Ashtown Visitor Centre is located in old stable buildings beside the reconstructed Ashtown Castle…read morein the Phoenix Park. The visitor centre,which is free contains a small visual and written display about the history,geography and natural history of the Phoenix park. There are also some artifacts on display e.g a communion bowel from Pope John Paul II mass held in the Phoenix Park in 1979. Small children love to walk through the constructed cave which shows what animals live in the park. They can peer into the underground burrows and see where the animals live. There is also an activity area where small children can draw etc.Downstairs in the visitor centre a short film about the Phoenix Park is shown aprox every 30 mins. There is often art on display in the small gallery beside reception. Opposite the visitor centre is a lovely cafe where you can get some nice soups and salads. A nice place to end up after a brisk walk around the Phoenix Park! Outside the visitor centre is a restored Victorian walled garden, the reconstructed Ashtown castle and a new childrens playground. Small children also love to play in the box hedge maze beside Ashtown Castle. Plenty of parking available. It's a great place for people with small children and agreat place for adults to treat themselves after a good workout in the Phoenix Park :-)

Paddy was a great tour guide. If you're going on a vagabond tour, make sure to listen to your…read moreguide. Tour groups that listen to the rules get to do more stuff than just what's on the itinerary because they will be able to trust you to be back to the van on time. We were able to see a lot of non touristy parts of ireland that were super scenic and peaceful. I loved seeing loads of animals including sheep, cows, dolphins, deer, birds, and dogs. We did do the bike ride and sea safari as optional extras. Very good add ons. You don't miss anything from the main tour when participating in the extras.

Everything about Vagabond Adventure Tours was amazing. We had a wonderful group that became fast…read morefriends. Our guide, Brendan, was phenomenal and had a personal touch by teaching us about the culture, seeing hidden gems, listening to Irish stories and songs. Our off road adventures had us laughing and enjoying all the countryside had to offer. The excursions were fantastic. The hotels were cozy and had tons of charm. All the food was delicious from the gourmet to the roadside stops for chicken filets. Every view is a postcard.

Dublin Tourism is located in the former Saint Andrews Church. It is a great place to start when you…read morearrive in Dublin for assistance in everything that you may like to do in the city. They have tons of pamphlets on activities, tours, events and places to eat. If needed they will give one on one attention to assist you in booking tickets for transportation, theater and hotel stays. Maps and books are available for sale and you can also exchange money here. I was told that they can assist in four languages. (English, Italian, Spanish and French) For me the building housing the tourism office was the real star. It is stunningly beautiful and sits in the center of town. The church was built somewhere around 1862 and served that purpose until 1993. The Church of Ireland sold St. Andrew's in 1994. It has three levels and is over 19,000 sq ft. The first floor is massive at almost 9,000 sq ft.

I can't believe this is my 40th review of Ireland and my last... at least until my next visit to…read morethe Emerald Island. So let me go back to the beginning of this journey. My trip to Dublin was planned like the true procrastinator that I am. I was just finishing one job and due to start a new one in a week's time. I just knew flying to Dublin would be a relatively easy break, but I had next to no clue what to do when I got there other than the tips I got from a random sampling of YouTube traveler advice videos. In my typically aimless fashion, I ended up at the Dublin Tourist Centre, housed in historic St. Andrew's Church, on Suffolk Street. Inside are a series of tour company desks and kiosks set up much like the car rental counter at an airport. They all provide competitively priced tours going to the same places throughout the island. It was here that I impulsively decided to make a booking the next day to Northern Ireland, in particular, to see the Giant's Causeway. After booking with one company, I noticed that the pick-up time was too early for me to get from my suburban hotel to the meeting spot outside the building. I noticed their competitor picked up their passengers an hour earlier. You would have guessed all hell done broke loose since the agents didn't know how to process a cancellation on their PCs. They tried to convince me that I couldn't cancel, but the ugly American came out of me and they relented. Regardless I am grateful this office exists because I wouldn't have experienced many of the 39 other things I already reviewed.

