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One Day in Dublin: How to Explore Dublin in 24 hours

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Short on time? Get the most out of 24 hours in Dublin by reading this post of the best way to explore Dublin city in one day!

How to get the most out of 24 hours in Dublin

Short on time? Get the most out of 24 hours in Dublin by reading this post of the best way to explore Dublin city in one day! I get it, most people arrive in Dublin and then head out to the country to spend most of their holiday – and I still think that the best parts of Ireland are best found out in the country, away from the big city. But Dublin should not be skipped over entirely. There is loads to see and do in Dublin – in fact I have written several posts about all the things you should see and do if you are ever in Dublin, because there is ALOT to see and do (scroll to the bottom of this post for links to some of my other top Dublin posts!). To be able to see absolutely everything, you would need more than one day, but if you are only here for a short time, here are some of my top things you should do if you have a day or 24 hours in Dublin:

1. Keep it Central and Walk

Traffic in the city center can be a bit of nightmare and may actually slow you down, especially if you are short on time. If you can make your way to the center of town, then a short walk along the Liffey River between the Ha’Penny Bridge and the Samuel Beckett Bridge gives you a good sense of what Dublin is about. You could also choose to walk from the Spire to Trinity College. Once at Trinity, then Grafton street is not too far away. Grafton Street is a big pedestrianised street with some high end shops (like Brown Thomas etc), it also has a lot of buskers playing music. At the top of Grafton Street is St Stephens Green Shopping Center which is a bit of a small mall, but it is beautiful on the inside and highly insta-worthy architecture 🙂

2. Walk through Temple Bar – but do not to have a pint there!

Temple Bar is not just a bar, it is an area in Dublin with loads of pubs and tourist spots – it really has become a mecca for tourists, which means if you stop and have a pint in this area – guaranteed you will pay more than an arm and a leg for it! Still it is nice to walk the cobble streets and the vibe is always festive because Temple Bar as an area is always filled with happy tourists, take a few insta-worthy snaps and move onto a proper Irish pub to have a pint!

3. Have a pint in a proper Irish pub

There is definitely a post on the best pubs to visit in Dublin in the making – if only we could limit the selection – because there are loads! In city center area, our faves would be Mary’s Hardware (Just off Grafton Street and has a wow burger restaurant in the basement!); McDaid’s (just off Grafton Street; make sure to look out for the Phil Lynott Statue just outside!); O’Donoghue’s (close to Merrion Square and serves a great pint of Guinness and trad music!)

4. Picnic in a Park

At the top of Grafton street is St Stephens Park – which is the perfect spot for a picnic lunch! Another fave park of ours is Merrion Square (which has an Oscar Wilde statue and is also close to a few free museums!)

5. Be selective on the Tourist Attractions

Realistically, if you want to really get the most out of the 24 hours in Dublin, you would need to choose one or two tourist attractions to do (and depending on where they are, you might only be able to have time to do one). Most people would say Guinness Storehouse is not to be missed, but i honestly find it a bit overrated and for 20 bucks, you could have more than one pint in an actual pub. My top tourist attraction to do in Dublin has to be Kilmainham Gaol – but you have to book a time slot in advance. You can catch a local bus to Kilmainham (Busses 13 / 40 / 123 from College Green get you pretty close); alternatively you could get a hop-on-off bus which most definitely stops there. Kilmainham Gaol goes through Irish History and shares some great stories about the people who fought for Irish Independence. It has a similar vibe to how you would feel going to Robben Island in South Africa – I have done the tour twice since living in Ireland and I have cried both times.

Got more time in Dublin? Read these posts:

IF YOU ONLY HAD 24 HOURS IN DUBLIN, WHAT WOULD YOU EXPLORE FIRST?

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

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Short on time? Get the most out of 24 hours in Dublin by reading this post of the best way to explore Dublin city in one day!

