Dublin: 6 Day Trips Actually Worth Doing
Dublin puts six real day trips within reach, and only two of them are genuinely quick. Howth is a 30 minute train ride with a cliff walk and a bowl of chowder at the end. Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains take about an hour. Past that, the time cost climbs fast: Newgrange needs a guided ticket booked weeks out, the Cliffs of Moher eat a 12 hour day for roughly 90 minutes at the actual cliffs, Galway is a genuine train commitment, and Belfast swaps your euro for pounds the moment you cross the border. Base yourself in Dublin, but plan the far ones like the commitments they are, not like a quick add-on.
| Essentials | Dublin Ireland |
|---|---|
| Days needed | 1 city day plus 1 to 6 day trips (2 to 7 days total) |
| Best months | April, May, September for fewer crowds; June to August for long daylight on the longer trips |
| Daily budget | EUR 70-140 (about USD 75-150) per person in the city, plus EUR 45-90 per coach day trip |
| Book first | Newgrange’s guided-tour tickets, released up to 30 days out in peak season and gone within hours |
The six day trips worth understanding
If you want the deep dive on Dublin itself, our Dublin city guide covers Trinity, the Guinness Storehouse, and Kilmainham Gaol properly. This page assumes the city center is already sorted and covers everything worth doing beyond it, roughly in order of how much of your day they actually cost.
- Howth: 30 minutes each way, no booking, no tour bus required
- Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains: about an hour each way, monastic ruins and mountain lakes
- Newgrange and the Boyne Valley: guided-tour-only, book ahead or don’t go
- The Cliffs of Moher: 3 to 3.5 hours each way, a 12 to 13 hour day for 90 minutes at the cliffs
- Galway: 2 hours 20 to 2 hours 30 by train, too far for a relaxed same-day round trip
- Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway: about 2 hours by train to Belfast, further again to the Causeway, and pounds sterling once you cross the border
Howth is the easy win, and the only one that needs no plan
Take the DART from Connolly, Pearse, or Tara Street, roughly 30 to 35 minutes, trains every half hour, a few euro each way or covered by a Leap Card zone fare. No tour bus, no advance ticket, no guide needed. Walk the Cliff Path Loop around the peninsula for sea views back toward Dublin Bay, then eat at the harbour: Beshoff Bros does excellent fish and chips at half the price of a sit-down table, while the Oarhouse is the better call if you want to sit and order a full seafood plate. One local trick worth stealing: take the H3 bus from Abbey Street Lower up to Howth Summit first, then walk the cliff loop downhill into the village instead of climbing it. Same six kilometres of coastline, a fraction of the effort.
Is Howth worth doing over a bigger day trip? For a half day with zero planning, yes, easily. It’s cheaper and faster than anything else on this list, and it needs no tour, no ticket, and no backup plan if the weather turns. Save the bigger trips for when you have a full day to give them properly.
Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains: the closest real nature
About an hour each way by road, no direct train, so this one needs either a car or a tour. Half-day tours run roughly 4 to 5 hours round trip; the full “Wild Wicklow” style tours run closer to 9 hours and add more of the mountain scenery. St Kevin’s monastic ruins sit beside two lakes ringed by hills, and it’s the closest thing to green, quiet Ireland you can reach from Dublin without committing a whole day to transport. Check current Glendalough and Wicklow day tours on GetYourGuide rather than assume a summer weekend slot is open; peak-season tours do sell out. See heritageireland.ie for the monastic site’s current opening hours.
Newgrange and the Boyne Valley: book the tour or skip it
There is no walk-up option here. Newgrange, a Neolithic passage tomb that predates Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, is accessible only via a guided tour from the Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre, and there is no independent route to the tomb itself. Booking windows open 30 days ahead from April through November and just 7 days ahead the rest of the year, and peak-season slots vanish within hours of release, not days. The combined Newgrange and Knowth ticket runs roughly EUR 18 adult (verify current discoverboynevalley.ie pricing); the visitor centre exhibition alone, no advance booking required, is about EUR 5. Coach day tours from Dublin run roughly EUR 45-75 and 8 to 9 hours, usually bundling Hill of Tara or Monasterboice Abbey. Compare Bru na Boinne and Newgrange tours on Viator if you’d rather not chase the official booking window yourself.
Is Newgrange worth prioritizing over Glendalough? For history-focused travelers, yes. It’s a genuinely major prehistoric site that gets undersold next to Wicklow’s greener, easier-photographed hills, and the guided-access model rewards planning ahead rather than punishing it. Book the tour the day your dates are fixed, not the week before.
