What should I avoid in Dublin?

Temple Bar is the mistake nearly every first-timer makes on night one. By 9pm the cobbles between Fleet Street and Essex Street smell of spilled lager and fried onions, and the buskers outside The Temple Bar pub are playing Galway Girl on a loop. A pint of Guinness there has been reported at around €10 late at night, which is about $11.18 at the current rate of 1 USD to 0.8944 EUR. Walk eight minutes south instead and you're at Grogan's on South William Street, where the same pint runs closer to €7, with no music, no television, and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich that arrives in its paper wrapper. The Long Hall on South Great George's Street is the other safe answer, with red carpet and warm brass from the Victorian era. Temple Bar is fine at 11am, though, and the Saturday food market in Meeting House Square is worth 30 minutes.

Dublin Airport has no train, and that surprises people at Terminal 1 arrivals. A taxi to the centre likely costs €30 to €40 and can sit in Drumcondra traffic for 40 minutes at rush hour. Take the Dublin Express or Aircoach from outside the terminal instead, roughly €8 to €10 and often about 30 minutes to the quays. Dublin Bus routes 16 and 41 are cheaper still, but the driver takes exact coins and gives no change, so a €20 note is useless at the door. Buy a Leap Visitor Card, currently sold at the airport Spar and WHSmith, before you step out into the cold diesel air of the bus bays. Don't rent a car for the city either: the M50 toll has no booths, cameras read your plate, and the penalty lands on the rental company's desk if you miss the 8pm deadline the next day.

Don't book the Cliffs of Moher coach for your first full day. County Clare is on the opposite coast, roughly three hours each way, and jet lag on a stuffy coach is a poor trade for 90 minutes at a windy cliff edge. Howth is the better answer: the DART from Connolly Station reaches the harbour in about 30 minutes, and you can eat fish and chips on the West Pier with salt on the wind and seals begging beside the trawlers. In town, think twice about paying for the Long Room at Trinity College at the moment. Most of its 200,000 books have been taken off the oak shelves for conservation, so check what is on view before you buy a ticket of around €20. The Guinness Storehouse is still worth doing, but walk-up queues on a Saturday afternoon can run long, and online slots before 11am tend to cost less. The National Gallery of Ireland on Merrion Square charges nothing for its permanent collection.

Dublin feels safe by day, but a few blocks north of the Liffey change after dark. TTDI rates solo-traveler safety at 6.8/10 (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), and most of what pulls that down sits around the Spire. The Liffey Boardwalk, Talbot Street, and the lanes off O'Connell Street tend to see open drug use and loud drinking after 11pm, so cross at O'Connell Bridge. Phone snatching by teenagers on bikes has been reported on Dame Street and around Grafton Street, so step into a doorway to check your map. Skip the pedal rickshaws outside the Temple Bar pubs: they carry no meter, while licensed taxis booked on the FREE NOW app must take cards. It is 14.8°C in Dublin today and feels like 10.8°C in the wind, so umbrellas die on the Ha'penny Bridge and a hooded rain jacket survives. On a Dublin breakfast menu, black pudding is a peppery blood sausage bound with oats, and white pudding is the same sausage without the blood.