Travel Diary: Dublin, Ireland (with day trip to Galway and Cliffs of Moher!)

After visiting Europe for the first time in 2017 at the age of 29, I set a goal of visiting at least 2 new countries every year. So in 2018 I jumped at a last-minute chance to visit Ireland with my then-boyfriend -- with a name as Irish as "Sarah Quinlan," I was excited to see my ancestors' homeland!

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tips and advice:

  • The island of Ireland is divided into the Republic of Ireland (which is its own country and officially named Ireland) and Northern Ireland (which is part of the United Kingdom). This is a helpful map explaining the British Isles vs. the U.K. vs. Great Britain vs. Ireland!
  • Since this was only my second time planning a trip to Europe, I was still learning the ropes on travel, and now I wish I'd been a little more adventurous because there were some day trips I would have liked that seemed too complicated to plan at the time.
    • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle actually got married in England while I was in Ireland, and I half-seriously considered taking a day or two to visit England, just to experience all the excitement.
  • I visited in May 2018 and spent a full week in Dublin (which I think may be the longest I've visited any one city on vacation), with a one-day trip to the Cliffs of Moher.
  • The weather was 50s and 60s in Dublin and closer to mid-70s at the Cliffs of Moher.
  • In order to meet my goal of 2 new countries in a year, we added Amsterdam as our second destination, and it was a short and easy flight. (You can read my Amsterdam travel diary here!)
  • Ireland is a relatively small country, so you can see a lot of it in a short time period if you want. Similar to above, I wish I'd taken advantage of this -- because I had so much time in Dublin (compared to other trips where I only spend 3 days in one city), I took a much more relaxing pace than usual.
  • I wasn't really sure what to expect regarding food in Ireland, though I'd read that the Irish consume more potatoes than most countries in the world, which sounds great to me, since all my favorite foods come from potatoes -- mashed, baked, French fries, chips! But the food was amazing -- I don't think I could pick a favorite restaurant from the ones we ate at.

itinerary:

  • Hotel: Hotel St. George. I thought this hotel had a lot of character and was very typical of my experiences with most European hotels, and I loved the location -- I felt like I could walk the entire city. Plus it was very close to O'Connell Street (which was convenient when I realized our hotel room didn't have conditioner and I needed to run out and buy it from a nearby convenience store!)
  • Day 1: Arrival! I left NYC on Friday at 9pm and landed in Dublin on Saturday at 8:20am.
    • I dropped off my luggage at the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and then just wandered the city. 
    • We took a guided tour of Dublin Castle and then ate dinner at Winding Stair.
  • Day 2
    • Since we were spending a full week in Dublin, I didn't feel like I needed to constantly be on the go, so I meandered around Dublin more and spent some time at Trinity College. I'm a huge fan of American-Irish writer Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series of novels (and especially The Likeness - affiliate link), so I was really excited to curl up in a corner at Trinity College, read her latest book set in Ireland, and feel like I was actually in the story.
    • We ate dinner at Chez Max, sitting outside so we could continue people-watching and soaking in the city.
  • Day 3: The "Doors of Dublin"
    • I had heard that Dublin has beautiful colorful doors, so I looked up a recommended area to wander and take photos. Hopefully I can use the photos as inspiration for my own home someday!
    • Dinner was at Cleaver East, which at the time offered popcorn ice cream as a dessert and it was phenomenal. 
  • Day 4
    • We toured St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. 
    • We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant called 777.
  • Day 5: Official tour of Trinity College and its Library
    • Lunch was at the Farm Restaurant on Dawson Street (which looks like it closed in 2019 and I am genuinely bummed -- I texted so many friends raving about this place and its pumpkin/pecan nut dip!). 
    • Afterwards we purchased tickets for a tour of the Trinity College so we could tour the Long Room in the Old Library and see the Book of Kells. The Jedi archives of the Jedi Temple in the Star Wars movie Episode II: Attack of the Clones looks suspiciously like the Long Room, and the room also feels like it could be a scene out of a Harry Potter movie. 
    • We ate dinner at Featherblade.
  • Day 6
    • Lunch was at a pop-up called Taco Taco, and apparently popcorn desserts are big in Dublin because I ordered the salted caramel popcorn and it was also delicious. 
    • Afterwards we walked around St. Stephen's Park and then did Bunsen for dinner.
  • Day 7: Cliffs of Moher and Galway
    • I knew I couldn't leave Ireland without seeing the Cliffs of Moher, which are on the opposite side of the country from Dublin but only 3ish hours driving. However, I didn't want to be responsible for renting a car or driving, especially since as an American I'm used to driving on the right side of the road and the Irish drive on the left, so I looked into an all-day tour instead! We booked a tour through TripAdvisor or Viator (affiliate link), and it was exactly what we had hoped for and been looking for! Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, we were happy we could relax on the bus instead of paying attention to the road, and we appreciated having an itinerary provided that we just had to follow. And we were able to book on short notice: I kept an eye on the weather all week and the second there was a day that looked sunny for the cliffs, I booked our tour for that day. 
    • One of the facts our tour guide told us was that the 6th Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) was filmed a lot around the Cliffs, so he pointed out several locations from filming. 
    • After the cliffs, the bus stopped in Galway, where I got ice cream from Murphy's (highly recommend!) and visited O'Connell's (it's supposedly Ed Sheeran's favorite pub and had a lovely beer garden. He was actually performing in Ireland that week, so I'm sure we just missed him).