How to figure out how much you need to earn to live in Dublin

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In this post I am going to share an estimate monthly budget for Dublin, which will give you insight into how much you need to be earning in order to comfortably live and pay your bills in Dublin.This is a question I get a lot, how much should I be earning if I want to live in Dublin? So many people compare their salary back home to the salary here and then forget that the monthly budget you would need in order to live over could be very different to the monthly budget you had back home. When we first moved over, I wrote a post on the cost of living between Johannesburg and Dublin although that was a couple of years ago, it gives you a general idea on my perception of costs between the two cities. In this post I am going to share an estimate monthly budget for Dublin, which will give you insight into how much you need to be earning in order to comfortably live and pay your bills in Dublin.

First thing you need to do is to work out what your take home salary will be every month. Just a note that companies will give usually give you a salary offer per annum, not per month. So if you got a job offer with a salary of 30 000 euros, that’s probably per year – not per month! You also need to remember to deduct tax. The tax rate is high here, but it is fairly similar to South Africa, so for us this wasn’t a jump from what we were use to. Our friends from Dubai did not have the same experience! A handy online calculator to work out your salary after tax is this website.

Once you have a monthly take home salary, you should work out what your monthly costs will be. Just a note that these are estimates, and largely based on our own experience. Everyone has a different budget and way of living, so this is purely what we have found costs to be like here in Ireland. I think when you are deciding if moving to Ireland is going to be good for your family, you should always over-inflate your costs of living. The last thing you want is to move all the way over here, only to find you are not able to afford the lifestyle you had back home. A move as big as moving overseas should always be an improvement to living back home – or at least the same, but never worse. You don’t want to have to cut your costs and battle to make ends meet in a foreign country – moving countries is hard enough as it is, who needs the added stress of not being able to afford to live month to month too!

Rent

Once you have a job offer, then you can start looking where you would like to live, and what rent is like in the areas close to your work. Finding a place to rent is one of the hardest thing to do here in Dublin. There is a huge housing crisis and the demand for rentals and people looking for places to live makes it tough. We had the added stress of finding a pet friendly rental, I wrote a post about how to find a pet friendly rental, but the same process could equally be applied for finding any kind of rental. The average cost of rent in Dublin varies, but on average if you plan to live close to the city the average rent is 1800 upwards for a two bed apartment. Some people choose to move out of the city, which means the rent is slightly more affordable. But moving out of the city has pro’s and con’s to it, and in some cases you would need to buy a car if you plan to live far out of town and commute into work. Depending on where you work and where you plan to live, that commute might be just as bad as living closer and paying a higher rent.

Utilities

Then you need to consider gas and electricity costs. On average these costs for us have been around 75 euros a month. The cost of gas and electricity will depend on how frequently you have the heat on in your home, and what kind of rating your home has. BER A1 means it is a highly energy efficient house, the rating goes all the way to G which would be the lowest rating and least efficient. The higher the energy efficient the house is, the lower your utilities costs should be. Currently no one pays for water in Ireland, but this could change in the future. For now, it is not a cost you need to account for.

WIFI / Broadband

We don’t own a TV, but we do have internet at home. We went with Virgin because they had a good deal at the time, but you can go with anyone really – most service providers have competitive prices, so you can shop around. For internet at home we pay 55 euros. If you own a TV you will need to TV license to get the national channels, and if you want something similar to DSTV or cable TV, then there are providers like SKY TV etc. We have found that internet is fine for us, with YouTube, Netflix etc you might not feel the need to own a TV.

Mobile phone

Your company might offer you a company phone as part of your package, or you can just buy a new SIM and buy prepaid. When we first arrived, we brought our phones over from SA (make sure your phone is unlocked so that it is able to accept a new SIM!). We were on prepaid/top up for a while before moving to a SIM contract. Since moving here, we are hesitant to get into phone contracts and paying ridiculous fees for new phones. We both pay on average of 25 euros a month for data/minutes each month. We have never had to top up our data or run out of data since we moved here which is a serious novelty for South Africans!

