The City of Dublin, Ireland gets most of the tourist attraction attention for visitors to Ireland. It’s party town atmosphere amongst its pedestrian oriented streets in the Temple Bar District gets all the attention when compared against European City get aways. We would spend two days exploring Dublin for a brief introduction to Ireland, prior to setting out on a longer adventure through the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Portugal, the United Kingdom (England and Norther Ireland) and Ireland. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines Advantage and enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Activity City Visit: Discovering Temple Bar District, Dublin, Ireland

On arrival day, we headed out for a walk around Dublin. We started walking from The Aloft Dublin City hotel and headed back into town.

Getting closer into town, we headed past the impressive Christchurch Cathedral down towards Temple Bar area.

Before long, we were getting into the Temple Bar District towards the more central part of town.

Exploring the Temple Bar Neighbourhood:

We walked to the Temple Bar neighbourhood. WT73Jr, having viewed on You Tube that the Temple Bar was a tourist trap area, had pro-actively banned us from going to the place. It actually looked like a lot of fun, despite his limiting parameters. All in all, Temple Bar appeared to be quite a lively place, even in the afternoon.

Most interestingly were all the Irish Pubs that were all throughout the neighbourhood. All of them were cheerfully decorated with flowers and a nice sense of camaraderie in the neighbourhood.

Shopping the Grafton Neighbourhood:

We followed the Temple Bar area with a walk down to the Grafton Neighbourhood. I found it to be much more pleasant and it appeared there were more locals and British tourists in this zone, instead of the constant debauchery of the temple area.

A Half Pound Burger at the Hard Rock Café Dublin:

We started getting hungry at this point, so we headed to every teenagers favourite international chain; the Hard Rock Café Dublin. We had a quick run through the souvenir shop for things to take home.

After researching sights to see in Dublin “old school style” through dad’s paperback edition of the Lonely Planet Ireland, WT73Jr set his eyes on a giant half pound burger with a fried egg. He actually finished most of it and I helped him out with his fries.

Strolling the River Liffey:

After the massive feed, we had a walk down past the River Liffey. Since it was summertime, at latitude 50, even at 8:30 PM it’s still quite light out.

We eventually headed back towards The Aloft Dublin City hotel, having made the most of our part travel day and first day in Ireland!

My Thoughts on Our First Day in Dublin:

Our first day in Dublin was spent exploring the Temple Bar District and wandering the Grafton neighbourhood. Although we ended up dining at the Hard Rock Café Dublin, we were able to walk it off with a walk on the River Liffey. It was still a pretty good introduction to our time in Ireland.

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If you have visited Dublin, is Temple Bar the focus of your visit, or do you go further afield ?

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