Lonely Planet - Dublin Travel Guide

Welcome to
Dublin

Dublins key ingredients: a thousand-year history, marinated until rich in heritage and sprinkled with hedonism. Visit and enjoy.

Dublin has been making waves since the 9th century, and while you may have to dig deep to find traces of its Viking past, the citys rich history since then is in evidence all around you, from its medieval castle and cathedrals to the splendour of the 18th century, when Dublin was the most handsome Georgian city in the Empire and its magnificent public and private buildings reflected the elevated status of its most privileged burghers. How power was wrested from their hands is another story, and one youll learn in its museums and walking tours.

Georgian elegance aside, Dublin mightnt seem as sexy or as sultry as other European capitals, but Dubliners will tell you that pretty things are as easy to like as they are to forget. Their beloved capital, about which they can be brutally unsentimental, has personality, which is much more important and lasts far longer. Garrulous, amiable and witty, Dubliners at their ease are the greatest hosts of all, a charismatic bunch whose soul and sociability are so compelling and infectious that you mightnt ever want to leave.

To experience Dubliners at their most comfortable and convivial, youll have to spend some time in a pub. Dublins relationship with alcohol is complex and conflicted, but at its very best, a night out in the pub remains the citys favourite social lubricant and one of the most memorable experiences of a visit to Ireland. Everyone has their favourite pub: for some its a never-changing traditional haunt; for others, its wherever the beautiful people are currently at. Either way, youll have over 1000 to choose from.

As you stroll through the city, you might come across a group of young Koreans hawking phonecards from their shop hatches. Or Nigerian teenagers rustling through beaded curtains into African salons for hair extensions, while upstairs their parents belt out gospel hymns in makeshift churches. Next door, Russians leave the supermarket laden with tinned caviar. This is the new, confidently multicultural Dublin, where locals queue up to try a new sushi joint or pop around the corner to buy sumac from their local halal grocer, wholl break away from a conversation in Arabic to say howarye in a thick, Dublin accent.

HaPenny Bridge, River Liffey
DAVID SOANES PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES

Why I Love Dublin

By Fionn Davenport, Author

As a Dubliner what I love most about my city is that its big enough to always keep me entertained and amused, but small enough that I can get from its head to its heel in virtually no time at all. Its a big capital village, really, and its inhabitants live accordingly if you walk around town enough youll always run into people you know. I love that the city wears everything on its sleeve, from its fascinating history to its brilliant personality, and that it understands that quality of life trumps all other things.

For more about our authors, .

See for much more.

Dublins Top 10

Temple Bar
HOLGER LEUE / GETTY IMAGES

A good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub, mused Leopold Bloom in James Joyces Ulysses. An impossible conundrum, given theres at least one on every street, but the answer is simple: go into each one you find. One hundred years later, the alpha and omega of all social life in Dublin remains the bar, and you have more than 1000 to choose from, from traditional boozers to trendy bars. Its where youll meet Dubliners at their convivial, easy-going best and get a proper sense of what makes this city tick.

Drinking & Nightlife

Dublins Top 10

DAVID SOANES PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES

Since its foundation in 1592, Trinity College has become one of the worlds most famous universities; the alma mater of Swift, Wilde and Beckett, and the home of the worlds most famous illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells. Its 16 hectares are an oasis of aesthetic elegance, its cobbled quadrangles lined with handsome neoclassical buildings that lend an air of magisterial calm to the campus, evident as soon as you walk through Front Arch.

Grafton Street & Around

Dublins Top 10