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Source: AP/Press Association Images
COMING TO DUBLIN? Don’t bother with Grafton Street, Irish breakfasts or Temple Bar.
That’s the advice Condé Nast Traveler has for tourists visiting the capital.
The travel publication just published an online feature entitled “What Not To Do In Dublin” in which it lists dos and don’ts for visiting the city.
For one thing, tourists should avoid Temple Bar at all costs. Journalist Emily Westbrook warns prospective visitors that it you will “pay twice as much for a pint” and you won’t be getting an “authentic Irish experience”.
Instead, she advises people to drop by some of the city’s less touristy watering holes like Grogan’s or Hogan’s.
Source: Artur Widak
The magazine says that people shouldn’t even bother with Grafton Street with the street’s only appeal being the “prevalence of buskers”. The nearby Creative Quarter (South William Street) gets the magazine’s seal of approval, though.
Open-top bus tours, cheesy souvenirs and expensive tourist destinations like the Guinness Storehouse are also on the publication’s list of don’ts.
Source: LWYang/Flickr
The magazine also warns people not to bother looking for a plate of bacon and cabbage, as you’ll only find it in tourist traps.
Ditto Irish breakfasts, which they describe as being “gluttonous” only to be eaten when “hungover and looking for something to soak up the last night’s pints”.
Visitors are instead told to try “porridge or yoghurt”.
Fun.
- Amy O'Connor
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Not bad advice
Damn, they’re catching on! Lol
Can’t argue with that. You can also spot the Meth heads from the open top bus
Hard to disagree with the advice regarding temple bar or grafting st, but all depends what you’re looking for.
Travel ‘experts’ such as lonely planet etc. can be a bit too precious though. Most people will still go to these places, pay a bit more, and enjoy them, which is all they really care about, not what some travel nerd thinks is authentic.
They are waking up to rip off Ireland, price of a pint in Temple bar scandalous.
Except for the porridge and yoghurt piece
Everyone agrees Temple Bar is a kip. So why don’t Sinn Fein dominated Dublin City Council do something about it?
I like Temple bar, I avoid the little square and grubby fleet street. There’s more to Temple bar than a few overpriced pubs.
Dere’s more to oirland dan dis..,
So, they told the truth? Jaysus, can’t be having that now…
Try O’reillys under tara at station instead
In fairness……they’re kinda right!
Except about the Irish Breakfast. A heart attack never tasted so good.
Fair enough. Although suggesting porridge instead of a great big greasy, “gluttonous” Irish breakfast is really more dietary advice rather then a tourist tip
100% correct with regards to Temple Bar. Completely over priced and over rated.
Same here. Although I disagree with not going to the storehouse. That’s a great tour and good value.
The storehouse is pointless.
The storehouse is a waste of time. The Jameson tour in Midleton or the tour of Bushmills are far more authentic experiences.
The Storehouse is one big ad. I went with some guests from abroad and was embarrassed by the lack of any useful history in the presentation. It was just a PR exercise for the drinks company. I ended up explain the history of the place!
That’s a manky looking parsley sauce.
I could not agree more with her.as a taxi driver I tell people to stay out of temple bar
Last year I met this couple from Boston who said the best thing about visiting Ireland is the Taxi drivers. They tell you exactly what you should know and what you need to know. Best advice you can give anyone visiting Ireland.
Frys are gluttonous,bit rich coming from the land of the mcfatties lol!
Ah used to love the Bewleys breakfast after a night out, so broke now it’s just beans on toast if I’m lucky.
Bewleys all day breakfast was a must have, then they tried to become something better, ended up that was the gutter….
And don’t talk about those tiny, overpriced cups of what they call coffee. Anyone remember the lovely big mugs of hot, hot coffee and those cherry and almond buns?
Ya can’t bate a good fry…..SIMPLES…..
around the Liberties you’ll get a real fry for half the price of the Grafton St area.
