Maximize Your Time AND Money in Dublin (When You Only Have Two Days)

If you are anything like us, you have limited time to see ALL of the sites of Dublin!  We spent 16 days traveling ALL over Ireland, but that only left us two whole days to see Dublin.

So, how do you pack as much as you possibly can into two days?  Lets us show you!

We chose to purchase the Go City Pass for two days.  After figuring out which destinations we wanted to visit…and factoring in the hop on hop off bus as transportation, this really was the best value for the money!  The two-day pass was only 16 Euros more than a one day pass, so it totally made sense.  The total cost for the pass was 86 Euros per person…and that included admission into 36 different attractions!!!  There are options to purchase the pass for 1 to 5 days. 

If you would like to get $20 off of $200 or more when buying a Go City Pass: Click Here! 

We started the Hop on, Hop off bus at the first location of the tour…and rode for about 20 minutes.  Our first stop that we “hopped off” for was Dublin Castle.

Dublin Castle was the seat of English rule in Ireland, until the country gained its independence from the British in 1922.  The castle was originally built as a fortress.  In April 1684 there was a fire that caused major damage to the castle. 

After this fire, the castle was rebuilt from a medieval fortress into the palace that it is today.  The property is used for special events and state dinners…and has hosted some famous names like Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, and Queen Elizabeth II.  Now, you can enjoy spending some time in this beautiful and historic place too.

When we left the castle, we walked a couple of blocks to the Christ Church Cathedral. This Cathedral was originally a Viking church and is located right in city center.  In fact, we joked that we passed it a million times…like we were going around in circles!

Some notes of interest about the Cathedral: Strongbow is buried here; the heart of St. Laurence O’Toole is on display (after a 6 year stint of being missing); they have a rare copy of the Magna Carta; and don’t forget to visit the Crypt to see the mummified cat and rat!

Right next door to the Cathedral is Dublinia, which is a Viking museum.  The two buildings are actually connected via a bridge over the street, so if you start in Dublinia…it flows right into the church.  We discovered this after our visit to the church. 

Dublinia takes you right back to the times when the Vikings lived in Dublin.  This interactive museum puts you right into that history.  This is your chance to experience what it was like to be on a Viking ship.  Learn about the clothing, the weaponry, the fairs, the disease, and the “medicines” of the time!  This is a great museum for the whole family!

If you have ever seen a picture of a pub associated with Dublin, it was probably Temple Bar.  This Iconic red pub is a favorite for tourists!  The bar was established in 1840 and is said to have over 450 different kinds of rare whiskey. 

Even with Covid-19 looming, there seemed to be quite a crowd at the pub.  We did not go into the bar because we were traveling to another country in a few days and did not want to risk being around larger crowds.  Check out their web cam to see the bar in real time: Temple Bar Live

Even though we did not go to the pub, we did wander around the Temple Bar Area.  We decided to have lunch in this area.  We ate at a BBQ restaurant – Smokin Bones.  The pulled pork was the star of our meal!  So, if you find yourself in the area and have a craving for BBQ, this is your place!  If BBQ is not your thing, this area has just about any type of food you could be craving…so, this neighborhood is a great place to grab lunch! 

If you are looking for a sweet treat, we recommend grabbing a gelato from Cloud Nine, which is right next to the Temple Bar. 

After lunch, hop back on the bus and head to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  This Cathedral was founded in 1191 and is the National Cathedral of Ireland.  St. Patrick is known as the Apostle AND the primary Patron Saint of Ireland. 

Over 500 people are buried at this church, including Jonathan Swift. Swift was a satirist who is best known for writing "Gulliver's Travels" and "A Modest Proposal." He was also a cleric who became Dean of the Cathedral.  Make sure you get the free audio guide that is available with your admission. 

There were a few other locations we could have fit into this day of sightseeing, but we had a date at the Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium.  We were there at Christmas time, and they were hosting a Christmas Party.  We sat in the clubhouse, enjoyed a fancy Christmas dinner, and cheered on the dogs!  It was definitely a fun night out! 

After a good night’s sleep, it is time to hit the ground running again.  We recommend starting the day at The Sweetest Thing.  Order one of their amazing hot chocolates…and why not have a delicious piece of cake for breakfast.  After all, you are on vacation!  Enjoy it! 

I stumbled on this café because I searched for best hot chocolate in Dublin.  After visiting this place, I can attest that it fits the bill.  I got some kind of mint hot chocolate.  They literally melt a Cadbury mint chocolate candy bar in the hot milk.  It was divine…and I am still thinking about it a month later!

Covid-19 has changed the way we travel…and today’s itinerary reflects this.  In the past, you could have showed up at Guinness or the distilleries and waited for your turn to enter.  But because they are limiting the number of visitors, we had to schedule our visits ahead of time.  I contacted the venues the day before via email to schedule our visits.  This is great because you don’t have to wait in line, but for us the downside was that I did not plan very well around the bus schedule.  So, if you want to use the hop on bus for your travels, my advice to you is to plan around the bus schedule.  We ended up walking and using Uber to get around for this day of sightseeing. 