Absolutely one of the Top 3 Highlights from my recent trip to Dublin! If you are staying in Dublin…read moreCity Centre, do not skip a little trip to Howth for a tour with Ireland's Eye Ferries. To start, I booked my tour via Expedia which ended up costing just over $25 for a single ticket. I ended up taking an Uber to the dock from my hotel in city center which set me back about 30 EUR (but you can easily take the train to Howth for much less $$$). Howth is an incredibly charming seaside town with tons of shops and eateries too, so I made sure to grab lunch after my tour as well. Tours tend to fill up very quickly in the summer, but I guess not many others were willing to brave the November cold with me. I ended up with the entire boat to myself along with Brian my tour guide/captain, which was such a unique and incredible experience. Don't let the cold dissuade you! Brian is extremely knowledgeable on the history of the surrounding areas and wildlife which I really appreciated. He stopped to give me fun facts and tidbits throughout the tour, which was just over 40 minutes. If you are traveling in the more wintery months like me, definitely don't hesitate to book your tour, just bundle up (and maybe take a Dramamine if you get seasick). I was able to take in the most amazing views and snap some great photos. It was truly one of the highlights of my time in Dublin. Would HIGHLY recommend. 10/10 experience!

"The legend of Howth" said a waitress to us about Shane of Ireland's Eye Ferries, so a boat ride we…read moredid book! It was super easy to do online and he has slots available pretty much on the hour, as tours are only 50 minutes long. Shane was super personable and clever. He made everyone feel welcomed aboard, from young to old. The boat ride just goes around Ireland's Eye and so you get some quick history facts as well as a lot of bird watching. A lovely activity that's just a quick 30 minute train ride outside Dublin. If you do make the trek, dine at Kings Citric!

Booked this tour based on the great reviews on trip advisor and the great student discount and…read moreadditional 10% off booking special. Check their website for the latest deals before booking. They require you to have a student ID to get the discount but they never checked mine. I decided on the 5 day Celtic Rocker tour based on the limited time I had, but if I were to do it over again I probably would go with the 7 day that included Belfast and Northern Ireland. Everyone seemed to love that portion of their tour the most. The way this tour company works is that they join up the other tour groups and switch guides when you cross paths on the same route with another tour. We started out in a small group of 10 in Dublin, but ended up with about 20 more people meeting up in Galway. For a budget tour, I thought the sights and information provided to us by the local tour guides were excellent. We had Jaime and Gillian as tour guides and they were both excellent and offered great advice! It was mostly Aussies, Canadians, and Americans on this tour. Everyone became good friends which was aided on by all the fun social activities like pub crawls and nights out that everyone partakes in. Overall, really happy with my choice to book through Shamrocker. I hope to try their partner company´s tours in Scotland someday and in a few weeks will be going on the Busabout sailing tour of Croatia for 7 days.

I loved essentially everything about this trip.. the only thing I would have changed is better…read morehostels as the ones we had were squishy and hot and lacked power outlets. Other than that, our guide jack was fantastic with loads of energy and was very accommodating. The bus was clean and comfy, the views and stops were great! I would do another one anytime!

My husband and I did the 10am bike tour. Our tour guide Hugh was fantastic. This was my favorite…read morefrom my Ireland trip. The experience was amazingThank you Hugh and the lazy bike tour company

From the owner: Get to know Dublin by electric bike. We offer fully guided tours by local guides. We have an up to…read moredate fleet of e-bikes and also offer the option of hiring a conventional push bike and have a half-day or full-day hire option. Explore Dublin with a local and get to know the city while seeing some of the major sights.

Very precise on time. Frequent bathroom stops and clear directions. These things make for a good…read morefoundation. Thank you! We could have used more time at each location. The cliffs were very very busy so not enough time to do it all and eat and go to the toilet. We walked half and opted to eat. The bathroom lines are very long, no fault of the tour. Our guide and driver were professional and mostly kind. We learned a lot about Irish history from Aaron and felt safe being driven by Stipe. I would have liked to know more about some of the specific things/places we saw as we saw them while driving in the country (I.e. ruins, stone walls, interesting mountains, the beaches, or the little walls) but in return learned so much about Ireland and its rich history. Aron and Stipe were a very well rounded pair. Thank you!

