Day 1 — Arrival & the City Centre
Settle in slowly. Walk down to the River Liffey and cross the Ha'penny Bridge, then let Grafton Street pull you south towards Trinity College and St Stephen's Green. This first day is for orientation, not ticking off attractions.
Dinner in the city centre, then find a proper pub for your first pint. Kehoe's on South Anne Street or the Long Hall on South Great George's Street are both dark-wood, mirror-backed rooms that have barely changed in decades — the best introduction to Dublin's pub culture.
Day 2 — Trinity College & the National Museum
Book the Long Room and Book of Kells for the morning — Trinity's 9th-century illuminated gospel manuscript, housed in a barrel-vaulted library holding 200,000 ancient volumes, is Dublin's most-visited sight and queues build fast without pre-booked tickets.
Afternoon: the National Museum of Ireland — Archaeology. Free and genuinely world-class — Iron Age bog bodies, Viking artefacts, and the Ardagh Chalice, one of the finest pieces of early medieval metalwork in Europe. The natural history annexe next door, nicknamed the "Dead Zoo," is a wonderfully preserved Victorian collection if you have an extra hour.
Evening: dinner around South William Street, then Temple Bar for an hour of full-volume Dublin nightlife before retreating somewhere quieter.
Day 3 — Kilmainham Gaol & the Guinness Storehouse
Book Kilmainham Gaol well in advance — it's consistently one of the hardest tickets in the city. The tour through this decommissioned 18th-century prison, where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed, tells the story of Irish independence through the actual cells and stone-breaking yard where it happened.
A 15-minute walk brings you to the Guinness Storehouse. Seven floors trace the brewing process and the Guinness family's history, ending at the rooftop Gravity Bar with a 360-degree view over the city and your included pint.
Afternoon: the Liberties, Dublin's oldest neighbourhood, now home to independent coffee roasters, vintage markets, and a revival of Irish whiskey distilling — Teeling Distillery here offers strong tours and tastings.
Evening: Mulligan's on Poolbeg Street for one of the best-poured pints in the city.
Day 4 — Georgian Dublin & the Cathedrals
Morning: Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square, the core of Georgian Dublin — brightly coloured front doors, elegant 18th-century townhouses, and the National Gallery of Ireland, free to enter with a strong European collection including Vermeer and Caravaggio.
Walk to Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick's Cathedral, ten minutes apart in the old medieval quarter. St Patrick's, the larger of the two, holds Jonathan Swift's tomb; Christ Church's crypt is the oldest surviving structure in Dublin.
Lunch: Leo Burdock's near Christ Church, the city's fish and chips institution.
Evening: Portobello or Ranelagh, south of the canal, for dinner in neighbourhoods with genuinely good restaurants and none of the city-centre tourist markup.
Day 5 — Phoenix Park & Local Neighbourhoods
Morning: Phoenix Park, 1,750 acres and one of the largest enclosed city parks in Europe. Rent a Dublin Bike and cycle past the wild fallow deer herd, which has roamed the park since the 17th century, and the gates of Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish President's residence.
Afternoon: cross into Stoneybatter and Smithfield, two neighbourhoods well off the standard tourist route with much better local pubs. The Jameson Distillery Bow St. in Smithfield is a solid alternative to Guinness if whiskey is more your interest.
Evening: a proper pub crawl through neighbourhood spots rather than tourist ones — ask a bartender where they drink and follow the answer.
Day 6 — Wicklow Mountains & Glendalough Day Trip
Glendalough, a 6th-century monastic settlement set in a glacial valley in the Wicklow Mountains, is about 1.5 hours from Dublin by bus, car, or organised tour. The round tower, the ruined monastery, and the two lakes it's named for ("glen of the two lakes") make it one of the most atmospheric historic sites in Ireland.
Walk the lower lake trail for the easy version, or climb higher onto the Spinc trail for panoramic views over the valley if you have a full day and decent boots.
The drive or tour route through the Wicklow Mountains — via Sally Gap or the Military Road — is itself one of Ireland's most dramatic pieces of scenery, all peat bog, heather, and sudden views. Return to Dublin by early evening.
Day 7 — Newgrange & the Boyne Valley, Then a Final Night
Newgrange, a Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley, predates Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids by centuries. Access is by guided tour only, departing from the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre about 90 minutes north of Dublin — book ahead, especially for the small chance of a winter solstice-alignment slot, though the standard tour is remarkable on its own.
The visitor centre also covers Knowth, a second passage tomb complex with the largest collection of Neolithic megalithic art in Western Europe. A half-day covers both comfortably; return to Dublin by mid-afternoon.
Final evening: do it properly. Book a table at one of Dublin's better restaurants, or skip formality and return to whichever pub felt most like yours over the week. Order a last pint, poured slowly, and let the week end the way most good Dublin nights do — with a conversation you didn't plan on having.