A trip to Dublin MUST include a trip to the Guinness Storehouse!  Even if you are not a beer drinker, this place is fascinating!  The first impression…it is HUGE!  They really cover EVERYTHING!  The exhibits walk you through the entire brewing and storing process.  They also have an entire section about their advertising past and present.  There is a scent lab and an option to learn to make the perfect pour.  Your tickets also include a free beverage up in their Gravity Bar, which has 360 degree views of Dublin from above!  Expect to be here for a few hours, so you can really enjoy all that they have to offer!

You can either hop on the bus, walk, or Uber to the next location – the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum.  EPIC is an interactive museum about the achievements and history of the Irish people.  So many people have roots that can be traced back to this wonderful country.  Neville Isdell, founder of the museum, was inspired to open this museum because of his own immigration experience. 

At the start of your journey, you are given a passport that you can stamp in each room of the museum.  The museum is very interactive and even includes an area where you can learn to do an Irish dance! 

I was really excited to go to The Irish Family History Center at the completion of the museum.  You give the genealogists the information that you know about your family roots and they will help you discover more.  Unfortunately for me, they closed five minutes before we arrived.  I was pretty bummed!

After the museum, we headed over to the Teeling Distillery for a tour and tasting.  This was another venue that required an advanced reservation due to Covid.  Plan ahead! 

This distillery opened in 2015 and was the FIRST new distillery in Ireland for over 125 years!  While this distillery is only a few years old, the Teeling Brothers come from a long history of whiskey makers (dating back to 1782)! 

Our tour guide took us through the distillery where we learned about the process of distilling and storing the whiskey.  After the tour, we went to the tasting room where we were able to try some of the whiskey and also a cocktail made with their whiskey. 

Technically we could have probably fit in a couple of more attractions, but just based on the things we did during these two days, the Go City Pass was the way to go!!!  We actually saved 36.50 Euros by buying this pass…AND it includes transportation!  It does not get much better than that!  See the price breakdown below!  And if you want a discount when buying your pass, don’t forget to use this link: Go City

Click the link below to hear more about our time in Dublin!

Whatever you decide to do in Dublin, enjoy every minute of it!

Erin go Bragh!

Travel Checklist

After forgetting our passports while traveling last time, I created a travel checklist. This has ALL important items, so I don’t forget to pack anything! It helps to keep me focused when preparing for a trip! You can download a PDF version here!

Off Your Beaten Path Podcast - Episode 1

Back at the beginning of 2021, I created a vision board (this was a first for me!). On that board was the word podcast! After a lot of thought and planning, we are so excited to release our very first episode!

Here is what you can expect to learn from our first episode:

• How we met

• Our first date

• Our first trip

• How many states, provinces, countries, and continents we have visited

• Are there arctic monkeys in Alaska

• And most importantly...How in the world did we end up in Alaska!?

We hope you will give it a listen! If you like it, please feel free to follow, like, and share with others!

Big News: Our Newest Edition

Off Your Beaten Path has been in existence for 6 years now. We started as a blog, shifted focus to my photography, AND now we have a GREAT new addition!

Drum Roll Please…We have started our very own PODCAST!!!

Off Your Beaten Path is a weekly travel podcast about trading in your daily grind for a life worth living! Take a new path each week as your hosts Nicole and George inspire you to live bold and explore outside the lines. Take that trip, work with purpose, and live a life less ordinary by getting Off Your Beaten Path.

We feel that the Off Your Beaten Path Podcast is the perfect way to add to our brand!

Click below to listen to our trailer!

We hope you will take a listen, share with your friends, and subscribe!

We want to know what topics you want to hear about on the show! Let us know in the comments!

A Series of Unfortunate events: Travel Edition

Are you the person who has everything planned from the packing list to the itinerary when you travel?  You know what I mean…the seasoned traveler who is 100% prepared for anything and everything.  That was definitely how we viewed ourselves as travelers…until two weeks ago.  Travel is something that George and I have done together (as often as possible) since our first month together.  In ten short years, we have traveled to all 50 states, several countries, countless cruises, and hundreds of thousands of road miles! We know how to travel.  Or so we thought!!!

As with a majority of the world, Covid-19 happened and the world stopped…especially our beloved world of travel.  This was finally our chance to get out and enjoy the world outside of our little bubble in Skagway.  It had been over 630 days since we vacationed…and our lack of “experience” showed!  If you don’t believe me…look at how we overpacked!

For some people whether or not to vaccinate became a political issue.  For us, it meant that we were one step closer to being able to travel again.  In fact, as soon as our first dose was completed, we booked a cruise for later in the year.  We had originally planned a Mediterranean cruise for November, but that was cancelled.  Once that happened, we changed gears and planned a cruise to Mexico from California. 

