Trip to Dublin

[monty3777]

WOW - what a lot of great responses. I guess I'm a little naive - I wasn't expecting to hear from people who actually live in Dublin. This is a great board! Two more questions - this on is about pub etiquette. Do you tip the bartender? Here I usually leave $1 per round. What does one do in Ireland to avoid being an ugly American? Also, will I need Euros or do pubs typically accept debit/credit cards?

 

[olllllo]

oooh almost forgot. Check out the Gaelic Games HOF at Croke Park. Believe it or not there is quite a bit of political history involved with the games.
See a game of Hurling or Gaelic football. Not sure about the season.

Adopt a team as your own and buy a jersey. I adopted Kerry because they best fit with the Green Bay Packers.

Sorry Jackie-Boys

 

[Graeme]

Monty, it is not customary to tip bartenders in Ireland, in fact it's quite unheard of for the most part. If for example someone is working the tables and I make an order and they bring down the drinks, I would always tip them something, doesn't have to be anything big, 2 euros would do it. But bartender, generally not. 99% of pubs will accept your debit card without a bother, I never really look at American tourists as 'Ugly Americans' lol! I guess Americans might have the rep of being a little loud, personally I never thought so, we are loud bunch ourselves as you will find out, and there are so many tourists in Dublin, that it really doesn't matter anyway, just go, enjoy yourself and drink some good beers, if you need any advice what so ever, drop me a personal message

 

[Graeme]

Also Monty, It would be allot more practical if you were to get euros, you don't want to have to rely on your cards the whole time, you'll definitely need change available for various reasons, especially if you are looking at doing the hop on/hop off bus tours etc

 

[MacBruver]

Debit cards have made life a lot easier for travellers. Check with your bank first to make sure they're not going to put any holds on your accounts for out-of-country transactions, and then use your debit card as you would normally. You'll get currency in whatever denomination you need, with no worry about finding a currency exchange, or fees, or rates.

On top of that, your bank will usually use a very competitive exchange rate. After returning home from 10 days in ireland and england in 2006, the rates I was given were the same as quoted online with no fees. Unfortunately the rate was going up while I was there... 100 pounds cost me USD $5 more on the last day of the trip than the first!

My bank is Wells Fargo, FWIW.

 

[scubajim]

just got back from ireland. We had a great time. We stayed at 3 different hotels in limerick, sligo and dublin. And dublin was our least favorite spot, not into the big city scene. We went to the bushmills distillery which was awesome. I didn't like the guiness tour as much since it wasn't the real brewery just sort of a museum, the old advertisements were pretty cool, though. And i thought the guiness was so much better there, heck even the swmbo almost finished a pint, and she hates beer. Don't miss out on the guiness foreign extra stout. I picked up a few bottles cause i've never seen it here in the us.

 

[Graeme]

The Guinness tour is very disappointing, but you have to remember you are touring a factory not a brewery as such! Guinness is as Macro as you can get really, I never really understood the romantic idea of Guinness and what a magical and original stout it is, that statement may have held some truth decades ago, but Guinness is now affectively Diageo, Europes answer to A&B, none of the Guinness family have a stake in the company anymore. However, the foreign extra stout is one of the best I have tasted, it's a real gem!

 

[EoinMag]

I'd advise the Bull and Castle, be sure to try the Galway Hooker IPA, it's a delicious beer.
While it's not customary for the Irish to tip in bars, it's certainly appreciated, and almost expected that US tourists will drop a few euros, especially if you have a meal, I would tip but then I worked in hospitality for a long time, I'd not bother tipping if I was just drinking though unless it was a hotel.

 

[svudah]

So, at the risk of hijacking a thread that may have just gone into retirement, my fiance and I are going to Dublin Thursday for six days. (We got a ridiculously good deal on a flight/hotel package, which I can only assume is because few people opt to travel to Ireland 2 days after St. Paddys).
Anyway, the consensus seems to be that we should get out of Dublin proper as much as possible and I had some questions concerning that.

Basically, since we have the hotel paid for, we'd like to take a few day trips where we'd wind back up in Dublin at night. I've found some day tours that go to coastal sites north and south of Dublin as well as a rail tour that goes to Cork and one that goes to Galway. Is it possible to go from Dublin to Galway and back in the same day and have enough time to enjoy oneself? Should we skip the tour and maybe just get a roundtrip rail ticket? Or, should we rent a car and drive? Any recommendations or tips about renting a car or traveling around Ireland?

 

[monty3777]

Just got back from my trip and thought I'd offer an update. Beer in Temple Bar is an absolute rip off. At the pub The Temple Bar it was around $9. The area is a ****ehole once the travelling college students descend on the place in the evening and I avoided it like the plague. Also got tricked into going to Johnnie Foxes - what a complete rip off. But other than that it was one of my favorite cities. I liked the Guinness - totally different that what can be drunk in US - and also loved the Bulmer's Cider. In fact I'm on a bit of a cider kick right now. We didn't discover Leo Burdochs (sp?) fish and chips until our last night there, unfortunately. Awesome! BTW, Celtic Whisky Shop is also amazing!

 

[Casey27]

When my wife and I were in Dublin for a few days, we briefly stopped in Temple Bar. It had the highest ratio of tourists to locals of any place I remember except maybe Bunratty Castle (another big mistake). Lots of college students, as mentioned before, and not much worth seeing except the architecture. Temple Bar has the same tourist shops you'll find anywhere else. There are lots of fantastic pubs if you go just a block or so off the main path in Dublin.
Our favorite places in Ireland were probably County Clare and the Burren, although I'd happily return to any part of Ireland if I had the chance!