I don’t really like most pubs in temple bar but most tourists do seem to. It depends what you are looking for but some of them do have a few
Musicians sitting on seats planing in sandals lashing out a few songs – not authentic whatever that means but it’s kind of what lots want.
If visiting for a weekend not everyone wants to go to the latest hipster bar – let’s face it all cites have them anyway.
I’d happily go to a bar playing traditional german music in Munich but I’m quite aware it’s for the tourists – which I happily am at times
Harsh enough. I disagree with all except for the Temple Bar recommendation. It is an underwhelming rip off.
Irish breakfasts are a thing of beauty though! A bit funny to hear a US publication describe our breakfasts “gluttonous”. Ever see whats on offer in American buffet breakfast? Or the portion sizes your given in diners? No wonder they are obese.
Grafton Street has to be one of the nicest in the city. Some great shops, usually decent buskers and a nice place to go for a stroll to/from Saint Stephen’s Green.
Did the Guinness Storehouse in January and while it is a bit expensive the pints are lovely and the views of the entire city second to none.
Never did the open bus tours but i did do the Viking tour and i thought it was fantastic. Educational and hilarious.
Walked down O’Connell St the other day. It was like a scene out of the Walking Dead. Junkies everywhere.
It’s time we brought in the Zero Tolerance strategy for Dublin that Gulliani brought in to clean up New York.
That’s what happens when you locate 90% of drug services in Ireland on a couple of streets in central Dublin. You have junkies from all over Leinster travelling to the capital.
Mick Jordan, maybe when this moronic government decide its time to have more Gardai, O’Connell St might be cleaned up!
Give it a rest.
Yes dublin needs a serious sort-out, walk around the city centre most mornings and the stink of puke and piss from doorways is disgusting. Junkies wandering around like the living dead (i feel for them but they should not be in the city centre), the roma beggars, the vast over supply of fast food joints and mobile phone shops. And rarely a guard in sight, The presence of a a guard on patrol is reassuring, especially to older people.
I don’t think it would take much to make dublin a safer, more attractive city.
Probably just pissed off that they saw no leprechauns.
They should recommend The Aras if they want to see a Leprechaun!!
The charm of Dublin for me are the real people and the history. Going into non touristic pubs and hearing the conversations anf the ever present musicians. These old pubs are far more authentic than the manufactured ‘Oirishness’ of newer so called REAL Irish pubs. Likewise going to Grafton St. Dublin has a grace and a wonderful dignity. Look at the architecture and the Georgian Squares yet the tourist board want to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Dublin is a uniquely beautiful, friendly city that’s why I came and saw and stayed.
Hogans gets jammed enough without fat Yanks wedging in even more, keep em in Temple Bar, burn that mag
The whole city is geared towards getting as much from your wallet as possible. The tourists are copping on now hopefully things might change for the better
Name one developed city in the world where the very centre of the city is not an over priced tourist trap
In all fairness if the Garda where manning the streets of dublin protecting it’s people doubt if this article would exists . But there far to busy being Dennis o briens security firm . Helping him force water meters on an already paid water service ..
There’s always one fool who can’t pass an article without mentioning Irish water…..
What a stupid comment! Nothing got to do with the article, just another moaner preoccupied with protests or the Gardai with nothing productive to say….Get a life!!
If Gardai were on the street then Temple Bar wouldn’t be a rip off. Got it!
Don’t forget Brogans pub.
Good toasties
Tgats grogans not brogans.
Give that magazine writer a prize for honesty. Never a truer word was written.
Porridge? Yogurt? I can eat that crap at home. Not when I’m on vacation, for sure.
It’s like the swarms of tourists in say Times Square…getting rubbed off on overpriced terrible restaurants. In any city you busy ask a local where they would eat and drink and that’s you’d first starting point.
Yeah I’d agree with temple bar and grafton street, horrible grotty places
I hope this bad review puts it up to these places so they improve the area/service/value for money. Badly need to get away from the iorish thing and give an authentic Irish experience.