Traveling to and from Skagway, Alaska is not as easy as one might think.  You have to ferry or fly to Juneau, which always adds at least a day onto your travel plans.  Since we needed to build in a little cushion, we planned to spend some time in Seattle and California before we actually left for our cruise.  All I can say is thank goodness we had that cushion. 

The week leading up to our trip was filled with a lot of wet weather.  We had flights scheduled out of Skagway, which can always be a little iffy if the weather is not great.  The morning of our trip, we heard a flight come in the morning, which was a welcomed sign…but we were still not out of the woods!   About an hour before our flight, we called the airport and were super excited to find out our plane was on the way! WE WERE GOING ON VACATION!!!!

We arrived in Juneau without a hitch.  We even had time for a delicious dinner at our favorite Juneau restaurant!  Our flight from Juneau to Seattle was scheduled for the next morning at 5:30 am, so we planned to arrive to the airport at 4:00 am.  I don’t know about you, but I can never really sleep soundly when I have an early morning flight.  I was worried that we would not wake up for our 3:00 alarm, so my body was restless…and I was awake by 2 am. 

We were all up by 3…and excited about our day of travel ahead!  About ten minutes before we were ready to head downstairs, I decided that I would download some podcasts for our plane ride.  It was moments later that panic set in…I had left our passports in Skagway!!!!!

For our flights, we did not need passports…but for our cruise they would be a required document.  There was NO getting out of traveling without them!  We quickly weighed the options of getting on our current flights and having passports shipped to us overnight…or changing our flights to a later flight and not leaving Juneau until we have the passports in our hand.  The bad thing about a misstep like this is that you can’t just drive home and get them.  It is not physically possible. 

This hiccup then set off a long chain of events that made this day the longest day of our lives!  Here is a glimpse of the chain of events that occurred over the next couple of hours:

·       George contacted Alaska Airlines to change flights to the 6:30 PM flight.

·       I contacted the house sitters to have them get our passports to a friend who brought them to the airport. 

·       Our passports were sent on the next available flight (as cargo) to Juneau – weather permitting.

·       We cancelled our Covid tests which were scheduled for Seattle upon our arrival. 

·       We located a Covid testing site in Juneau and scheduled appointments for 11 am.  We completed these tests and hoped for the best.

·       We rented a car in Juneau, so we could complete all of our tasks and have a place to hang out once we checked out of the hotel.

·       We ate breakfast at Donna’s.

·       Yay…the passports arrived.  We picked them up from Alaska Seaplanes Cargo.

·       We tried to nap in the car…unsuccessfully.

·       We arrived at the airport, excited about finally being able to complete the next leg of our trip!

·       Our family unit CALMLY AND EFFECTIVELY worked through and solved all problems (SUCCESS).

Our excitement lasted until we boarded the plane and realized the three of us were in the last row of the plane…on a narrow body plane.  We were shoe horned in the seats pretty good.  Alex and I took turns sitting forward and sitting back, so we would have a little space.  Good thing the flight was only two hours.  Two hours…until we arrived in Seattle and had to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes before we had a gate.  Would this day ever end?

Because we had planned on spending the day sightseeing in Seattle, we had a rental car reserved and paid for.  Now that we were arriving so late, we really did not need it.  But having a car meant we would be able to go grab a quick bite to eat before we went to the hotel and CRASHED from exhaustion.  What we didn’t realize is that the rental car pick up was located off site…and it was probably further away than our actual hotel! 

When we arrived at Alamo, we were second in line.  As we waited the queue filled up.  There was one employee helping customers.  And one employee who sent people in line to a non-working kiosk before she sent them next door to Enterprise and then left for the evening.  There were about 4-5 groups of people in line behind us and one being helped at the counter.  Then the employee announced that the computers crashed and everyone should head to Enterprise next door.  We went from being the first in line to being in the back of a line of 20 people. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, the employee that had been helping us in Alamo said that Enterprise computers were down also and we should rent a car somewhere else.  However, we had already paid for our car with them!  And it was now 11:30 at night on what was the longest day of our lives!  This is at the point where we lost it.  As a family, we had handled all of the bumps in the road with stride (which I was so proud of).  But after all of this, we snapped.  And by we, I mean the calmest one in our group lost his cool…and it quickly started to escalate.  Until I corralled the guys out of the rental car place and we hopped on the shuttle back to the airport…so we could take the hotel shuttle. 

We arrived at the hotel around midnight…about 21 hours after our journey had started for the day.  We were tired, grumpy, and hungry.  The small bit of joy that faced us was that we were in a town that had Door Dash…and restaurants were actually open past 8 PM!  For most, this would be no big deal…but when you live in a rural town in Alaska where EVERYTHING closes early and options are slim, this was a small win! We got some food delivered to us and passed out! 

 We were done with this day! 

And definitely done with this lesson.  I can assure you…I will NEVER forget our passports again!!!!