Dublin Beyond Two Days: Where to Go Next

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use.

Dublin is a two day city with a very good week attached to it, and the trick is knowing which of those you have booked. The core runs out faster than most capitals its size. What it opens onto, in every direction, is better than the fourth day inside the canals.

Day one and day two, which are fixed

Trinity College, founded in 1592 and Ireland’s oldest university, with the Book of Kells and the Long Room. The Guinness Storehouse at St James’s Gate, which is Ireland’s most visited paid attraction. Kilmainham Gaol, a site of political imprisonment and execution where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were held, Parnell was held in 1881 and 1882, and de Valera was the last prisoner released in 1924. The free national collections on Kildare Street. Temple Bar, Grafton Street and the Georgian squares.

That is two days, properly done, and it is the whole of the standard list.

Two diary facts before you draft anything. The Dublin Castle campus, including the Chester Beatty, is closed to the public until January 2027. And Experience Glasnevin is a daytime visit: the main gates run 09:00 to 17:00 and the Visitor Centre 10:00 to 17:00, with the Irish History Tour booked online at dctrust.ie .

Day three: the coastline you already paid for

Before booking a hotel two hours away, note that Dublin’s own coast runs for kilometres and costs €2 a journey.

  • The Great South Wall, roughly 4 km out into Dublin Bay on an eighteenth-century sea wall that was the longest in the world when it was built, ending at the red Poolbeg Lighthouse. Free, exposed, and unlike anything else in the city.
  • Howth, 25 to 35 minutes north on the DART, with four waymarked cliff loops from about 6 km to about 10 km, a working fishing harbour and the Baily Lighthouse in view from the path.
  • Dún Laoghaire to Dalkey and Killiney, south on the same line, with the East Pier light at the harbour mouth and the long view over Killiney Bay from the hill.
  • Bull Island, over the wooden bridge from Clontarf: a UNESCO Biosphere of dunes and saltmarsh, with the green North Bull light at the end of the Bull Wall and Dollymount Strand on its seaward side.

Note the routing: Howth and Malahide are on two different branches of the northern DART, splitting at Howth Junction and Donaghmede, so pairing them in one day means changing there.

Two nights in Galway, which fixes the cliffs

Irish Rail runs direct from Heuston in 2 hours 20 to 2 hours 30, nine or ten trains a day: irishrail.ie . Do it as an overnight and the Cliffs of Moher stop being a 12 to 13 hour coach day that gives you 90 minutes to two hours at the cliffs for roughly €65 to €78. From Galway or Doolin they are a morning, and Connemara and the Burren come with them.

Verdict: the single best use of two extra nights from Dublin.

Two nights in Belfast, and it is another country

Two to three hours each way, and the coach day version runs about 12 hours via the Antrim Coast Road, Dunluce Castle and the Dark Hedges. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom: the currency changes from euro to pounds sterling at the border and mobile roaming rules change with it. Carry a card and some sterling. The Giant’s Causeway is UNESCO-listed hexagonal basalt, a different kind of landscape from anything in the Republic. discovernorthernireland.com .

Two nights in Wicklow or the Boyne Valley

Wicklow: Glendalough walked rather than bussed to, the Sally Gap drive with the R759 viewpoints over Lough Tay, and Powerscourt as two separate sites, the house and gardens at €14 and the waterfall at €7, 6 km apart with no combined ticket and no bus between them. powerscourt.com .

The Boyne Valley: Brú na Bóinne properly, with the free Hill of Tara and Monasterboice and its high crosses. Newgrange is visitor centre and shuttle access only, at €18 adult, €16 senior, €12 student and child aged 12 to 17, booked 30 days ahead in season and 7 days ahead in winter, with Knowth closed early November to the end of February.

The order to book in

Kilmainham the moment your dates are fixed, at the 28 day midnight release. The Book of Kells one to two weeks ahead in summer. The Guinness Storehouse last, because it is always available and only the price moves. Do it in any other order and you will lose the €8 ticket and keep the €48 one.

For beds in Dublin and on the nights you add, compare rates on Booking.com , and for guided multi-day departures, browse Ireland tours on GetYourGuide .

If you are still in town on a Saturday, the Temple Bar Food Market runs at Meeting House Square, roughly 09:30 to 15:30, and is the one genuinely good-value thing in the quarter. Otherwise take the train west: two nights in Galway beats two more in Dublin, and you can check what the day trips really cost you or which city tours are worth keeping before you decide.