Dublin Activities: Booking and Prices
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The hard part of doing things in Dublin is not finding them. It is that three of the best hours in the city run on three completely different booking systems, one of which is not online at all, and turning up hopeful works for exactly one of them.
What you book, and how far ahead
| Activity | Channel | Lead time |
|---|---|---|
| Kilmainham Gaol tour | kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie only | 28 days, released at midnight, gone in minutes |
| Book of Kells Experience | visittrinity.ie | 1 to 2 weeks in summer |
| Guinness Storehouse | guinness-storehouse.com | any time, but the price moves |
| City Kayaking on the Liffey | citykayaking.com | days, seasonal |
| Christ Church guided tour | not online at all | ask at the welcome desk on the day |
| The Little Museum of Dublin | littlemuseum.ie | days; entry is a place on a tour |
Kilmainham is the outlier and it catches people every week. Tickets are €8 adult, €6 senior, €4 student and €20 family, it is guided-only, and there are no walk-ups at all. Releases land 28 days ahead at midnight Irish time. Same-day cancellations go back online between 09:15 and 09:30, which is a real second chance rather than a plan. The museum states that tickets bought from third parties are not valid, so kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie and heritageireland.ie are the only two places to buy. It is a former prison where leaders of the 1916 Rising were held, where Parnell was held in 1881 and 1882, and where Éamon de Valera was the last prisoner released in 1924.
On the water, and who runs it
The Liffey is a tidal commercial river and everything on it goes out with a guide. City Kayaking launches from a pontoon on the Liffey Boardwalk at Bachelors Walk, on the north bank between the Ha’penny and O’Connell bridges. The two hour guided tour is €49, with about 90 minutes actually on the water, and the Music Under Bridges trip is €59. Minimum age 12. Details at citykayaking.com .
For flat enclosed water, Grand Canal Dock is the working centre of Dublin watersports and it is a large basin, not the narrow canal that runs inland through Portobello. Surfdock has been on South Dock Road for more than 25 years: kayaking €20 per person including wetsuit and buoyancy aid, kayak hire €10 an hour inside the dock or €45 a day to take away, and a 1.5 hour beginner stand-up paddleboard lesson at €45 adult and €30 child, with free changing rooms, showers and lockers. Prices at surfdock.com . Wakedock, Ireland’s first cable wakeboard park, sits on the same water.
On the coast, Dollymount Strand is the beach where boards are hired and lessons run. At Sandymount Strand the tide comes in fast across a very wide flat, the council posts electronic warning signs, and swimming is prohibited, so treat it as a walking beach. The Forty Foot at Sandycove is a rock promontory with steps down into the open Irish Sea, swum year round for three centuries, and it is never lifeguarded or patrolled at any time of year.
Two distilleries that are not the same product
Teeling Whiskey Distillery at 13 to 17 Newmarket in the Liberties is a fully operational distillery. Tours are €22 with a tasting, Monday to Friday 11:00 to 18:00, Saturday to 19:00, Sunday and bank holidays 11:00 to 18:00, with a Private and Premium tour at €165. See teelingdistillery.com .
Jameson Distillery Bow St. in Smithfield is a guided tour of a former distillery, run as a heritage experience: €26 adult, €23 senior and student, €12 for 13 to 17s, under 12 free, with a €15 non-alcoholic ticket. Both are good. Only one of them is making whiskey while you walk through it, and that is the line to decide on.
The hour most visitors miss
The Christ Church guided tour at €15 includes the belfry: 86 steps up a narrow spiral, a platform over the Medieval Quarter, and a chance to ring one of the cathedral’s 19 full circle bells, a world record for a ring of that kind, the oldest cast in 1738. Ringing is 12 and over. This one genuinely cannot be booked online, so ask at the welcome desk for the day’s departures when you arrive. The self-guided ticket is €10 and covers the crypt, the oldest building still in use in Dublin. Both on christchurchcathedral.ie .
Viking Splash Tours leave from Stephen’s Green North in an amphibious vehicle that does enter the water, at the Grand Canal Basin. Roaring at pedestrians is part of the format, which children either love or find mortifying.
If you would rather compare fixed-price slots in one place, browse Dublin activities on GetYourGuide or check availability on Viator .
The verdict
If you only book one thing before you fly, make it Kilmainham, because it is the cheapest major ticket in Dublin and the only one you cannot recover by paying more. Everything else on this page can be arranged in the week you arrive.
Getting between all of it costs €2 a journey on a Leap Card, capping at €6 a day, which is published at about.leapcard.ie . Slot the guided hours around that, then see what the ticketed tours cost and how they fit a three day plan .