all its glorious mess. You can't step inside, but you can observe exactly how the artist lived and worked, down to the minute details. Hanging on the walls elsewhere throughout the magnificent Georgian pile are pieces from the city’s finest collection of modern and contemporary art, which runs from impressionist masterpieces (Degas, Monet, Manet) to Irish artists such as Dorothy Cross and Sean Scully, plus stained glass windows by Harry Clarke.

4. Dive deep into Dublin’s distilleries

Dublin was once the epicenter of global whiskey production. While that industry went kaput over the course of the 20th century, it’s slowly making a resurgence, especially in the Liberties, once known as the Golden Triangle for the number of distilleries in operation there. Today, there are four: Teeling Distillery, the first new producer in the city for 125 years; Pearse Lyons Distillery, in an old church; the Dublin Liberties Distillery, in a 400-year-old former mill and tannery; and Roe & Co, once the world’s largest producer of whiskey, now returned inside the old Guinness Power Station. On the other side of the Liffey, the old Jameson Distillery is one of the city’s most popular attractions.

Planning tip: If you want to do some pretty serious tastings, the Irish Whiskey Museum is near Trinity College.

5. Enjoy the exquisite Chester Beatty collection

Alfred Chester Beatty was a mining magnate with exceedingly good taste, and the fruit of his aesthetic sensibility is gathered in this remarkable library museum. Books, manuscripts and scrolls were his great love, and his collection includes the world's second-oldest biblical fragment and a collection of Qurans from the 9th to the 19th centuries that is considered among the best examples of illuminated Islamic texts in the world. Other treasures include ancient Egyptian texts on papyrus, intricately designed medicine boxes and perhaps the finest selection of Chinese jade books on the planet.

Local tip: Keep an eye on the calendar of events. The museum regularly runs qigong workshops on the rooftop garden, as well as sound baths and meditation sessions.

6. Visit a prison to learn about Ireland’s struggles

Ireland’s struggle for independence was a bloody and tempestuous journey, and this forbidding prison on the western edge of the city played a role for nearly 150 years, housing many a rebel and revolutionary. Unoccupied since 1924, Kilmainham Gaol is now a museum with an enthralling exhibit on the history of Irish nationalism. The guided tour of its grim cells and corridors is highly memorable, and it finishes in the yard where the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising were executed.

Planning tip: Book your tickets online to avoid being disappointed by sold-out tours; it's best to book an early morning tour so you’ll have a shorter wait.

7. Drink a Guinness where it’s made

You didn’t think we’d ignore the world’s most famous brewery and the city's top tourist attraction, did you? Guinness is more than a beer, and you’ll get a pretty good sense of how much more during a visit to the seven-story Guinness Storehouse. Along the way you’ll learn how the beer is made (with a couple of add-on, hands-on experiences to deepen your knowledge), the role of the company in Dublin’s fortunes and how it became the global brand it is today. The top floor is an atrium bar, where you put the theory to the test and drink a pint; just below it is an excellent spot for lunch.

Local tip: The Guinness in the atrium bar is excellent, but the best Guinness comes with atmosphere, which you'll find in a traditional bar.

8. Delve into the culture at the National Museum

The country’s most important cultural institution is the National Museum of Ireland, which has four branches nationwide, three of which are in Dublin. The Archaeology section on Kildare St is the most significant, with an extraordinary collection of Celtic and early Christian gold as well as the macabre bog bodies – four Iron Age figures in various states of preservation. On the other side of the Liffey, just off the quays, is the Decorative Arts and History branch, housed in beautiful 18th-century barracks. On Merrion Sq is the Museum of Natural History, affectionately known as the Dead Zoo.

9. Eat to your heart's content

The choice of restaurants in Dublin has never been better. Every cuisine and every trend – from doughnuts on the run to kale with everything – is catered to, as the city seeks to satisfy the discerning taste buds of its diners. From Neapolitan-style pizza at Sano to Michelin-starred feasts at Chapter One, you’ll find something for every palate and budget. 

Planning tip: It can be pretty tough to get a table at the trendiest spots in town, so book well in advance – two weeks if possible but months if you’re looking at a Michelin-starred venue.

10. Slip down to the seaside at Howth

Dublin is on the sea, and some of the city’s loveliest neighborhoods are standalone villages, such as the fishing village of Howth, at the end of the train line to the north. The village itself is gorgeous, built around a busy pier and packed with restaurants serving the freshest of the fresh catch, but the real treat is the Howth Cliff Path, a 6km loop that takes you over the headland for gorgeous views over the grassy slopes to the sea. If you want to do a proper hike, longer routes lead to Baily Lighthouse and back over rough, mountainous terrain.

Planning tip: On weekends and bank holidays, Howth Market sells a huge selection of organic produce and baked goods as well as handicrafts.

11. Learn the history of Dublin from Dubliners

With a collection donated entirely by the general public, the award-winning Little Museum of Dublin on St Stephen’s Green is a surprising blockbuster. The memorabilia is quirky enough – it includes a lectern used by JFK during his visit in 1963 and the fateful letter given to the Irish delegation during the negotiations that ended Ireland’s War of Independence in 1921 (and whose inherent contradictions led indirectly to the Civil War the next year) – and it’s a brilliant way of getting a potted history of the city. 

Planning tip: The museum runs great tours beyond its walls, including a walking tour of St Stephen's Green and themed events like a treasure hunt.

12. Study up at Marsh’s Library

The Book of Kells Experience is way more famous, and way more visited, but that makes Marsh’s Library – on a side street by St Patrick’s Cathedral, all the more worthwhile. The magnificently preserved scholars' library founded by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh in 1707 has barely changed since. Atop its ancient stairs are beautiful dark-oak bookcases filled with 25,000 books from the 16th century to the early 18th century, as well as maps, manuscripts (including one in Latin dating from 1400) and a collection of incunabula (books printed before 1500).

Local tip: When you walk from the first hall into the second, strike up a conversation with the resident librarians. They can tell you their personal theories (or experiences) of the resident ghost and show you the spines of the books bearing bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising.