สมัครสมาชิก

Dublin

Dublin is a small city that talks to strangers as a matter of course.

สมัครสมาชิก
Photo: Gordon Leggett / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dublin

Dublin's great asset is not its architecture, which is handsome but modest, nor its scale, which is small for a capital. It is the conversation. Irish social life is built on talk — on the expectation that a stranger at the bar will be spoken to, that a question will get an answer three times longer than it needed to be, and that being funny is a social obligation rather than a bonus. For a visitor travelling alone this is transformative. There is no other European capital where walking into a pub by yourself is less likely to leave you by yourself. Beyond that, Dublin is a compact Georgian city on a river with mountains at its back and the Irish Sea on its doorstep, rebuilt twice in thirty years by a technology boom that brought in workers from everywhere and made it young, expensive and considerably more international than its reputation suggests. The literature is not a marketing invention either — four Nobel laureates from a city this size, and pubs where they drank still pouring.

สถานที่ท่องเที่ยว

Trinity College and the Book of Kells

A walled campus of cobbles and lawns in the exact centre of the city, founded in 1592 and still a working university. The Book of Kells, a ninth-century illuminated gospel, is displayed a page at a time, and the Long Room library above it — two hundred thousand books under a barrel-vaulted oak ceiling — is the reason most people remember the visit. Book a timed ticket online. The grounds themselves are free to walk through and are the quickest way to understand how small and how green central Dublin really is.

The Liberties

The oldest part of Dublin outside the medieval walls, and the one changing fastest. It holds St Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church, the Guinness Storehouse and a dozen new distilleries reviving a whiskey industry that had all but died. It also holds the tightest surviving working-class community in the city, with its own accent and its own market on Meath Street. Walk it in the afternoon between the cathedrals, and drink in a pub that has been there two hundred years rather than at the visitor centre.

Stoneybatter and Smithfield

North of the river, a grid of low terraced houses that has become the city's most enjoyable neighbourhood to spend an evening in — independent coffee places, small restaurants and old pubs that never changed. Smithfield's cobbled square still holds a horse fair on the first Sunday of the month, an event that is chaotic, entirely local and unlike anything else in a European capital. The Jameson distillery and a cinema with an excellent bar are both here. It is fifteen minutes on foot from O'Connell Street and feels a world away.

The National Museum and the Georgian squares

Ireland's national collections are free, which changes how you use them: you go for an hour rather than a day. The Archaeology branch on Kildare Street holds the bog bodies and the Iron Age gold, and is genuinely extraordinary. Around it lie the Georgian squares — Merrion, Fitzwilliam and St Stephen's Green — with their famous doors, their railings and their private gardens. Merrion Square has a free open-air art display along the railings every Sunday and a statue of Oscar Wilde lounging on a rock.

Howth and the coastal DART

The suburban train runs along the edge of the sea in both directions, and for the price of an ordinary ticket you reach Howth in thirty minutes — a fishing harbour with seals in the water, a cliff walk of about two hours with the whole bay below, and seafood at the pier. In the other direction, Dun Laoghaire has a mile-long pier that the entire south side walks on a Sunday, and Killiney has a beach. Dubliners treat these as part of the city rather than as trips out of it.

Phoenix Park

Seven hundred hectares, twice the size of Central Park, with a herd of fallow deer that has lived there since the seventeenth century and will stand a few metres from you. It holds the president's residence, the zoo, a Victorian tearoom and long avenues of lime trees. Hire a bike at the Parkgate Street entrance and cross it end to end, or walk up to the Papal Cross and the Magazine Fort for a view back over the city. On a fine Sunday, half of Dublin is in it.

สถานบันเทิง

The pub, and how it actually works

A Dublin pub is a social space that happens to sell drink, not a drinking venue. You order at the bar, you pay each round, and you buy for the whole group when it is your turn — the round system is taken seriously and failing to take your turn is noticed. Conversation with strangers at the bar is normal and initiating it is not intrusive. A pint of stout takes two minutes to settle and pour, and rushing it marks you out. The good ones are old and plain: the Long Hall, Kehoe's, Grogan's, the Gravediggers out in Glasnevin.

Traditional music sessions

A session is not a performance. Musicians sit in a circle in the corner of a pub, play for each other, and the room listens or does not. There is no stage, no amplification, no set list and usually no payment. The Cobblestone in Smithfield is the best in the city and takes its music seriously enough to ask for quiet; Hughes's and the Devitt's session are also genuine. Most start around nine. Buy a drink, sit within earshot, and do not talk over the slow airs.

Temple Bar, and what to do instead

The cobbled riverside quarter is where every visitor is sent and where no Dubliner drinks — pints cost nearly double and the crowd is entirely tourists. It is worth one walk through for the look of it, in daylight. For the same money and a far better evening, cross to the south city streets around George's Street and Camden Street, or go north to Stoneybatter. The rule of thumb is simple: if there is a man in a green hat playing the fiddle outside, keep walking.

Camden Street and the late bars

The strip running south from the city centre is where Dublin in its twenties and thirties actually goes — a dense run of bars, small venues, late-night food and beer gardens, busy every night from Thursday. It is unpretentious and loud, the queues are short, and it stays alive until two or three at weekends. The Bernard Shaw and Whelan's anchor it; Whelan's has been the city's best small music venue for thirty years and books a band almost every night.

Theatre and comedy

Dublin supports an extraordinary amount of theatre for a city of a million and a half. The Abbey, founded by Yeats and Lady Gregory, is the national theatre; the Gate does the classics; the Project Arts Centre takes the risks. Tickets are cheap by London standards and often available on the day. Comedy is even easier — small rooms above pubs run new-material nights most evenings of the week for a few euros, and the audience is expected to give as good as it gets.

กิจกรรมน่าสนใจ

Walk the Howth cliff path

Thirty minutes on the DART, then a loop of six or eight kilometres around the headland with the sea on one side and gorse on the other, a lighthouse, and Dublin Bay laid out behind you. It takes about two and a half hours at an easy pace and needs nothing more than reasonable shoes and a windproof layer, because the wind is constant. Finish at the harbour for fish and chips on the pier, and take the train back as the light goes.

Drink where the writers drank

Dublin's literary history is still standing and still serving. Davy Byrnes on Duke Street is where Leopold Bloom eats his gorgonzola sandwich in Ulysses, and it will sell you the same thing. McDaid's, the Palace Bar and Neary's were where Behan, Kavanagh and Flann O'Brien spent their afternoons. The self-guided version costs the price of a pint in each and works better than the organised crawl, though the Literary Pub Crawl with actors is genuinely good if you want the guided one.

Go to a hurling or Gaelic football match at Croke Park

Ireland's national sports are amateur, county-based and ferocious, and hurling in particular is the fastest field game in the world. Croke Park holds eighty-two thousand and is a fifteen-minute walk from O'Connell Street. Championship matches run through the summer and tickets are easy to get for all but the finals. Nobody will mind you knowing nothing; someone in the row behind will explain the rules whether you ask or not, which is the whole point of going.

Take the DART south on a Sunday

Dun Laoghaire to Dalkey to Killiney is the finest hour in Dublin on a clear day. Walk the East Pier with everyone else, eat an ice cream from Teddy's because that is what you do, then continue to Dalkey village for a pint, and up Killiney Hill for a view that people compare to the Bay of Naples with only slight exaggeration. It costs the price of two train tickets and takes half a day.

Swim at the Forty Foot

A rocky sea-bathing place at Sandycove, used continuously for two hundred and fifty years and open all year to anyone who turns up. On Christmas morning hundreds do it. The water is around ten degrees in summer and eight in winter, there are steps and a ladder, and the regulars are in their seventies and unimpressed by your hesitation. Bring a towel and something warm for afterwards. It is five minutes from the DART and it is free.

สถานที่นัดเดทครั้งแรกที่ดี

ข้อมูลที่เป็นประโยชน์

ฤดูกาลที่ดีที่สุด

May, June and September are the best months — long daylight, mild temperatures and the least rain, though Dublin is drier than its reputation and simply gets showers rather than downpours. Midsummer gives you light until eleven at night, which changes the whole character of an evening. July and August are busiest and most expensive. Winter is dark and grey rather than cold, rarely below freezing, with December pleasant for the lights and the pubs. Whatever the season, bring a waterproof layer and accept that four kinds of weather in one afternoon is normal.

การเดินทาง

The city centre is small enough that walking covers most of it — twenty-five minutes from Trinity to the Guinness Storehouse. The Luas tram has two lines, the DART runs along the coast, and buses fill everything else; the Leap Card covers all three at a substantial discount and can be bought in any newsagent. There is no metro. Dublin Bus is frequent but can be slow in traffic. The airport is served by direct coaches every ten minutes taking about thirty minutes to the centre. Taxis are metered, plentiful and reasonably priced; use the FreeNow app.

ภาษาและการทำความรู้จักผู้คน

English is the language, with Irish on every road sign and taught in every school though rarely spoken in Dublin. The accent is fast and the idiom is dense — grand means fine, deadly means excellent, and what's the story is a greeting. The social rules that matter are about talk: silence is filled, self-deprecation is expected, and answering a question with a joke is not evasion. Strangers speak to each other in shops, queues and pubs as a matter of routine. Buying your round on time is the one etiquette rule worth learning properly.

ที่ที่นักเดินทางและชาวต่างชาติมารวมตัวกัน

The technology employers at the docklands have brought a very large international workforce, concentrated around Grand Canal Dock, Portobello and Rathmines, all of which have the cafés and gyms to match. Students fill Rathmines and Ranelagh. Camden Street and George's Street are where everyone mixes at night, and Stoneybatter is where people go once they know the city. Meetup culture is unusually strong here — language exchanges, running clubs along the canal, hiking groups heading for the Wicklow Mountains at weekends and sea-swimming groups all year round.

คำถามที่พบบ่อย

Is Dublin a good city to visit alone?

It is one of the best in Europe. The pub is a room built for conversation, ordering at the bar puts you among people rather than at a table by yourself, and Irish social custom treats talking to a stranger as ordinary rather than intrusive. The city is also small, safe and walkable, so an evening out does not require planning. Solo travellers routinely report that they found it harder to be alone than to meet people.

Is it really that expensive?

Yes, particularly for accommodation, which is the worst value in Western Europe because of a genuine housing shortage. A pint runs six to eight euros in the city and more in Temple Bar. Against that, the national museums and the National Gallery are free, the parks and coastal walks cost nothing, the DART is cheap, and a good lunch is reasonable. Book beds early and treat hotel prices as the main variable in your budget.

Should I go to Temple Bar?

Walk through it once in daylight to see the cobbles and the painted fronts, then drink elsewhere. Prices are roughly double the city average and the crowd is almost entirely visitors, which means you will meet other tourists rather than Dubliners. Ten minutes' walk in any direction — George's Street, Camden Street, Stoneybatter, Capel Street — gets you better pubs at normal prices.

How much rain should I expect?

Less than you have been told, but spread across more days. Dublin gets about half the annual rainfall of Galway and less than Rome, though it arrives as frequent light showers rather than storms. The practical answer is a light waterproof with a hood rather than an umbrella, which the wind will destroy, and the understanding that a bright morning does not predict the afternoon.

Is it safe at night?

Generally yes, with the usual caution. The city centre is busy and well policed, and violent crime against visitors is rare. Late-night drunkenness around O'Connell Street and the north quays after closing can be unpleasant rather than dangerous, and there is visible street-level drug use in parts of the north inner city. Taxis are plentiful and cheap enough that there is no reason to walk a long way home alone.

Where should I stay?

Portobello and the Camden Street area for a first visit — central, walkable, full of places to eat and drink and quieter at night than the core. Stoneybatter and Smithfield for better value and more local character, ten minutes' walk across the river. The docklands are modern and convenient but lifeless in the evening. Avoid booking the cheapest option around the top of O'Connell Street without reading recent reviews carefully.

พบปะผู้คนใน Dublin

สมัครสมาชิก

จุดหมายปลายทางอื่นๆ

พัทยา ลิสบอน บาร์เซโลนา ภูเก็ต อัมสเตอร์ดัม เบอร์ลิน ปราก มะนิลา