photo diary:

Usual disclaimer that these were taken on an iPhone in 2018. And I've tried to avoid posting photos with strangers' faces in them or where their faces are recognizable.

Wandering around Dublin on my first day!

Touring Dublin Castle and the Chapel Royal






On the Liffey Bridge, also known as the Ha'penny Bridge because it used to cost a halfpenny to cross it. Please disregard our matching outfits, it wasn't intentional and I didn't realize until this photo, haha!
Sunglasses: Illesteva Leonard in tortoise/pink (affiliate link) | Jacket: LC Lauren Conrad | Top: Express | Jeans: LOFT | Purse: Kate Spade | Booties: Sole Society

When in Ireland...

On the grounds of Trinity College


Fusiliers' Arch at the Grafton Street entrance to St. Stephen's Green, a public park. The text at the very top means "To its strongest soldiers, Dublin dedicates this monument, 1907" -- it's dedicated to the men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who fought and died in the Second Boer War (1899–1902). It also has 6 battlefields inscribed on it, including Talana and Colenso (which you can see in this photo).

St. Stephen Green -- it sadly wasn't very sunny on this day!



My popcorn ice cream at Cleaver East! It was so good I still think about it.

Ha'penny Bridge at night


Behind the scenes ;-)

Trying (and failing) to capture the beauty of St. Stephen's Green


Part of Christ Church Cathedral


St. Patrick's Cathedral


St. Patrick's Cathedral tour









Cliffs of Moher! We had amaaazing weather.

Sunglasses: Illesteva Leonard in tortoise/pink (affiliate link) | Shirt | Tank top: LOFT | Necklace: Stella & Dot

If you look reeeally closely you can see people on the ledges in the shadow.



In Galway with my Murphy's ice cream!



If I'm remembering our tour correctly, I believe I took this because George Salmon as provost once said that women would be admitted to Trinity College over his dead body, and a woman (Isabel Marion Weir Johnston) just happened to successfully register to attend immediately after his death.


The spiral staircase at the entrance to the Trinity College Old Library Long Room -- doesn't it make you feel like you're on the set of Harry Potter?






I ordered the Suffragette, of course! (Although in the U.S., "suffragette" was considered a term of mockery and "suffragist" was used instead.)





St. Patrick's Green on a sunny day!


My salted caramel popcorn from Taco Taco... a perfect combination of sweet and salty!

Some of the doors of Dublin...




... and the umbrellas on Anne's Lane!



where to eat and drink:

what to do:

  • Trinity College, including purchasing tour tickets for the Book of Kells and the Long Room
  • Road trip around the country (Cliffs of Moher/Galway are a must!)
  • Visit Grafton Street (where I 100% listened to Ed Sheeran's "Galway Girl" just for the part where he says, "I met her on Grafton Street right outside of the bar")
  • The Guinness Storehouse
  • Dublin Castle
  • Christ Church Cathedral
  • St. Stephen's Green - the park and the shopping centre
  • St. Patrick's Cathedral
  • Drive the Ring of Kerry, with stops including Torc Waterfall and Ladies View
  • Riverdance!!! I wish we'd seen a performance, but I completely forgot.
  • Big Bus tour
  • Walking or food tour
  • Kilmainham Gaol (which must be booked in advance!)

links I used or recommend:

This was such a last-minute trip that I don't think I looked at any blogs in advance, but here's some I think would be helpful...

The next time I go back, I definitely want to see Riverdance and take a road trip around Ireland to drive the Ring of Kerry!

So according to the language app Duolingo, at one point there were more people learning the Irish language on Duolingo than there were native speakers of the language (and this may still be the case)! Learning Irish is on my bucket list, and I actually looked into dual Irish citizenship a few years ago. You can apply if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland, and I was under the impression one of my dad's parents was born there. Unfortunately for my chance at dual Irish citizenship, both my grandparents were born in America -- it was my great-grandparents who'd been born in Ireland. A missed opportunity for me, but maybe one of y'all can still take advantage of it!

love from


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