Groceries

This is a really personal thing, how much you eat might be half as much as what we eat. We had to live off one salary for over a year so we got really good at cutting our food bill and buying cheap. I find fruit and veg that is in season to be very affordable, and you can get a frozen pizza for 1 euro that isn’t half bad (especially if you are on a tight budget!). When we are saving and trying not to overspend, on average we can spend as little as 50 euro a week on food for two of us. We both drink, but not a lot and when we were struggling on one salary we lived off 50 euro a month for beer and wine that we consumed at home.

Entertainment/Travel

Drinking and eating out falls under entertainment for us, which even though we both have jobs and two salaries coming in, we limit to once or twice a month. We find eating out to be very expensive, especially dinners. We often look for early bird specials, or opt for lunch or coffee and a treat over a full meal. We would far rather spend our money on travel and doing cool activities over eating and drink our money away. There is a lot of free stuff you can do in Dublin, plus free museums you can visit – the city has loads of budget friendly activities you can do for the whole family. We do find walking in the park or going to the beach or mountains to be a good way to get out the house and not pay for it.

Transport

This will largely depend on where in the city you live, whether you use bus/train/luas or if you choose to buy a car. There is a monthly cap on public transport so I highly recommend getting a LEAP card which will mean that your daily/weekly/monthly trips will get capped. Right now the cap is 7 euro a day if you use the bus only, or 10 euro a day if you use a combination of transport or luas/train. The weekly cap is 30 euro for busses only or 40 euro for train/luas and bus. Rob is currently study which means he has a student card, this is a cheaper rate for public transport (not to mention entry fees and other deals!). If you decide you want to buy a car it is important to remember to get a car insurance quote before you purchase a car – we haven’t gone down this road yet but when we do, I will write a separate post on it. I do know that insurance as a foreigner is very expensive!

Once you have added up what your monthly living expenses will be, and if you know what your salary each month will be, then you can work out if you can afford to live in Dublin. The above doesn’t take into account things like: savings; retirement funds; medical aid; additional costs for children like school etc which are all super important too! Plus this is just a guide, or an estimate – everyone will have a different set of priorities and costs that they will need to consider, but I do hope this posts makes you think about what those costs might look like and for you to consider whether, with your monthly budget, you can actually afford to live and work in Dublin.

WAS THIS POST HELPFUL? WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO COVER – COMMENT BELOW!

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

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In this post I am going to share an estimate monthly budget for Dublin, which will give you insight into how much you need to be earning in order to comfortably live and pay your bills in Dublin.

8 of the Best Day Trips around Dublin

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this is a list of our fave day trips around Dublin that would take under an hour to get toDublin is filled with tons of things to see and do – you could literally stay here for a full year and still not explore everything this city has to offer. I have written a few posts about all the things you should see if you only have a weekend in Dublin, 20 free things to do in Dublin, a handy list of the free museums to explore, as well as the top 5 tourist spots most people go to. Most people when they arrive in Dublin, tick off Temple Bar, possibly Guinness Storehouse or a whiskey tasting, and then head off to explore the rest of Ireland. What people might not realise is that Dublin is a great place to base yourself, and head out on a few day trips around Dublin.

We have done a few day trips that have involved heading to Cliffs of Moher or heading up to Northern Ireland, but this is a list of our fave day trips around the Dublin area that would take under an hour to get to:

Heading North of Dublin:

