Skip to Content

The 2022 Bucket List Road Trip: 4 Weeks Exploring Ireland (Full Route + Itinerary)

The 2022 Bucket List Road Trip: 4 Weeks Exploring Ireland (Full Route + Itinerary)

unusual places to stay ireland

Day 2 (Dublin) – Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse and so much more

We’ve an absolute peach of a day in store for you on day two of your Ireland road trip.

Grab a bit of breakfast wherever you’re staying and hit the road early.

1 – Trinity College and the Book of Kells Tour

// Grab a bit of breakfast wherever you’re staying and aim to arrive at Trinity for 9 //

trinity college dublin ireland

Photo © The Irish Road Trip

Otherwise, you’ll be stood queuing outside.

The grounds of Trinity College are a joy to walk around and are arguably one of the best places in Dublin for a bit of people watching.

When you’ve had your fill of the grounds head for the entrance to the Book of Kells tour.

The highlight of which is the Long Room, which is often compared to a set from the Harry Potter movies.

trinity college dublin book of kells

Photo © The Irish Road Trip

There’s just something wonderful about the Long Room in Trinity College.

The smell of old books that hits you as you walk into the library, the high ceilings with their beautiful designs, the winding staircase, the dusty volumes – I love it all.

book of kells tour dublin

Photo © The Irish Road Trip

2 – The often overlooked GPO 1916 Tour

// Leave Trinity at 10:30 and arrive at the GPO for 10:45 //

The GPO 1916 tour is constantly overlooked by people that visit Dublin.

And I’m basing that on the hundreds of conversations that I have with people that are planning a trip to Ireland every month.

gpo dublin

Photo by David Soanes (Shutterstock)

Walking into the tour is like stepping out onto a battlefield; from the minute the tour begins, you feel completely immersed in the action.

The exhibition puts you right inside Dublin’s GPO during Easter Week in 1916.

It’s highly visual, and conveys the events in an easy to digest, dramatic manner that’ll leave you with a totally different perspective of the General Post Office forever more.

gpo dublin tour

Photo © The Irish Road Trip

3 – A bit of lunch on Capel Street

// Leave the GPO at 12:00 and arrive to Brother Hubbard on Capel Street at 12:10 //

brother Hubbard

As you’re in the area, I’m going to recommend that you take the short stroll up O’Connell St. and head for Brother Hubbard on Capel St. for a bit of food.

The Braised Beef Short Rib sounds amazzzzzzzing!

Fill the belly and take a little bit of time to recharge. We’ve a solid afternoon and evening ahead.

4 – Getting up close with the Vikings at Dublina

// Leave Capel St. at 13:20 and arrive to Dublina at 13:35 //

The Dublinia tour is one that has been recommended to me time and time again, both by people from Ireland and from those that visit.

Those that embark upon it will meet the Vikings face to face while learning about life during the Medieval period in Dublin.

Christ Church cathedral dublin

Photo © The Irish Road Trip

How the folks at Dublina describe the tour:

‘Go back to Viking times in Dublin! See for yourself what life was like onboard a Viking warship. Learn of their long and challenging voyages, their weaponry and the skills of being a Viking warrior.

Try on Viking clothes, become a slave (watch those heavy chains) and stroll down a noisy street. Visit a smokey and cramped Viking house, learn the Viking runic alphabet and hear their poetry and sagas. Enjoy the myths and learn of the mysteries surrounding the Vikings and their legacy.’

Find out more about the tour here.

5 – The Guinness Storehouse

// The Dublina Tour takes around 90 minutes. Finish up there at around 15:10 and take the 15-minute walk to the Guinness Storehouse. //

guinness storehouse

I left the Guinness Storehouse out of a previous 2-day Dublin guide, and I received a tonne of mails (and I mean a tonne) saying that it’s well worth doing.

So, here we are.

Your journey at the Guinness Storehouse kicks-off at the bottom of the world’s largest pint glass and continues right the way up through seven floors that are packed to the brim with interactive experiences.

When you reach the top, you’ll be rewarded with a pint in the rooftop Gravity Bar, which you can enjoy as you look out over Dublin.

6 – Food and bed

When you finish up in the storehouse, head for a bite to eat (see the restaurant section in day 1 for recommendations) and then head back to the room to chill and sleep.

We’ve an active day on the cards for day 3 – in other words, you’ll be f****d if you’re hungover!

If you’re looking to pick up souvenirs from your time in Dublin, you can nip into Carrolls (you’ll find them everywhere… literally).

If you’re looking to pick up a bottle of whiskey – don’t. There’s no point lugging around a heavy bottle for the rest of your trip.

Just grab it duty-free in Dublin Airport before you fly home.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Lorraine

Monday 13th of March 2023

Keith, this is an extraordinary itinerary and so detailed. Thank you

jean

Thursday 9th of March 2023

the link to the mailing list sign up isnt working...can I have you send me the document by email? it sounds amazing through quick page hopping! thought this morning that we might go this late Sept/early October for 3ish weeks.

Denise

Monday 6th of March 2023

Hi Keith, we’re looking at visiting Ireland September 2023, for four weeks, coming from Canada. Thankfully I found your guide, it is fantastic, you put in a great deal of work organizing this. Thank you. I have a couple tours books to cipher through as well, but it is painstaking slow. I need to get an itinerary put together fast, I see accommodations are filling up quickly for September. One question I have is, is it possible or wise to do your road trip in reverse? We’re not used to driving on the left side, haha, will it be safer doing the trip in reverse?

Suzanne Sullivan

Saturday 18th of February 2023

Do you have a PDF of the whole list that we could buy/download with links? We were planning to do the reverse of this in October 2023 (34 days)---but, rethinking after seeing yours!

David Ward

Wednesday 18th of January 2023

This itinerary will be the basis of our upcoming trip this year. We prefer to base ourselves in a place for maybe a week and explore the surrounding areas. We will be picking up a car in Belfast on 26 May and have it for almost 6 weeks. We are unsure of our direction of travel, but leaning towards anti-clockwise. Excluding Dublin, can you suggest 5 or 6 "bases" for exploration. Small towns with a bit of character ideally.

Keep up the good work.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.