Dublin!

As some of you may know one of my New Years resolutions was to travel and see more of the world. Not necessarily travelling long haul places and far off lands but keeping it simple! 

I had never travelled to Ireland before and considering the Emerald Isle is just a one hour flight, it seemed criminal that I hadn't been. 

We booked our flights with Ryanair and you can always pick up cheap flights with some great flying times. We paid £33 for return flights from Birmingham, 

We flew on a Saturday morning at 8am and was in Dublin by 9.10am. 

Flying across to the Emerald Isle 

A taxi from the airport into the centre of Dublin was €30/35 and as there was 5 of us it actually worked out slightly cheaper to get a taxi (and more convenient) rather than the bus as this was €7 each. 

We stayed at StayCity Apartments on St Augustine Street. This was a great location. It was less that 300m to Temple Bar and conveniently a short walk from lots of lovely restaurants and shops. 

The apartment itself was great, very clean and spacious. It had 2 double bedrooms and a large comfy pull out sofa bed in the lounge area. The kitchen was well equipped and there was a large bathroom and balcony. The apartment block has a lift and a secure place to store luggage. There is also a manned reception 24hrs a day. For 2 nights we paid £610 so between 5 of us it was £122 each- a bargain if you ask me!

We ate at some really lovely places including one of my favourites Avoca on Suffolk Street. 

The Avoca shop is really an Aladdin's cave of the wonderful, including clothing, home interiors and jewellery. It also has an award winning cafe on the top level and a coffee shop and deli on the lower level selling beautiful read-to go meals and artisan food.

Poached eggs, chargrilled sourdough, crushed avocado, roast plum tomato & mixed leaf salad

The food was lovely, fresh and filling. 

I can see why it was described by Vogue UK as one of the Best 100 Shops Outside of London.

'Barn' is located on Exchequer Street.

We also visited some wonderful independent shops including Industry&Co which again, is a lifestyle shop and eatery in one. They also have a gorgeous sister shop called Barn which is a sells a fantastic, unique collection of baby and children's home and lifestyle products. 

I could have stayed for hours perusing though the tiny clothes and accessories. So cute!!

Located just off Grafton Street is Powerscourt Centre. Its full of over 40 creative and original independent shops nestled next to high end international shops such as AllSaints and French Connection. 

There are also restaurants located inside stunning Georgian building.
We ate at Farrier and Draper and also tasted some of their gorgeous cocktails here. The setting was beautiful and the decor was to die for. Splashes of bright neon colours teamed with Victorian styled paintings and lighting. 

The inside of Powerscourt Centre.

Previously a house, Powerscourt Centre was once home to Richard Wingfield 3rd Viscount Powercourt and his wife Amelia and was used for entertaining and parties! 

In an evening we headed to Temple Bar which is famous for the traditional Irish pubs and bars.
Its rare to find one without live Irish music or the pints of Guinness flowing! The atmosphere is great and the place is normally buzzing with people, laughter and singing. 

We also headed to The Stags Head on Dame Court. We had heard it unofficially served the best pint of Guinness in Dublin! I cant say that I would know if it was good or bad, but I did drink it and it wasn't unpleasant! 

The Stags Head located on Dame Court

As we aren't traditional Guinness drinkers we didn't do the usual tour of the Guinness Storehouse. Purely because we don't usually drink it! We had spoken to a couple of people that said unless you like it or you really want to pour a pint of it then you wont find it particularly thrilling. 

There are so many things to do in Dublin. We were a group of 5 girls ranging from 20 to 60 years old and there was so much for all of us to do. 

I'd definitely go back to Dublin. The people are so friendly and always so welcoming.

Have you been to Dublin? Let me know your thoughts and tell me where you'd recommend to go!

With Love, Olivia x