Tour fun fact: A Trinity College superstition states that passing under the bell tower will result in never receiving a degree from the university.

Irish friendliness and wit are no secret, but perhaps the secret is that this mixture results in unusually good and authentic tour guides.  Dublin, when compared to London, Paris, Rome or Berlin, may not have as much well-known history but it still warrants taking some time to get to know the city beyond seeing it through the bottom of a pint of Guinness.  Dublin’s rich tradition of rebellion, literature, academia and wit provide excellent material for the city’s storytellers to spin a yarn or two.

Here are two tours that I highly recommend:

Dublin Literary Pub Crawl:

I was not going to take this tour but it was strongly recommended by a local, as in someone from Dublin, who has been on it twice.  My wife and I are both glad that we went because it was a very good use of our time and money.

Established in 1988 by a group of unemployed actors this tour seems like the perfect ‘do what you are’ type situation.  Apparently the actors were literature enthusiasts that liked pubs, so bingo they had a business.  Now a word of warning: this is not your cheap drinks pub crawl that is that is about body shots and shot gunning beers.  Rather it’s an informative and entertaining tour given by actors who act out and tell stories about different Irish authors.  It is a unique tour experience not only because of the quality of the content but also because it focuses on one of the most famous aspects of Dublin that can only be understood in a pub crawl, which ironically is usually about quantity drinkers.  This does not mean that it is not still a pub crawl that takes you by fun pubs and makes it possible to meet a lot of fun people, because it surly is.

The program is pretty standard.  Arrive to the Duke Pub to sign up for the tour and have a pint.  From there the group is led to three other historical pubs and through Trinity College while the guides tell stories about Shaw, Wilde and Joyce among others.  While the content does focus on the pantheon of Irish greats don’t worry if you have not read much or can remember anything because the guides make the the info easy to understand.   There are plenty of interesting stories and fun details that are told along the way which becomes material for a quiz at the end.  Yes there was a prize but I won’t spoil the surprise.

There are no drink discounts or free shots so if you are expecting that you will want to give this a miss.  With this said the drinks seemed to be cheaper by .50€ to 1€ than we were paying in the Temple Bar area and other pubs around Dublin.  Surveying a dozen or so pus a pint of Guinness ranged from €4.10 to €6.50 with €5.00 being the most common price.  The pints at the pubs on the tour ranged from €4.50 to €5.00.  If you are looking for an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours in the early evening (the tour lasts from 7:30 till 9:30) then this should be on your radar.  Added tip: They cut the number around 50 people and they will turn people away so get there in time, tickets go on sale at 7:00.

Meet: The Duke Pub- 9 Duke St. (upstairs).

April to October: Every evening @ 7:30 pm

November to March: Thur, Fri, Sat @ 7:30 pm

Sundays: All year 12 noon and @ 7:30 pm

Regular price €12, students €10

www.dublinpubcrawl.com

The Official Walking Tour of Trinity College-

Led by students this 30 min walking tour gives a brief overview of one of the world’s most famous universities, Trinity College.  The campus is not that big and perhaps does not in itself warrant a tour.  However, the student guide, the one that I had anyways, did a good job of giving the history while adding in a ghost story and a few sprinkles of trivia and humor that always make seeing something more valuable.  The tour runs for a solid half hour and costs 10€, which you might think is a lot until you factor in that the ticket price includes admission to the Book of Kells and Trinity College Library which costs 9€ for adults 7€ students.  So for an extra 1€ or 3€ respectively you will get at least a few good stories and some laughs.  If you want to skip the Book of Kells the tour only in 5€.

To find this tour enter into the main gate of Trinity College and you will see a stand just to the right as you enter the courtyard.  Tours run throughout the mid-day at intervals.

I’m sure there are many more good tours in Dublin and around Ireland so please feel free to offer any recommendations and I will try to check them out the next time I’m there.

Happy Travels,

Chris

While in Dublin for the first time I was talking with a hotel manager of six years who told me that he found it incredible how people go to the Guinness Storehouse even if they do not like beer.  He said, “I cannot count how many times that I have seen guests come back from the Storehouse with heaps of Guinness gear and say, ‘I don’t even like the stuff but I just loved that place’.”  Eventually this led us to the subject of if Guinness tastes better in Ireland.  A claim that Guinness tries to answer on its website: “in blind tests (with a bunch of highly cynical journalists) none of our sample could tell the difference between Irish-brewed GUINNESS® and the locally produced variety. All the GUINNESS® sold in the UK, Ireland and North America is brewed in Ireland at the historic St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin.” Nevertheless, because I have heard so many times about Guinness in Ireland, I wanted to finally answer this question for myself so I thought there there is no better place to test the hypothesis than at the Guinness Storehouse the home of Guinness.  I don’t drink Guinness beyond the once every other month pint so I was not expecting to be able to tell any difference, but I most certainly could.

Over the years I have heard a few exaggerated nuggets of travel-lore such as how cheap Prague is, how much fun Berlin is and how much better Guinness is in Ireland.  Not to say that Prague is expensive or that Berlin does not have amazing nightlife but I am saying that a lot of times these experiences do not quite match their word-of-mouth.  However, I now state that a Guinness in Dublin is one of the best beers that I have ever had and better than any other Guinness that I have tasted.  In fact, it surpassed what others have told me, no matter how enthusiastic their reviews.  I did not think that the taste was significantly different as it was just lighter which I felt made it a more tasty and manageable brew.  It’s almost like Guinness in Dublin has nothing to prove because it knows it is the best and has full confidence based on the 250 years serving Irishmen and Irishwomen.

The view from the lively Gravity Bar is spectacular. Click through to be taken to Flickr photo tour of the Storehouse.

Regardless of your feelings about Guinness when visiting Dublin the decision will have to be made of wether to go to the Guinness Storehouse; I highly recommend it.  I’ve been on many brewery tours and this one follows the same formula.  The self-guided tour (there are headsets but I passed) takes you through the founding by Arthur Guinness, the business decisions that made the beer successful, the different types of advertising and then for the grand finale a fresh pint of the Irish dry stout.  The Guinness Storehouse does not veer from this usual path except that it has a tasting lab that teaches one to appreciate the unique qualities of the beer.  I suppose that the tour itself is not a compelling reason to drop the admission charge of €15 (€11 students) since €5 will buy a pint in many Irish pubs.  I recommend this experience because I feel that no other brewery has had such an impact on a city like Guinness has had on Dublin.  The whole tour is very much the story of a company and city which had intertwined fates and took care of each other.  The whole thing takes about an hour and finishes in the Gravity Bar with a free pint of the black stuff and the opportunity to enjoy the best view of Dublin.  You can only have pints in exchange for tickets so savor your free one because you cannot buy anymore.

Details:

Location: St. James’s Gate- Dublin 8

Admission: €15, students over 18 get in for €11

Visiting Hours: 7 days a week from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm (last admission at 5:00 pm); July and August 7:00 pm

Website booking available with discount.  Guinness-Storehouse.com

Click through on any of the pictures to be taken to our Flicker set which gives a picture tour.