  • Malahide: a 30 minute train ride on the DART heading north of Dublin. A visit to Malahide Castle and Gardens, most people choose to grab a lunch at Avoca which is at Malahide Castle however there are some great food spots in the town of Malahide. Malahide is a quaint town, and it is quick to walk through to explore it from the train station (you do not need to pay for the mini train tour – its a bit of rip off, but the tourists love it. Another great walk is from Malahide harbour towards Portmarnock beach. Portmarnock beach is really beautiful, and it was the first beach that kind of reminded me of home with the sand dunes. It is a rated as a blue flag beach, so the water quality is good for swimming, if you are feeling brave!Portmarnock Beach
  • Howth: a 30 minute train ride on the DART heading north of Dublin. Howth is technically east of Dublin, as it is a peninsula that juts out. It is a lovely seaside irish village, and one of the most recommended spots to grab some fish and chips and eat it along the harbour front, or on the pier – just be careful of the seagulls. My mother in law last a huge chunk of her fish to an attacking seagull! After lunch, you can walk through town, and along the cliffs. There is a great path that takes you around Howth Head, and up to a parking lot at the top. You have to have a pint at the Summit Inn (well earned after the walk!) and then it is a downhill walk back to the train station, or you can catch a bus that starts its route right outside the Summit Inn.Howth Cliff Walk
  • Skerries: Slightly further North from Dublin is Skerries, about a 40 minute train ride from Connolly Station (note: this is not on the DART line, you would need to take the train going to Drogheda/Dundalk). Skerries has a great sea front, which you will often find people going for a summer or picnic in Summer. You can also grab a bite to eat at some of the little restaurants. Another popular thing to do is to visit the Skerries windmills. We didn’t pay to go in, since we took Jack along with us, but the walk around the windmills is easily accessible and free to do.Skerries Windmills

Heading West of Dublin:

  • Powerscourt Estate: The simplest way to get there if you are relying on public transport is taking the 44 bus to Enniskerry village, and then it is 25 minute walk to Powerscourt Estate. If you are driving, then it is about a 50 minute drive from the city center. The estate and gardens are simply beautiful to explore. The garden foliage changes with the seasons, and a highlight is to visit in spring to see the flowers in bloom. You honestly could spend a full day walking around the gardens, stopping for lunch at the estate or walking back to Enniskerry village. There is a hike to the waterfalls which we are yet to explore, I think this is probably a bit too much if you are walking/bussing. We plan to go back and hike to the Powerscourt waterfalls when we have a car as the waterfall is 6km walk from the main estate. Powerscourt Estate and Gardens
  • Glendalough: Glendalough is in part of the Wicklow way, so technically you are travelling to another county, it is still just an hour drive from Dublin. You can take a bus tour there if you don’t have a car (which is what we did) or drive there yourself. There is a great walk you can do around the loughs, bring a picnic lunch or stop at the restaurant for lunch while you are there.Glendalough
  • Dublin Mountains: less than a 30 minute drive from Dublin, or you can take a bus out to various spots along the Dublin Mountains. We took the bus but in hindsight, I wouldn’t recommend it. It is about a 3-4 km walk from where the bus drops you off, along narrow country roads which is often quite busy with cars travelling up and down – several times whilst we were walking we had to jump out the way of passing traffic. It is a bit high risk, plus if you drive up you can save your energy for doing a longer walk in the Mountains! There are several walks you can do. This is a great website which has several walks and maps you can download and use. Some of the ones we have done are:
    • Hellfire Club
    • Kilmashogue (which leads through to Fairy Castle past Three Rock and then through Ticknock forest)
    • Ticknock Forest
    • Massy’s Estate

Dublin Mountains

Heading South of Dublin:

  • Dun Laoghaire: a 30 minute train ride from city center. Dun Laoghaire is a great seaside town, I wrote a blog post about all the things you can do in Dun Laoghaire. We love to grab an ice cream and scroll along the promenade – we do this all year round, in fact, our favourite time to eat ice cream is in the middle of winter.Teddy's ice cream in Dun Laoghaire
  • Bray/Greystones: an hour train ride from city center. Bray is a little further south from Dun Laoghaire, and another great seaside town. There is loads to do here, but probably the most popular thing to do is to do the walk from Bray to Greystones. I think the prettiest view is taking the train to Greystones and walking towards Bray. That way when you arrive in Bray you can stay for a pint at the Harbour bar, and grab a pizza at Pizza ‘n Cream (which does great pizza and pretty good ice cream too!). If you are feeling super athletic and fit, after walking the Greystones to Bray cliff walk, you could walk up Bray’s Head. The walk up Bray’s Head is steep but it is totally doable if you take it slow, plus the views of Bray and Dublin in the distance makes it really worth it. You can read more about Bray in this blog post.Bray at sunset

GOT ANY OTHER GREAT DAY TRIPS AROUND DUBLIN? SHARE IN THE COMMENTS!