The Cliffs of Moher: the trip everyone books wrong
The Cliffs of Moher sit roughly 3 to 3.5 hours each way by road in County Clare, and there is no direct train. A full-day guided coach tour runs 12 to 13 hours total, departing Dublin around 6:45 to 7am and returning between 8 and 10pm, priced roughly EUR 65-89 per person and usually bundled with the Burren and either Galway City or Bunratty Castle. Strip out the driving and you’re left with something like 90 minutes to 2 hours actually at the cliffs. Self-driving and paying at the visitor centre alone runs about EUR 8 off-peak or EUR 12 during the 11am-4pm peak window. Check Cliffs of Moher day tour availability on GetYourGuide before assuming a Saturday departure is open; these fill by midweek in summer. See cliffsofmoher.ie for current visitor centre hours if you’re self-driving instead.
Does the Cliffs of Moher work as a day trip from Dublin? Technically yes, honestly it’s rough: a 12 to 13 hour day trades roughly 6 hours of driving for 90 minutes to 2 hours at the cliffs themselves. It works if you go in accepting that trade. With a spare night, basing overnight in Galway or Doolin turns the same cliffs into a relaxed half day instead of an endurance test, and it’s the better plan whenever an extra night is on the table.
Galway: the one that looks like a day trip and isn’t
Irish Rail runs direct from Heuston Station, roughly 2 hours 20 to 2 hours 30 each way, 9 to 10 trains a day, fares from about EUR 14-22 one way depending on how early you book. Do the math before committing: a same-day round trip means close to 5 hours on trains against maybe 3 to 4 hours actually in the city. It’s commonly recommended as a casual Dublin day trip, and it isn’t one.
Is Galway worth doing as a day trip, or should I stay over? Stay over if you can. A same-day round trip spends nearly 5 hours on trains for a few hours in a city that rewards a slower pace, cobbled Latin Quarter, trad sessions, Galway Bay at sunset. If a spare night genuinely isn’t available, go anyway, just go in knowing what you’re trading.
Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway: a different currency, a long day
The Enterprise train runs direct from Dublin Connolly to Belfast, now terminating at the newly opened Belfast Grand Central station, in roughly 2 hours 8 minutes, with around 15 weekday departures between 5:50am and 8:50pm. Advance single fares start around EUR 15.99 equivalent; a walk-up single runs closer to EUR 30, roughly double. A full Giant’s Causeway day tour typically runs by direct coach instead, about 3 hours each way via the Antrim Coast Road, Dunluce Castle, and the Dark Hedges, a 12 hour round trip departing around 7am and returning by 8pm. Compare Belfast and Giant’s Causeway day tours on Viator if you want the coach version rather than the train-plus-local-tour combination.
The moment you cross into Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, the currency switches to pounds sterling. Cards work everywhere, but if you want cash for a coffee or a gift shop, change some pounds before you go or use an ATM once you’re across; euro will not be accepted.
Do I need British pounds for the Belfast day trip? Yes. Both the Enterprise train and any Giant’s Causeway coach tour cross into Northern Ireland, where the currency is pounds sterling, not euro. Cards work at almost every till, but carry or withdraw some sterling if you want cash in hand, and don’t expect to spend euro once you’re across the border.
How many days do you actually need?
Two days covers a Dublin city day plus Howth. Add a day for Glendalough and a day for Newgrange and you’re at four, without touching the long-haul trio. The Cliffs of Moher, Galway, and Belfast each want a dedicated day, or better, an overnight, so budget five to seven days if all six of these matter to your trip.
Where to stay
Stay in Dublin’s city center for every trip on this list; none of them require changing hotels. The one exception is the Cliffs of Moher: if you can spare the extra night, book one in Galway or Doolin instead of trying to force the coach both ways in a single day. Compare Dublin city center rates on Booking.com for your base, and see current Galway options if you’re extending the Cliffs trip into an overnight.
Getting around for day trips
Howth runs on the DART and a Leap Card, same as the city. Glendalough, Newgrange, and the Cliffs of Moher all run on tour coaches or a rental car, since none of them sit on a direct rail line. Galway and Belfast both run on Irish Rail and its cross-border Enterprise service respectively, book through irishrail.ie for the best early fares, and check transportforireland.ie for how the Leap Card covers the DART leg to Howth.
When to go
June through August gives the longest daylight for the far trips, but also the tightest booking windows: Newgrange’s peak-season slots and Cliffs of Moher weekend coach departures both sell out days to weeks ahead. April, May, and September trade a little daylight for a much easier booking experience. Rain is a year-round baseline on every one of these trips, pack a proper layer regardless of the month you land.
For the day-by-day version with all six trips sequenced, see our 2-day through 7-day plans, and for the honest verdict on whether the Cliffs of Moher earns its place, see our Cliffs of Moher page . Whatever else you skip, don’t book the Cliffs of Moher or Belfast as an afterthought the morning of; both need a real decision made in advance, not a walk-up plan.