Dublin Ireland Hidden Gems: 6 Odd Day Trips
Six genuinely different day trips sit within reach of a Dublin hotel room, and only Howth is actually quick. The rest ask for real time, real booking discipline, or in Belfast’s case, a different currency in your wallet by lunchtime. This page is the odd-facts version of that map: a fined-for-feeding seal colony, a lake the Guinness family dressed up to look like a pint, a passage tomb older than the pyramids that hands out solstice tickets by lottery, and a coastal road that ends at hexagonal rock columns a giant supposedly built to reach Scotland.
| Day trip | Travel time from Dublin | Booking needed | Odd hook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Howth | 30-35 min by DART | None | Seals at the harbour, feeding them can cost you EUR 5,000 |
| Glendalough and Wicklow | About 1h20 by bus or car | None for the site, book tours ahead | The lake dressed up to look like a pint of stout |
| Newgrange and the Boyne Valley | Guided tour only, no walk-up | Yes, days to weeks ahead | Older than the pyramids, solstice access is a lottery |
| Galway | 2h20-2h30 each way by train | Recommended in peak season | Looks casual, isn’t, best as an overnight |
| The Cliffs of Moher | 3-3.5 hours each way by coach | Recommended, fills by midweek in summer | 90 minutes at the cliffs for 6 hours of driving |
| Belfast and the Giants Causeway | About 2 hours by train, further by coach | Recommended for coach tours | Your euro stops working partway through the day |
Howth: cliff loop, seals, and a fine you don’t want
Take the DART from Connolly, Pearse, or Tara Street, roughly 30 to 35 minutes, a train every half hour, a few euro each way or covered by a Leap Card zone fare. Walk the Cliff Path Loop around the peninsula, then head down to the harbour, where a resident colony of grey seals has been scrounging scraps from the fishing boats for decades. One trick worth knowing before you get there: feeding them yourself, however tempting, can draw a fine reportedly up to EUR 5,000 under local bylaws, so buy the seal-safe fish bits sold at the harbour fish shop instead of tossing your own chips. Check current Leap Card zone fares on transportforireland.ie before you tap in.
Is Howth worth doing if I only have one spare half day? Yes, easily. It needs no ticket, no tour bus, and no backup plan if the weather turns, which makes it the one day trip on this list you can decide to do the same morning. Save the bigger, bookable trips for when a full day is actually free.
Glendalough and Wicklow: a lake dressed up as a pint of stout
About an hour to an hour twenty each way by bus or car, no direct train. St Kevin’s monastic ruins and Round Tower sit free to walk beside two lakes in the Wicklow Mountains, but the odder stop is Lough Tay, nicknamed the Guinness Lake because the Guinness family, who own the estate around it, imported white sand to lay along the shore so the dark, peat-stained water looks from above like a pint mid-pour. You can only view it from roadside pull-offs on the R759, not walk down to it, since the shoreline sits on private land. Wicklow doubled as several locations in the film P.S. I Love You, including Sally Gap and the bridge at Ballysmuttan, if a film-location detour appeals. Check current Glendalough and Wicklow tours on GetYourGuide rather than assume a summer weekend slot is open. See nationalparks.ie for the national park’s current trail conditions.
Newgrange and the Boyne Valley: older than the pyramids, entered by lottery
There is no walk-up option. Newgrange, a Neolithic passage tomb that predates both Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, is reachable only by guided tour from the Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre, with booking windows opening days to weeks ahead depending on season. The genuinely odd detail: winning a spot inside the chamber at dawn on one of the winter solstice mornings (19-23 December) isn’t sold at all, it’s drawn by a free public lottery each year through solsticelottery.ie, with entries closing around 30 September and winners notified by October. Everyone else sees the solstice light effect recreated with an artificial beam on the regular guided tour. Compare Bru na Boinne and Newgrange tours on Viator if you’d rather not chase the official booking window yourself.
Can I just show up to Newgrange without booking? No. Every visit to the passage tomb itself runs through a timed guided tour from the visitor centre, and there is no independent route to the mound. Book through heritageireland.ie as soon as your dates are fixed, especially June through August.
Galway: the day trip that is secretly a train commitment
Irish Rail runs direct from Heuston Station, roughly 2 hours 20 to 2 hours 30 each way, 9 to 10 trains a day. A same-day round trip burns close to 5 hours on trains for maybe 3 to 4 hours actually in the city, cobbled Latin Quarter, the Spanish Arch, live trad sessions if you linger past dinner. It’s routinely pitched as a casual Dublin add-on and it genuinely isn’t one.
Is the Cliffs of Moher day trip actually worth it?
Yes, but go in with the math done first. A full-day coach tour runs 12 to 13 hours round trip, departing Dublin around 6:45 to 7am, for something like 90 minutes to 2 hours actually standing at the cliffs in County Clare. The cliffs earn the visit; the single-day round trip from Dublin barely earns itself back. If a spare night is anywhere in the plan, base overnight in Galway or Doolin instead and turn the same cliffs into a relaxed half day. Check Cliffs of Moher tour departures on GetYourGuide before assuming a Saturday slot is open; these fill by midweek in summer. See cliffsofmoher.ie for current visitor centre hours if you’re self-driving instead.
Do I need British pounds for Belfast and the Giants Causeway?
Yes. The Enterprise train crosses from Dublin Connolly into Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, in roughly 2 hours, and the currency switches to pounds sterling the moment you’re across, euro included in your wallet stops being spendable. A further coach or train-plus-bus leg gets you on to the Giants Causeway itself, hexagonal basalt columns that legend credits to the giant Finn McCool building a crossing to Scotland. Cards work almost everywhere, but carry or withdraw a little sterling if you want cash in hand. Compare Belfast and Giants Causeway day tours on Viator if you’d rather do the coach version than combine the train with a separate local tour.
When to go
June through August gives the longest daylight for the far trips but the tightest booking windows, Newgrange’s peak slots and Cliffs of Moher weekend coaches both sell out days to weeks ahead. April, May, and September trade a little daylight for a far easier booking experience. St Patrick’s Festival, 14 to 17 March 2026, is worth timing a city day around if the parade interests you, though it adds nothing to the day trips themselves. Rain is a baseline on every one of these six trips regardless of month, pack a proper layer and don’t gamble on a dry season.
Where to stay for these day trips
Stay in Dublin’s city center, Temple Bar or St Stephen’s Green both put you an easy DART or bus ride from every trip on this list, and none require changing hotels. The one exception is the Cliffs of Moher: if a spare night is on the table, book it in Galway or Doolin instead of forcing the coach both ways in a single day. Compare Dublin city center rates on Booking.com for your base.
Getting there without guessing
Howth runs on the DART and a Leap Card, same as the city. Glendalough, Newgrange, and the Cliffs of Moher run on tour coaches or a rental car, none of them sit on a direct rail line. Galway and Belfast both run on rail, Irish Rail and the cross-border Enterprise service respectively, book through irishrail.ie for the better early fares. For the day-by-day version with all six trips sequenced against a Dublin city day, see our 2-day through 7-day plans, and for the honest verdict on the Belfast and Giants Causeway crossing, see our Belfast day trip page . For Dublin itself, city only, our Dublin hidden gems guide and Temple Bar page cover the ground this one deliberately skips. Whatever else you leave loose, book Newgrange and the Cliffs of Moher the day your dates are fixed, not the week before.