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

PIN FOR LATER:this is a list of our fave day trips around the Dublin area that would take under an hour to get to

20 things to do in Dublin FOR FREE

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Looking for some things to do this weekend that won't cost you a million Euro? On a tight budget but still want to explore as much of Dublin as you can, without breaking the bank? Here are 20 ideas on things you can do in Dublin that are completely free to do!Looking for some free things to do in Dublin this weekend that won’t cost you a million Euro? On a tight budget but still want to explore as much of Dublin as you can, without breaking the bank? Here are 20 ideas on things you can do for free in Dublin:

  1. Visit the national botanic gardens. Right next to Glasnevin Cemetery (which, in my opinion, is well worth paying to do the tour) is the national botanic gardens in Dublin – and it is completely free to enter the gardens! The gardens are well looked after, there is often art and sculptures around the grounds, as well as a few hothouses where they keep the tropical climate plants. I would suggest bringing a packed lunch, as the restaurant is limited and with such beautiful gardens, you would be missing out if you ate in the restaurant instead of taking in the beautiful views.National Botanical Gardens of Ireland
  2. Walk along the Liffey River, You don’t need to do a walking tour, just grab a map and walk Dublin streets for free at your own pace, stop when you see something interesting or keep walking, you decide. I wrote a post about 7 walks you can do in Dublin.
  3. Explore one of the many parks around Dublin City – St Stephens, Phoenix, Merrion Square, there are loads of parks scattered all around the city, look on google maps and find them! St Stephens has beautiful flowers in the spring and summer, it is also big enough to walk around it in a nice loop. If you go there when the weather is warm, you will find loads of people soaking up the sun (this is true for most parks and when the weather is good – everyone comes out!). Phoenix Park is the largest walled park in Europe. So you would battle to walk the entire park in one day but there are some great spots to view deer and wildlife, as well as cycle paths to ride around the park. Merrion Square is where the statue of Oscar Wilde is, which worth a quick walk by. Not to mention that last year, they held open-air cinema in the summer at this park – for EUR5 which is almost free! Merrion Square Park, DublinAnother fave park of ours is the Sean Moore Park, in Irishtown. It is next door to a nature walk, so you can walk through the park, along the beach and into the nature reserve. It is a great loop to do, and we enjoy walking it with Jack most weekends.
  4. Hit the beach – there are several blue flag beaches in Ireland, one of them is Dollymount. You can grab a coffee or a toasted sandwich at Happy Out and walk along the beach on Bull Island . We also have Sandymount Strand right on our doorstep, there is a great promenade which you can walk along, but when the tide is out, the beach is dead flat and stretches out for miles, so you can really walk quite easily without really being on top of people. Jack turns into a beach pug when he hits this beach – which honestly makes my heart so happy seeing him run along the beach.Sandymount Beach, Dublin
  5. Bike or walk along the canal – The canal runs quite a distance through Dublin, and has walking paths along both sides. We love walking along the Dodder river with the view of the Aviva Stadium near Lansdowne DART station. It is in-between Ballsbridge and Ringsend. Another good section of the canal to walk is the path that leads to Bushy Park. These walks are good all year round, as they are quite nicely protected from the wind, and you can really see the changing of the seasons along the canal and river – which is different all year round.
  6. Cliff walks (Our two faves – Howth and Bray-Greystones) – If you have visited Ireland without doing a cliff walk – can you even say you have been? Jokes aside, cliff walks are one of my fave things to do on the weekend – because the view is magical, and it doesn’t cost a cent to do! You can catch the DART out to Howth or Bray and walk along the cliffs, both have different views and angles of Dublin so if you are visiting for a while, try do both then let me know which one is your fave – because I am still undecided, I love them both equally.Bray to Greystones Cliffwalk
  7. Walk along the harbour pier – Dublin has a few harbour towns along the coast, so you can walk along the harbour piers in Howth or Dun Laoghaire. You can also do a walk out to Poolbeg Lighthouse, which has a 2km pier out to sea.Poolbeg Lighthouse, Dublin
  8. Go searching for statues – molly malone statue; oscar wilde, even a statue for Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy are all dotted around the city, I find this handy list of statues and their stories you can read it here.Phil Lynott
  9. Go hiking in the Dublin Mountains. There are several routes you can do, so it means that you can keep coming back to the Dublin Mountains and going along different paths. Hellfire Club has some ruins on top of the hill, and has a great view of Dublin City. Faerie Castle and Three Rock have great views of Wicklow. And Ticknock Hill is great for mountain biking, but also, the moss and fern life in Ticknock forest is something out of a fairy story tale – there is magic in that forest.Hellfire Club Dublin Mountains
  10. Georgian door hunting – I love searching for new, brightly coloured, ornate georgian doors on our walks through the city. They make for great back-drops for instagrammable photos too!
  11. Check out one of the free museums – interested in learning more about the History of Ireland? There are NINE  free museums to see in Dublin, I loved visiting all of these museums, I wrote a whole post explaining all of them right here.Museums in Dublin
  12. Listen to Grafton Street buskers – Grafton Street is a bustling high-end shopping street in Dublin, but it also has a some great buskers and musicians who play daily. It is such a vibe walking down the street, listening to songs being sung and people passing by.
  13. Spire on O’Connell Street – Known by the locals as the Stiffy by the Liffey, it is a 120m in height pin-like monument that was created as a replacement for Nelson’s Pillar which was blown up 1966. There isn’t too much to do at the Spire, except shopping, but it still is pretty cool to see.The Spire, Dublin
  14. Pick a favourite Dublin bridge – it is a common debate between me and Rob on which is the best bridge in Dublin between the Ha’penny Bridge (my fave) and Samuel Beckitt Bridge (his fave). Which one is your fave?Ha'Penny Bridge, Dublin
  15. Dance to trad music in an Irish bar – a good place to find trad music is Temple Bar, if you are not for the tourist crowds, Brazen Head is big enough that you can find a seat and still hear the trad music.
  16. Trinity College – This is a university in the middle of town, you can walk around campus and enjoy the varsity vibes, there is also an art gallery on campus that is free to visit.
  17. Street art hunting – This is a favourite thing for me and Rob to do, because street art can be found in the most unusual places. If you are looking for some good pieces, then I recommend following Subset on Instagram, they are currently running a project called grey area project which is a great initiative treating street art like an open-air art gallery.