If you're even thinking about doing the Cliffs of Moher + Galway tour with Wild Rover, just book…read moreit. We had Michael driving and Aaron as our guide, and that combo absolutely made the day. Michael somehow got us everywhere in record time without it ever feeling rushed, which meant we had more time at each stop. On a 12-hour day, that matters. Huge credit to him for making the logistics feel effortless. Aaron was the real glue of the experience. He actually knew what he was talking about and didn't just recite facts -- he added personality, humor, and context that made everything stick. When you're spending that long together on a bus, the vibe is everything, and he nailed it. We lucked out with amazing weather at the Cliffs -- cold, but crystal clear visibility. We hit both viewing areas (even with restoration work going on), and it still felt expansive and worth every second. Pictures don't do it justice. Galway was a blast. We had about two hours in the city center, which was enough to explore, grab food, and soak up the energy -- though honestly, I could've stayed all day. The recommendations we got were spot on. The pacing was great, the bus was as comfortable as it realistically can be for a full-day tour, and it never felt chaotic or disorganized. I would 100% recommend this to first-time visitors to Ireland and honestly even to people coming back who want a seamless, well-run way to see the west coast without thinking about logistics. Michael and Aaron -- absolute pros.

Doing a Smithwicks tour on St. Paddy's day was quite the experience! Truly one we didn't know we…read moreneeded! We came here on a of a whim after the parade. It was something like $13 euro a piece for our family. The tour took about 45 minutes and our guide Evan was amazing! Very interactive, engaging, funny, informative, all the things you'd hope for from a guide. We learned a lot about the company, including how they're older than Guinness (who ironically bought them in the 60s). The tour ended with a stop at the tasting room - major tip - pay the extra $5 and get the three half pint tasting flight! They're lovely! It's a great spot to chill for a bit and chat with new friends! The gift shop has swag and plenty of cans to take home with you, as well as glasses that you can have custom etched. This was an amazing tour for the price and something that anyone visiting the area should consider!

This experience is well worth the stop if you are in Kilkenny. Our tour guide was fantastic (i feel…read moreterrible i have forgotten her name) and did an amazing job leading us through the history and science that is Smithwick's. The tour is very interactive and has a great production value. It is super engaging and interacting which was great as it was our 3rd brewery tour on our vacation. I highly recommend checking out the cream ale at the end of your tour. Absolutely delicious!!!

Fabulous tour, well recommended…read more Sean and Julian are the ultimate hosts - funny, knowledgable and very approachable. If you're a tourist to our lovely city, this is gonna be the hands down best way of seeing it. If you live in Dublin, do it anyway! Trust me, you will learn some bits of new information you didn't know before. One thing it definitely did was give me a better sense of the city and how to cycle round it. It also inspired me to explore more on two wheels, as you never know what you'll find, from new little cafes that have sprung up, to old libraries you never knew were there, or fresh street art that will amaze you. Pick a good day, and do it.

Very enjoyable and informative. I knew most of the areas living in Dublin myself but I think this…read morewould be a real treat for people who don't know their way around town. Lots of areas outside the city center that are interesting and have their own stories. Thanks to Julian and Sean. Very relaxed atmosphere and great to hear some verses of our famous writers along the way.

I so wanted to go out here to day! so i set off for the bus stop, (the 75 gets you out to Dun…read moreLaoghaire) and i stood at the stop for over half an hour beforei realised i had not seen one bus pass by not to mind the 75! i think they were all cancelled because of the small bit of snow we had, boo to you dublinbus! anyway i was very disappointed because its a lovely fresh crisp day and a walk along the lesser used pierin Dun Laoghaire would have been perfect today. yes it would have been cold but walking quickly would have warmed you up! This is a great pier to walk along because its less used than the east pier, there are no people to pass out or children running around (sometimes you think the kids on the other pier are going to run off the edgeinto the freezing water, where are their parents!) and everyone on the pier seems to be down with the serious business of getting to the end of the pier and back again. yes the ground is alot more uneven on this pier and yes teddys icecream is further away (even desirable on a day like today) and finally yes there is no cool weather station to look at but i think that this is the pier to be on if your up for a proper walk with a friend or if you want to be alone with your thoughts!

If you fancy a quieter walk this is the pier for you. There are less people but the people you meet…read moreare much nicer as they will pass the time of day or nod a 'Hello' as you pass by. I love this walk perhaps because it is less commercial there are runners, joggers and dogs can be let off the lead. I am not sure if they are allow off the lead but I am not asking so I dont know.