Anyone who is facing the dreaded 30 has two choices to make: Do you crawl in a dark hole and wait for it to come or do you grab it by the balls and own it in fabulous style? Thankfully, I chose the latter 🙂

Dublin was the logical choice when looking at locations for this birthday extravaganza; super easy to travel from USA and just an hour flight from Belgium. I had the fun task of planning a city trip for 12-15 people over three days…we all know how I love a city trip!

I booked our hotel room at the Gibson Hotel; a bit on the pricey side but if you’re used to big, spacious hotel rooms then it is definitely worth the extra dough. Location wise, it’s closer to the airport than any hotel direct in the city center, has a tram line right outside their front door that will take you to the city center in 10 minutes. From the Dublin airport, bus 747 takes you to the 3Arena stop (first stop on the bus route) which is a 3 minute walk to the hotel. Bus 747 is the fast route, costs 6 euro one way (10 euro return) and you’ll be at the hotel in less than 20 minutes.

With logistics taken care of, I needed to look at the social activities. Dublin is the perfect location for a city trip because it has something for everyone! A castle, tons of pubs, hiking opportunities, shopping, an amazing history to discover or just spend time walking the streets.

Trinity College and Book of Kells

The Book of Kells Tour and Trinity College Library was an excellent start to our weekend fun. My sister puts Belle to shame in the book department so I knew we couldn’t miss this. You can pre-book your ticket online for 14 euro; allows you to skip the line if you are pressed for time and have loads to see. However, based on the season and the day,  I recommend to pay at the door (11 euro) as the line usually is not so long.

The Book of Kells exhibition is very interesting! My family comes from the Bible belt and believe in the written Word so this display was very special to us. Once you go through the small exhibition, you are brought into the main library. It holds over 6 million volumes of books, magazines, manuscripts dated from the 18th century as well as one of 3 remaining medieval Gaelic harps, the national symbol of Ireland.

While you’re over at the college, be sure to check out the Molly Malone statue! She’s super close and you would have heard her name a ton (or you will soon enough). Rub her chest for good luck 🙂

Dublin Castle

One of the few attractions you can not book in advance but an amazing one to visit! There are two types of tours you can take: guided and self guided. If you plan on doing this attraction, you should really do the guided tour. You can only visit the Excavation site and the Royal Chapel in addition to the State rooms on the guided tour…and they really are worth the visit! Make sure you go schedule your tour, takes about 90 minutes, to fit your daily activities. I would recommend going earlier that day to buy your ticket at a slotted time that is available and schedule the rest of your day around that.

Comparing Jameson Distillery to Teelings Distillery

To be honest, I did not tour Teelings. My boyfriend took the boys to Teelings the same time I took the girls to Dublin Castle. Teelings is the only functioning distillery in Dublin so if you are interested in the process of how whiskey is made, then this is the tour for you! He booked the 20 euro ticket which included a tasting of three different whiskey’s distilled on the site. You can pre-book tickets online; depending on the season you visit Dublin, I recommend pre-booking!

We did tour Jameson the next day; while this was the original distillation site, it since has been moved to Cork, Ireland. Another 20 euros to take the tour and to sample a few of their finest whiskey’s. What I found interesting was they do a comparative tasting between their triple distilled whiskey, a double distilled scotch and single distilled bourbon to let you experience the difference in taste. This tour takes about an hour to complete and Jameson does a great job giving an informative yet enjoyable look into the history of Jameson and the method behind their madness. I learned that Jameson and ginger is my new favorite mix!

Guinness Brewery

 First of all, get a ticket online first. If you are using this blog to plan your trip to Dublin, go ahead and take a break to book your ticket. Couple of reasons: 1. it’s awesome and 2. the line is crazy stupid any day. Get ready to spend 20 euros and minimum four hours at this site because with seven floors of activities to explore, you’ll be sure to create a lasting memory. I don’t even particularly like Guinness beer but you just can’t miss this!

A couple favorite parts of the tour were the marketing photo booth and learning to pour the perfect Guinness. In the marketing photo booth, you put yourself into old Guinness ads and it pops up on a tablet where you can upload to facebook.

In the Pour the Perfect Guinness bit, you learn how to pour the beer from the tap just like the experts. With your entry ticket, you are entitled to one pint of Guinness. Not only do you get to pour the perfect Guinness, you get to drink it.

If you do not want to spend your free beer on the pour, you can take the coupon to the top floor for a breathtaking view of the city and a pint 🙂

Dining, Pubbery and Fun

One of my favorite things about Dublin is most pubs offer free live music to create a super fun atmosphere for everyone. When mom and I visited Dublin a few years ago, we discovered Merchant’s Arch and knew we had to go again! Merchant’s Arch is in the Temple bar district so if you can’t get in there, you can find loads of other places to get an authentic Irish experience. Temple bar itself is a blast with the best Irish music I have heard, best audience to listen with and a wide range of Irish whiskeys to drink.

Camden Kitchen

Camden Kitchen was a restaurant I found on Spotted by Locals, a website directing tourists to restaurants and other attractions suggested by locals of that city. It was such a great decision because it catered to every specific pallet of my birthday guests 🙂 The food was very fresh and delicious at very reasonable prices. After a couple days of eating pub food, sitting down to a nice meal was exactly what everyone wanted! It was a great place to hold my birthday party of 16 people; cozy but not too secluded.

Glendalough

For most of my guests, this was their first time visiting Ireland and I wanted to give them as much Irish immersion as I possibly could. While Dublin is amazing, I wanted to get my family to experience the most important part of the country–nature.

Glendalough is part of Wicklow National Park and is about an hour drive from the Dublin city center. I rented two vans to bring our crew out this far; however, if you are not comfortable driving, you can join a tour group. Just ask your hotel for information! It is free to walk through and there are a variety of different routes you can take. It was a bit rainy on our visit but it didn’t stop us from spending as much time as we could!

The most spectacular and famous landmark of this hike is the Glendalough Lake about 2.5 kilometers from the start of the walk. This stunning lake is nestled in a valley surrounded by color filled mountains. Be sure your camera/phone battery has plenty of charge!