I love a big Irish breakfast. I was in Arizona last week and I had pancakes and syrup. I was sick all day. Rotten.
Yeah I disagree with the article on that completely. Nothing will beat a full Irish breakfast. Once your not having it every day, it is fine for you.
Last time I was in the States I went out for breakfast in a roadside diner on the way to the airport. Order the pancakes and bacon which is fine for me. Next of all though, out comes a giant basket of wedges covered in cheesy sauce. I’m sure it would have been lovely but this was at 7 in the morning.
So its a bit rich calling an Irish fry up gluttonous when it literally is the “worst” thing health wise that you can get in this country for breakfast.
When I, we lived in Arizona
And the skies always had little fluffy clouds
And they moved down, they were long and clear
And there were lots of stars at night.
And when it would rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
The sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire
And the clouds would catch the colors everywhere
That’s neat, ’cause I used to look at them all the time when I was little
You don’t see that
Mike – good enough for you.
Visitors are instead told to try “porridge or yoghurt”.
Fun.
Amy O’Connor, I bet you’re a laugh to be around. You sound like you need a good Irish sausage inside you.
From Grafton street to Georges street are the only half decent shops in the city, and even then they’re full of stroppy staff that look at you like they’ve something better to be doing. That goes extra for the eateries around there. The minute you hit dame street northwards it’s all junkies and chavs or depending on the time of evening, if you get as far as fleet street, drunks! Really, who want’s to visit a city to see that? The National museum in Collins Barracks is a joke with collections on display with huge gaps in what they cover, items mislabled and not of a national museum quality. (Some pieces, I have better examples of in my attic) Westmoorland street is just wall to wall beggars and tacky “kiss me I’m irish” tourist shops blaring out some Dubliners ballad on a loop. Apart from the traffic noise the humm of the city is of conversations, sometimes angry, always louder than needed, barely with a consonant between them. Don’t know how we’ll keep the tourists away! Ok, Red thumb away. By the way, I grew up in Dublin, as did my family for generations, before I get lambasted for being realistic about the place. Ps, it could do with a damn good clean!!!
I tell tourists to avoid Dublin in general
Ditto, I suggest Galway, and the Aran Islands, as a far better experience.
Dublin will always attract. Your main tourist destination.
Galway is a kip Shane
Sounds like good advice to me although I always liked to take an open top bus tour when visiting any new city.
They forgot to mention the rude ill mannered Temple bar staff serving up an overpriced pint too.
Agree with them on Grafton St. Bewleys is the only place with some character and its closed these days.
Pretty much spot on advice! Not sure why it’s written in a negative way? Do we want our tourists to go home talking about how expensive and awful templebar is & how tacky our main shopping street has become? This way tourists will get to see the best Dublin has to offer?
Silly advice…
Spot on.
So right about Temple Bar, no self respecting real Irish person would drink in such a tourist trap,its only full of gormless tourists!
You’ve never been up for a bit of strange?
Sound advice.
Sensibly observed.
THE PRICE OF SHOP RENT DID THAT?
She spot on .
Great advice
Surprisedly US knew everything about Grafton St & its food!
“Creative Quarter”??
When I am in Ireland for my yearly visit I spend as little time as possible in Dublin. The west coast is the place to see, it is beautiful.
The Guinness Storehouse is a brilliant visit though. It’s only 13€ (about the same as a cinema ticket) and a place where you can relax the whole day out of the rain if you wanted on top of it being a cool and interesting museum.
And why encourage people not to try the breakfast? It’s at least a bit of fun to try (and watch – the amount of people I’ve given a full breakfast to and shocked and awed is beautiful) and gives you the energy to your the city.
Bang on about Temple Bar though, but the council should really see about fixing Grafton Street..
And?
Now for a truly authentic taste of ireland, The city of the tribes,and watch the sun go down on Galway bay, with a pint in your hand. Real trad music and no rip off prices. Such a wonderful corner on our little island.
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