With only 1 day set aside for Dublin, we had a very ambitious schedule, especially when you add jet lag into the mix. In addition to picking up our rental car (an adventure in and of itself), we had tickets to The Book of Kells Experience, a Viking Tour, and the Guinness Storehouse.
Rental cars
We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time to pick up our rental car and make it to our first stop: The Book of Kells. But a delayed flight and a very long rental car line set us back by a couple of hours.
To get our rental car, we had to take a shuttle to a lot. Our express pickup booking didn’t do us any good because there wasn’t an express pickup window. We waited in line for about 30 minutes, then another 15 for the car. Luckily, I packed a lot of Cheerios.
We took advantage of the long wait to change our clothes, freshen up, and fill up on travel snacks so that we’d be all set to hustle into Dublin to make our entry time for the Book of Kells.
A note on luggage
Unless we’re on a ski trip, we try to only travel with carry-on. Given the size of the cars in Europe, we were very happy with our luggage decision. We rented a mid-sized SUV, and everything fit in with enough room to use the luggage cover. We saw other travelers who were less fortunate, with large checked bags that didn’t fit in their rental cars.
Driving on the wrong side
I was really nervous about driving on the right side of the road, but in the end, it turned out to not be so bad, and we got used to it pretty quickly. The bigger challenge was the narrow roads, but I’ll get to those after Dublin.
The Book of Kells
Navigating the streets around Trinity College was a challenge, but we managed to find parking at the Grafton Car Park, which was about a 10-minute walk to Trinity College.
Tip
Buy tickets in advance. They were sold out for the day, but we had purchased our tickets online a couple of weeks earlier. And even though we arrived after our ticketed time, they still let us in.
Little details to keep little ones happy
When we entered the exhibit, we were handed a printout with a scavenger hunt for the kids. It was too much for our overtired 9-year-old (with a full night’s sleep, it would have been perfect), so we eventually abandoned it, but I appreciated that they put together an activity to keep kids engaged. And despite their tired state, the kids took away learnings from the scavenger hunt that they referenced later during the trip, such as Ogham stones.
The highlight for the kids was the Digital Exhibition in the Red Pavilion. This exhibit was interactive. They especially loved the talking busts at the start of this part of the experience. There was also a beautiful interactive video about the history of the Book of Kells, which offered a lot of information about Ireland and provided great context to kick off our vacation.
The whole visit took about 1.5 hours. Afterwards, we left the university and went across the street to KC Peaches, on Nassau Street. They had plenty of food options, but the highlight was their fresh juices and smoothies. After getting a second wind from our juices, we walked around the streets, making our way to St. Stephen’s Green for our Viking Tour.
See Dublin Part 2 for our St. Stephen’s Green, our Viking Tour experience, and the Guinness Factory Tour. And yes, we did pack a lot into day one, but our packed schedule successfully kept us awake so that we could get on the right time zone.
Have Kids, Will Travel 
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