34 Fun Things To Do in Dublin
No Museums Need Apply
There are only so many museums you can visit before your eyes glaze over. You're on vacation so do things in Dublin that are really fun and will put a huge smile on your face.
Best of all, they're very social and will make it easy to meet locals. These are the experiences you'll remember long after you're back home.
I could easily have called this page "Dublin's Hidden Gems" because tourists don't go to most of the places on my list but famous places can be fun too. And I think hidden gems is an overused cliché.
Here's my list of fun things to do in Dublin!
1.The Fast Boat Tour of Dublin Bay
This is my favorite all the fun things to do. Go with Captain Ed for a fast ride through Dublin Bay. See a different side of Dublin from the water. It's a blast. Here's my review of it.
🎟️ Reserve your spot on the Goat Boat
2.Try the Irish Sport of Hurling
Hurling is our national sport, the fastest ball sport in the world and only played in Ireland. You'll go to a local club where they'll teach you the basics of the game. If you have kids, they will love this.
🏑 Learn to hurl
I was there with my 12 year old daughter and it was a great way to get to know these unique Irish sports! We got to play all three games and our guides were class! Highly recommend!
3.Sunny Drinks at the Barge
If the weather cracks 23C when you're here and it's sunny, go to the Barge pub along Dublin's Grand Canal around 4pm. You'll be met by a few hundred people who found reasons to skip out of the office early and take in our rare sunshine.
A very Dublin cultural event.
4.Ukulele Tuesday
Think karaoke but with ukulele. A room full of people, some who are very skilled on the ukulele, some who are handling one for the first time, all following simple chords on the big screen. Absolutely zero experience needed, it's actually more fun if you don't know what you're doing. It's been going for ten years now and is free! Here's my review of Ukulele Tuesday.
5.Eat with the Mushroom Butcher
Winner of clever business name of the year (at least in my awards), the Mushroom Butcher is a food truck based around mushrooms. The legal kind. And Ireland's damp climate is mushroom heaven. It's a trip around the world as they do a Brazilian, Japanese and other country themed menus occasionally too.
6.Do a Cookery Class in a Coastal Dublin Village
Pick up some skills at the Dublin Cookery School just 20 minutes from town in the lovely seaside village of Blackrock.
7.Learn Pottery Making and BYOB!
Learn how to throw pottery (yes I just learned that term) and even better, BYOB, to https://www.dublinpotterymaking.com in Smithfield.
8.Throw An Axe
Or just throw an axe instead, not at your traveling companion please. It's near Croke Park, so combine it with their rooftop tour for an afternoon in a less visited part of Dublin.
The axe throwing was so fun! I thought I’d be terrible at it but it came pretty easily actually. The instructors were very helpful and friendly. They played music and gave wonderful tips on how to get a good throw.
9.Make Your Own Dublin Screen Print
Don't just look at Dublin landmarks, make your own screen print of them to bring back home. JANDO is new and runs small group classes, zero experience needed. Make stuff with Dublin locals.
We'd never tried screen printing before, but Julie made the whole experience approachable, fun, and super relaxing. The studio is absolutely beautiful,
10.Park Run
Don't let the run part discourage you, you can walk it too. But all over Dublin, communities come together on Saturday mornings to do a park run. It's all about meeting people, meeting Irish people. Come to the one in St Anne's Park which conveniently ends at the farmers market. It's free!
11.Guinness Storehouse
I've done the Guinness tour a dozen times and still always leave with a smile on my face. Guinness, dancing, music and views over all of Dublin. The Connoisseur tour is in a private room with a guide and you learn to pour your own perfect Guinness.
🎫 Self guided Guinness tour or The Guinness Connoisseur Experience
12.Emerald Park Theme Park
Ireland's only theme park. Yes we have rollercoasters here and it's a cultural experience as much as a thrilling experience. I go every year and have never heard a non-Irish accent. You'll see more Gaelic football jerseys than at Croke Park. An absolutely superb day out. It's just outside Dublin so I am cheating a little here.
13.Learn to Irish Dance
Instead of sitting in a bar tapping your toe out of tune to traditional Irish music, join in the party and actually dance. They get you up dancing and teach you how to Irish dance. I've been and never seen so many people smiling in one room. So much fun and an afternoon event too.
14.Forge a Claddagh Ring
Another souvenir to make. Forge your own Irish ring in a two hour class in my favourite part of Dublin, the Creative Quarter. You can make a silver ring or an Irish Claddagh ring. The 2,000 reviews for this class are all superb. People love it.
💍 Check the ring forging class schedule
15.See Funny Dubliners at the International Comedy Club
Normal Irish people are funny. Professional Irish comedians are hilarious. The International is where many of them learn their trade. The place is so small that you may end up sitting on stage. A good reason to get there early and not be an easy target for the comedians! Very cheap too.
