How many cities to visit: I advise
three or four cities on a trip of 7 to 12 days. Each place has a pace, and a city here takes a full day just to hear properly: a lunchtime market, a museum on a wet afternoon, a session in a pub that starts at 9:30 pm and refuses to end. Squeeze in six and you will remember only luggage racks.
Which kind suits you: Choose the
capital if you want museums, a deep range of food and easy flights. Its streets are busy, the river quays are windy, and every second doorway seems to have a queue. Pick a
mid-sized southern or western city for live traditional music, small independent cafés and people who will hand you directions plus a life story. Choose the
northern cities for political history told in murals, black taxi tours and a lower bar tab, with the bonus …
read more 👉 How many cities to visit: I advise three or four cities on a trip of 7 to 12 days. Each place has a pace, and a city here takes a full day just to hear properly: a lunchtime market, a museum on a wet afternoon, a session in a pub that starts at 9:30 pm and refuses to end. Squeeze in six and you will remember only luggage racks.
Which kind suits you: Choose the capital if you want museums, a deep range of food and easy flights. Its streets are busy, the river quays are windy, and every second doorway seems to have a queue. Pick a mid-sized southern or western city for live traditional music, small independent cafés and people who will hand you directions plus a life story. Choose the northern cities for political history told in murals, black taxi tours and a lower bar tab, with the bonus of Northern Ireland using pounds sterling instead of euros. Travelers who love nightlife should favor the university cities, where students keep the bars lively past what the smaller towns manage.
What it costs: Budget €70 to 110 a day on a backpacker footing: a dorm bed at €25 to 50, a self-catered or pub lunch at €10 to 16, a dinner at €15 to 25 and a pint at about €6 to 7.50 in the capital and slightly less elsewhere. Add entry fees of €8 to 20 for major museums and castles (many national museums are free), guided walking tours at €15 to 30 or on a tip basis, and city buses or trams at roughly €2 to 3 a ride. Intercity coaches commonly cost €10 to 30 if booked ahead. Visit costs vary, but a city stop with two paid sights usually lands at €40 to 70 beyond the bed. In Northern Ireland, convert your spending to pounds and keep a card handy.
Safety and manners: Irish cities are generally safe, with petty theft, mostly phone and bag snatching, the main issue on busy shopping streets and late at night near nightlife areas. Keep a bag zipped in crowded pubs. Book dorm beds early in summer, because the cheap ones vanish first. On the cultural side, buying a round is the custom when drinking with locals, and skipping your turn gets noticed. Tipping of 10 to 15 percent is standard in sit-down restaurants, not in pubs where you order at the bar. Talk about the weather, politely avoid reducing complicated history to a quip, and you will do fine.
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Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.