By Lakshmi:

We had four days and three nights to cover Dublin.  Can you really cover a city in that period of time?  Not if you want to relax as well.  Our philosophy is to pick a couple of things we each have as “must do’s” in a city and spread those must do’s into the days we have, leaving plenty of time for lounging in cafes, pubs and people watching.

We love starting off our visits to a new city with a day long Hop On Hop Off Bus pass.  We do one complete route on the bus without getting off, getting a good orientation to the city, its highlights and some fun-filled history factoids.  The last point is especially nice when traveling with kids who leave with history facts imprinted in their head!  With this orientation, we disembark with confidence, simply walking to the attractions of our chosing, using the bus only as needed for distant routes

Dublin offers multiple Hop On Hop Off Bus passes and more details on these options can be found here:  http://www.dublinsightseeing.ie/citytour.aspx

Given our need, we bought a one day ticket which cost 19 Euros per adult and 17 Euros for our 15-year-old daughter, which provided the coverage outlined below.

We also decided to buy the two-day Visit Dublin Pass, which offered us free visits to many attractions and the absence of lines to several of them as well.  Based on our calculation, we saved in two ways.  First, we did not have to stand in line at each included attraction to purchase tickets.  Second, given the sites we chose to visit, the pass ended up saving us several Euros in entrance fees.  Take a look here at the pass details and decide if your areas of interest are covered or not.

http://www.dublinpass.ie/default.aspx

At this time, there is a discount on multi-day passes if you purchase through the above mentioned website.  But don’t feel pressured. The local tourist offices often have specials as well.  Simply ask for the best deal available.

In addition to these passes, there are additional ones available for local transportation as well.  You can find out more about this here:

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Fares–Tickets/Tickets/2-Journey-Daily-Weekly/

Given our penchant for walking, we preferred to pass on these, using change for our twice a day 15 minute bus ride from our hotel to the city center and back .

If you have tips for covering the sights in Dublin city center, we would love to hear from you.