16.Introvert Fun at the Silent Book Club
For the introvert, silently read books together. Then chat about them afterwards. What a fabulous idea and another excellent way to meet some locals. Free.
17.Walk The Roof of Ireland's Biggest Stadium
After learning hurling, walk on the roof of Croke Park, the 4th biggest stadium in Europe. I've done it and it's brilliant. Don't worry, have no fear of heights concerns, it's very secure but a blast. Literally, as the Irish wind blows in your face 100 feet high. You'll love the views over all of Dublin. Here's my review.
🏟️ Book your Croke Park Skyline Tour.
18.Take the 5 minute boat to a Viking Island
Just 300 meters from shore in a Dublin village is an island where Vikings used to live. Today nine goats live there and they tolerate visitors to their home. I love this area so much that I do my Vista walking tour here. Captain Neil's boat will bring you there in five minutes.
19.Go Cold Water Sea Swimming
We love cold water swimming in Ireland, even year round. You've probably seen the most famous swimming spot, the Forty Foot, on Apple TV's Bad Sisters. Go swim with the locals, be grateful that it's still not an all male nude swimming spot. Warm up afterwards in the Sandycove Sauna next to it.
20.Shop in Dublin's Oldest Vintage Market
Go to Dublin's oldest vintage market in Blackrock. It's easy to get to with the Dart train. It's on every Saturday and Sunday. Come hungry because its narrow alleys are filled with tiny restaurants. Then wander around the seaside village of Blackrock.
21.The Sauna Cafe
I don't like cold water though, so this is more my speed. The Sandycove Store & Yard is a cafe with a sauna too. So get your sweat on and now you've lost 1oz in sweat, go stuff your face with some delicious food. Great part of town too.
22.Have Afternoon Tea On a Vintage Bus
See the sights of Dublin while eating dainty sandwiches and tea from a vintage double decker bus! I've heard nothing but excellent reviews from folks who have done this. Be sure to snag the coveted front seat on the upper deck.
🎟️ Book your seat on the Afternoon Tea Bus
23.Gentleman's Afternoon Tea
For the gentlemen in your group, there is an Afternoon Tea at a luxury hotel overlooking the river that is heavy on the masculine side. Genius idea.
24.Eat Donuts in Dublin
Do a walking tour of Dublin where you stop at different donut shops! Genius and sugar filled fun. I'm kinda jealous that I didn't think of this idea for my own Dublin walking tour.
25.Meet The Donkeys
Conal and Carroll are the much loved donkeys at Dublin's Working Farm at Airfield Estate. You can also harvest eggs, milk cows or do one of their cooking classes. A great spot for families.
26.Go To A Sporting Event
Gaelic football, hurling, League of Ireland soccer, rugby, horse racing. See what's on when you are here and go. The craic & atmosphere with the Irish crowds is brilliant.
27.Salsa Dance With Dubliners
Salsa in Dublin? What? Yeah it's big here. We have a large Latin population here and they are teaching us their dancing. Classes are often on quieter nights of the week. Very social, very sexy, very fun.
28.Learn To Make The Perfect Irish Coffee
Instead of making your Irish souvenir, drink it! The pros show you how to make a proper Irish coffee. I've seen so many butchered versions of it when I lived in the US. Pick up a vital life skill here, the art of the Irish coffee.
29.Try To Get Into La Hacienda
La Hacienda is not the chain restaurant our US visitors know. It is a bar in an old market area of Dublin where you have to find it, there's no sign, then knock on the door and hope Shay the owner lets you in. He doesn't let many in. Taylor Swift had her after concert party here. That's all you need to know.
30.Pastry Pace Run Club
If you did the Donut Tour, you'll love the pastry fueled run club Tuesday & Sunday in Stoneybatter. Run and eat pastry. 50% of that sounds good to me.
31.Go on a Ghost Bus Tour of Dublin at Night
See the scary side of Dublin on a nighttime ghost bus tour.
Great storytelling by host and atmosphere was spooky
32.Casual Choir
I would nearly check their events calendar and book my flight based around this night. In Casual Choir, they pick a song, 400 people get together and sing it. I've never been and that's something I need to set straight, but their IG videos just look so much fun and so very social. You're going to make new friends here.
33.Seanoiche Storytelling
Regular people tell stories on stage. But this is Ireland, so they're really good stories. Ordinary people telling extraordinary stories is their tag line. Think Ted Talk but a lot more fun. Isn't on often, so if it's on when you're here, go.
34.Ruby Sessions
An acoustic, atmospheric Tuesday night session where you don't know who the performers are. It could be a local newcomer but it could be Ed Sheeran or any of the other stadium fillers who come here for fun.
More To Come
I'll keep adding to this list as I come across more fun things to do in Dublin. Subscribe below.
