A Quick Overnight in Dublin, Ireland

Dublin was an accidental addition to our itinerary. When looking at plane tickets on Google Flights, we realized that we could save $500+ per ticket (if we recall correctly; summer air ticket pricing can be quite silly) if we added an overnight layover in Dublin on our way home. While arriving late evening and leaving at lunch time is less than ideal, for a group 5 people, we decided to go for it. Plus, my parents had never been to Ireland and were interested in a (very) brief glimpse.

You can check out some of our flight strategies we have used over the years.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Arrival in Dublin

So, things don’t always go to plan – we were supposed to land at the Dublin airport around 11:00pm, but when the fuel truck for our plane had a spill, we had to wait for it to be cleaned up and inspected by the fire department. While we were fortunate to not end up as a giant fireball, we did arrive in Dublin a bit later than expected.

The other unfortunate incident was that we discovered that we could not check our bags all the way to San Francisco. We would be required to pick them up in Dublin, then wait in all the check-in lines in the morning to get them back on the plane. All the trouble we took to pack our overnight bags was wasted.

After waiting in the taxi queue for a taxi-van, we finally made it to our hotel around 1am. So much for being able to get a good night’s sleep and being able to spend the morning sightseeing.

But, the hotel was lovely. Gigantic rooms, friendly staff, we were quite happy.

Mom and Dad thought that they might at least be able to visit an Irish pub, but alas, at that time in the morning on a Sunday night, they were told that everything was closed. They did a quick walk to confirm, but quickly realized that the hotel staff was spot on.

Monday, July 8, 2019

Morning Stroll

We decided to get up early and take a stroll, so after just a few hours of sleep, we decided to meet at 7:00am and take a quick walk to the Ha’Penny Bridge. With plans for a 7:30am breakfast and an 8:00am cab, we ended up turning back before making it there, but we were able to snap a few pictures and little else.

Full Irish Breakfast

But, we were able to enjoy a “full Irish breakfast.”

Mom and Dad thought it was “interesting.” John thought baked beans and ham for breakfast was a great idea!

Home Sweet Home

Online reviews seemed to indicate that we may need as much as 3 hours to get through all the airport lines, security, and U.S. Immigration Pre-clearance. As it turns out, the airport was completely empty, and we only needed about 2 hours, but I could easily see it taking 3. It was a little shocking how many lines we had to wait in.

Mom and Dad’s plane left about an hour before ours, but James never minds more time at the airport. Getting to look at foreign planes landing and taking off is always a treat for him!