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ATP Travel Agency: 10 days in Dublin, London, and wherever else you suggest!

In Dublin, The Stag's Head was the watering hole for people like James Joyce and Michael Collins and it even has a ghost.

Chapter One is an upscale restaurant. It's been the #1 restaurant in Ireland and is in the same building as the Dublin Writers Museum.

Whalen's is probably the best bar for live music. Mumford and Sons and many others have played there. There are two upscale dance places- Alchemy and Lillie's.
 
The Dawson Lounge in Dublin. Just off St. Stephen's Green.
 
Guinness Brewery tour is worthwhile as mentioned earlier.
 
GF studied abroad there in 09. Here are her standard recs:

The Guinness Factory/the Jameson Distillery are definitely the touristy must-do things -- I like the distillery a lot better, because there is actually a guided tour and Jameson is delicious, but the Guinness Factory (which is a self-guided tour, or at least was five years ago) is worth it for your "free" (with the price of admission) pint at the sky bar, which has great views. Other things of that sightseeing nature include Trinity College, which is just pretty to walk around, and Grafton Street, which is where a lot of the shops/street performers/crazy city sights are. It leads you right to St. Stephen's Green which is a pretty Dublin park/another sightseeing destination.

Some of my favorite bars included Messrs, which was this four-story bar that in 2009 had a house brew that was 4 euro a pint (which, sadly, was cheap), though I can't confirm the price point now. It's also a great place to watch games; the whole place goes nuts for rugby and footie. Temple Bar is sort of the obligatory pub area, and therefore gets very crowded and a little touristy, but Temple Bar in Temple Bar is a cool spot, as is Fitzsimon's which always had a high cover but was worth it for the rooftop. Fitzsimon's is also one of the places in Dublin that's open after 2 a.m. (when most other pubs close down) so, if that's something you're interested in, that's an option. You can also try McDonaghues, which is a crazy old pub that always has live, traditional music.

I know you're only there for a short time, but some cool day trips include Glendalough, which is great for hiking. You can also hop on the DART for a quick trip to the cool little villages outside of Dublin. One personal fave of mine was Howth, which was a fishing village with great views, hiking, and a cool farmer's market if you're there on the weekend.

I would recommend more food places but obviously none of the food in Ireland is outstanding. Your safest bet is some soup and brown bread at a pub. When I was there I did like Lemon (a crepe restaurant on Dawson, which runs parallel to Grafton), and Cornucopia, a vegetarian restaurant also near Grafton. Both were pretty casual, though.
 
I really regret that I never made it to Howth while I was studying abroad.
 
Thanks for the recs guys. Don't really have time to leave the city but will hit up as much stuff in Dublin as possible.
 
Cliffs of Moher and Ring of Kerry are well worth it.

Guinness Brewery tour has a great view of the city from the bar on the top floor with the glass panoramic view.
 
Newgrange outside of Dublin is neat. It can be done in half a day.

On the west coast, we went to Dingle. I would highly recommend it - it can easily be done in a day. It says its about 4 hours by car from Dublin, but when we drove it, it seemed much longer.
the roads around Dublin were very much like the interstate, but once outside of that, it turned rural pretty quickly. It would be like driving to the beach from Raleigh but unable to take the interstate. You can make good time for awhile, but you slow down for every single podunk town. In Ireland, its neat for a while but quickly becomes tiresome.

If renting a car, make sure that you have enough insurance beforehand. When we rented, we were told we needed extra insurance since roads in Ireland were much more dangerous (after driving in both Ireland and England, they seemed exactly the same and England did not require extra insurance). As for driving on the opposite road, it is not impossible, and quite nice to be able to go where you want to go. I drive a stick and got a stick in ireland - it really wasn't that difficult of a transistion.
 
BillBrasky said:
Oh and a recommendation for a sweet bar to watch Bama-Miss State at in London on Saturday night would be appreciated as well.
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Yo, the Texas Exes will be at "Sports Bar & Grille" near Piccadilly Circus on Rupert Street for the UT vs. OSU game Sunday at noon (UTC). Not a bad place to check out for the Alabama game, though I'm not sure that I've ever been.
 
wakephan09 said:
Yo, the Texas Exes will be at "Sports Bar & Grille" near Piccadilly Circus on Rupert Street for the UT vs. OSU game Sunday at noon (UTC). Not a bad place to check out for the Alabama game, though I'm not sure that I've ever been.
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Yeah, I was going to say that there has to be someplace around Mayfair that will have American football on.
 
Great day in Dublin so far today. Walked around, visited Christ's Church Cathedral, Trinity College (Book of Kells), and topped it off with the Guinness Storehouse. Guinness self-guided tour was ok but the pint in their 7th story bar was on a whole different level from Guinness in the US and the view was unbeatable. Headed to Blarney Castle tomorrow
 
Also London has been an incredible trip so far. I've already knocked out most of my planned sightseeing, and am about to walk up to the Tower of London. The biggest takeaway so far is how well the city blends new and old. I've also enjoyed just walking around and people watching. I'm probably averaging about 4-5 miles a day of walking, outside of taking the tube. Luckily the weather has been very cooperative, with it only raining overnight on Thurs/Friday.
 
BillBrasky said:
You gonna be there on Monday MysteryBro? That's when I arrive from London.
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Getting back into town Tuesday morning from the Cliffs of Moher. You going to the American Outlaws pregame party?
 
MysteryMen said:
Getting back into town Tuesday morning from the Cliffs of Moher. You going to the American Outlaws pregame party?
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Yessir. I'll be there with SD3 and his boys. First knockoff fireball shot is on me. We took a combined 15 of them before the Colombia match. Definitely helped with the cold.
 
Yes Ireland is awesome, London is the shit, Scotland is amazing, and Wales is probably the shittiest place I've ever been.
 
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