Dublin Activities

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Ha'penny Bridge Over the River Liffey

• Viking Splash Tours, Ticket office 64-65 Patrick Street, ☎ 353 1 7076000 (info@vikingsplash.ie), www.vikingsplash.ie. Tours of the city and river in World War II amphibious craft - a bit different from your regular tour bus. Advance bookings are recommended. Adult €20; Student/Senior (with valid I.D.) €18; Child (aged 3-12) €10.

• Guinness Storehouse, St James's Gate, Dublin 8, ☎ 353 1 408 4800, www.guinness-storehouse.com. Daily 9:30AM-5PM. Closed Good Friday and Dec 24-26. Retells the story of Dublin's most famous drink. The exhibition is interesting and is self-guided. Price of entry includes a pint at the seventh floor Gravity Bar, which has good views over Dublin and forms the head of the giant pint of Guinness formed by the atrium. If the taste is a bit too bitter for you, ask for blackcurrant in your pint - but beware, this will upset the purists!
  Outside tourists will encounter horse drawn carriages for hire. Beware as they charge €30 for the short 2km ride back to the city centre. Adults €15 (10% discount for booking online), students and seniors €11, children 6-12 €5.

• Old Jameson Distillery, Bow Street Distillery, Smithfield, Dublin, ☎ 353 1 8072355, www.jamesonwhiskey.com/Heritage_Old_jameson_distillery_Tour_info.aspx. Daily 9:30AM-6PM. Last tour at 5:30. Closed Good Friday and Christmas holidays. Factory tour and whiskey tasting. After the video, make sure you raise your hand because they pick four people to volunteer for taste testing later in the tour! Adult €12.50, students and seniors €10, families €25.

• Gaiety Theatre, South King Street, Dublin 2, ☎ 353 1 677 1717, www.gaietytheatre.ie/index.html. The oldest continually operating theatre in Dublin hosts popular musical shows, opera, ballet, dance and drama. Admission prices vary..

• Phoenix Park Bike Hire, main entrance to the Park on Park Gate Street, ☎ 353 86 2656 258, www.phoenixparkbikehire.com. Over 80 bikes available, including 15 tandems. Helmets, locks, bike bags, all included in the price. The owners, Paul & Kelly, are experienced bikers and know their stuff when it comes to getting you on the right bike. A great way to see the Phoenix Park, no doubt about it. €5 - €40.

• Dublin Sightseeing, www.dublinbus.ie/your_journey/dublin_city_tour.asp. Hop on and off the open top bus tour around the city. Stops at all of the major tourist spots, and you can hop off and on as often as you like. The bus drivers are very funny too - a great way to get a feel for the layout of Dublin, and reasonable (especially if booked in advance with your hotel or ferry crossing).

• Dublin Ghostbus, www.dublinbus.ie/sightseeing/ghostbus.aspx. A special theme tour provided by Dublin Bus. This tour takes you around Dublin's haunted sites on a gothic style-decorated theatre bus guided by live storytellers. Dublin Bus claims this tour is the only one of its kind in the world. In any case, a must for lovers of gothic tales, but not for the timid.

• Historical Walking Tour of Dublin www.historicalinsights.ie, Meet at the west gate to Trinity College. The tours are led by knowledgeable graduate students from the College who tell the story of Ireland's history during a ramble through the south side of the Liffey.

• Catch a hurling or gaelic football www.gaa.ie game at the sports headquarters, the 82,500 seat, state-of-the-art stadium, Croke Park. These sports are uniquely Irish. Hurling is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest field sport, with the ball (called a sliotar) reaching speeds above 130 kph. Gaelic football can best be described as a combination of soccer and rugby. To keep the sports "pure," it maintains an amateur status, with each parish in Ireland having a team - the inter-county games are generally extremely well-supported, so you may have difficulty getting tickets for the bigger matches. Tours of the GAA museum and the stadium are also available, including a chance to try your hand at the sports themselves museum.gaa.ie.

• Catch a Leinster Rugby www.leinsterrugby.ie game at the RDS Arena, located on the RDS grounds in Ballsbridge. Occasional home games will be played in the future at Aviva Stadium, the replacement for Lansdowne Road set to open in April 2010. Unlike Gaelic games, rugby union is professional, and Leinster are one of Europe's strongest sides, winning the Europe-wide Heineken Cup in 2009 and supplying many players for the Ireland national team. Domestically, they play in the Magners League, which includes teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales (and from 2010–11, Italy).

• Dublin's Rock N Roll, Writers Bus Tour, Westmoreland St, ☎ +353 1 620 3929, www.dublinrocktour.ie. 4 times daily at Noon, 2PM, 4PM and 6PM. Guided bus tour of Dublin's music and literary past. Covers the likes of U2, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, Oscar Wilde, Joyce and many more. Great value and really original. €15.
• Backpacker Pubcrawl (Backpacker Pubcrawl), Meeting Point: Front gates of Trinity College, College Green, Dublin 2 (At the river end of Dame street), ☎ 087 0665608, www.pubcrawl.ie. 4. The Backpacker Pubcrawl brings you on a tour of some of Dublin city centre's best bars and clubs, with free shots, drink specials and free entry into clubs, this tour makes you feel like a local for the night. €10.
• Dublin Tours, www.dublin-tours.info. A wide variety of personally tailored full day or half day sightseeing tours of Dublin
• The Dublin City Pub Crawl, (Meets at Porterhouse, Temple Bar, 16-18 Parliament Street), ☎ +353 86 2020040, www.thedublincitypubcrawl.com. 8pm-late. This pub crawl brings people to the most authentic pubs in Dublin, making you feel like a local for the night. You get drinks specials, beer sampling, traditional Irish music, a lesson in pouring a pint of Guinness, and VIP entry into a great club. €10.
• South Docks tour, Pidgeon House Rd (Cross the last bridge on the other side of the O2 Arena and continue on the road until reaching Pidgeon House Rd.). South Docks tour, Pidgeon House Road (Follow the Quais that take to the last bridge and cross on the other side of the O2 Arena). You can get a magnificient view and completely non touristic feeling on one of the beaches of Dublin on the southern docks. Go straigth ahead on the N Wall Quai and pass the last bridge over the river on the York road.Along the way you will pass near several industrial compounds. Then follow the road on the Pidgeon House Rd. You will end up here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Dublin&sll=44.430481,26.12298&sspn=0.4158,1.674042&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Dublin,+County+Dublin+City,+Ireland&ll=53.341187,-6.173673&spn=0.005432,0.026157&z=16 The view is pretty much worth the long walk, plus all the cruiser ships are leaving from nearby and you'll get it at less than 200 meters away from you.