  18. Window shop at George Street Arcade – Ireland’s first purpose built shopping center, filled with all sorts of knick knacks – from artwork, to vintage clothing, to music. It is an interesting spot to wander through.
  19. Dublin Castle Gardens – One day we went to George Street Arcade, grabbed a coffee and a cupcake and walked over to Dublin Castle Gardens, which is also free to visit. You have to pay to do a tour of Dublin Castle, but I would suggest rather walking around the grounds yourself, without paying the entrance.
  20. Brave a swim at forty foot or sea point – Last summer, Rob and I braved the Irish sea and went for a swim at seapoint. It was the hottest day in Summer and still, the water was freezing! Having said that, plenty of people take a dip in the sea all year round, and it is completely free to do.Seapoint Dublin

BONUS TIP: Did you know you can take a tour of the president’s house for free? Tours are available most Saturdays, all year round. You can get a ticket on a first-come-first serve basis from the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre. We have not yet done the tour, so I am not sure if it is worthwhile, but the fact that you can visit the President’s House and for free, does intrigue me. I think it might be good to get there early, and then perhaps take a walk around Phoenix Park while you are there.

BEEN TO DUBLIN? WHAT DID YOU LOVE TO SEE OR DO IN DUBLIN THAT DIDN’T COST ANYTHING?

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

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Looking for some things to do this weekend that won't cost you a million Euro? On a tight budget but still want to explore as much of Dublin as you can, without breaking the bank? Here are 20 ideas on things you can do in Dublin that are completely free to do!

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