Follow Our Ireland Road Trip - Day 11

Join us as we roam the streets of Dublin!

Feb 15, 2026

12 Days in August 2024

Day 11

Hey, y’all! We are reliving the memories from our trip just over a year ago. If you’re finding this article, we highly recommend you read Follow Our Ireland Road Trip blog through Day 10 first to get caught up. 

It’s hard to believe we are almost at the end of the trip (again)!

We were anticipating waking up to Corona’s homemade scones. Happy news! They were everything (and more) that we hoped they would be. There were plain and white chocolate raspberry scones along with jam and clotted cream. Divine!

Day 11 overview:

•  Drive to and explore Dublin

OK, let’s dive in!

Dublin

The drive to Dublin was thankfully pretty uneventful. The key challenge we had was locating the hotel we were staying in for our last night of the trip. Parking was a bit strange, as well, but we lucked out with timing and were able to park on the street right next to the hotel because we had to leave so early the next morning for the airport. In addition, we were able to get an early check-in for one of the two rooms we had and that allowed us the convenience of unloading our necessities (win!).

While the boys were using the Wifi, Joy tried for the final time to find Alex a pastrami sandwich. Lo and behold, she found a very local deli on an actual corner called The Pig and Heifer. Their logo said “Can’t stay, take it away” and was quite appropriate. Seating is absolutely scarce here, but we were lucky enough to find two tiny tables in the front outside. Meanwhile, plenty of people were taking the logo to heart. They do great business!

PS-Alex truly wanted a pastrami sandwich the entire trip. He was very happy.

Since we knew we were going to be too full to go dinner, we did a lot of walking to explore the town. There were plenty of people out and about, but it was not uncomfortably crowded.

Outside of general exploring, we knew we were going to hit up the iconic Temple Bar. It was actually more like an entire block as opposed to a singular bar…It was beautiful, colorful, and absolutely packed. Like, can’t hardly move around packed. I don’t know how we scored the four seats at the bar, but we did and it was glorious!

There were bridal shower parties, there were groups of all ages and a fun two-man show that was doing the liveliest Irish Jig music you could think of. It was a fabulous, fun experience.

As a friendly warning to your pocketbook, it is expensive to drink here! It was double the price of the most expensive night we had for the entire trip. But, it was a great, fun time and I’m glad we did it. I’m especially glad we capped at ONE drink each.                              Joy here: Well. Most of us got just one drink. ONE of us SPILLED their newly shaken drink ALL OVER the bar right when they got it, and the bartender graciously poured another. SIGH

MO got in her last gelato of the trip. What a super cool shop!

On the walk back to the hotel, we were surprised by the Dublin Portal. You can communicate in real time to New York. The younger crowd was into it!

You can learn more about it here:  Portals

We wound up walking several miles when all was said and done. Dublin can go from cheerful and lively to dark, dismal and depressing fairly quickly as you turn a corner (just like any given city). It’s always important to remain aware of your surroundings as you enjoy exploring!