We went a few weeks ago. Loved the obvious Guinness Storehouse - great 360 degree view from the Gravity Bar on top floor. Did a student led tour of Trinity College with quick visit to Book of Kells. Loved the tour/museum at the Kilmainham Jail - book ahead for timed entry.

http://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/ Also did a very fun and entertaining Literary Pub Crawl led by two actors from Dukes Pub. http://www.dublinpubcrawl.com/ Did not really have any great food anywhere but Temple Bar area is fun. All the tour guides we came across had a great sense of humor. Enjoy! We had a car before Dublin so can't recommend a tour from Dublin - we stayed put once there.

It is ~3.5 hours one-way to the Cliffs of Moher from Dublin. While lovely, it is far for one day.

I highly recommend the tour of the Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells. High tea at the Shelbourne Dublin hotel.

We were in Dublin last year at the beginning of our 2 week Ireland trip. We had a very nice dinner at Matt The Thresher. We did a musical pub crawl which took us to 3 pubs where we learned about and heard some great Irish music. And of course, we drank beer at each pub.

If you've never seen it, you might want to watch the movie, Once, about 2 musicians in Dublin. 5 Dublin film locations from Once

This is from Dec. 2017 from the Kitchen Table forum- Choloecat had 2 days in Dublin and asked for suggestions.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5027981/two-nights-in-dublin#n=19

This was my reply:

Grafton Street for shopping, eating, afternoon tea. Bewley's finally reopened
after several years. It's a great spot for tea and people watching.

https://www.bewleys.com/ie/grafton-street-cafe/

Temple Bar area - drink, dance and music, boutiques, restaurants, galleries. As they say in Ireland ' it's great craic.

Dublin has a very convenient bus system and there's a sightseeing hop
on - hop off that will take you to the most popular tourist sights.

Trinity College - home of the Book of Kells and the Long Room Library - one of my favorite places to visit.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-long-room-library

Jameson's Distillery.

The Guinness Storehouse - very commercial but an interesting spot.
The old brewery has been turned into a multi-floor museum/history of
Guinness. The Gravity bar at the top has a wonderful view of the city. It
reminds me of Disney World - there's always a shop at the end of the
tour.

Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's

Kilmainham Goal and Museum - a grim reminder of Ireland's
nationalistic past. The architecture is stunning - stark and bleak,
like a Dicken's novel.

http://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/

We wanted to visit Dublinia (the Viking and Medieval Dublin museum) but ran out of time.

The Dec - Jan 2018 issue of the National
Geographic Traveler has their "Best of the World 2018" feature. Dublin
is included in the list as the world's cheeriest city. I don't have the
issue but I was reading it while I sat in th

e waiting room. Three hotels were mentioned : The Dean, The Westbury
and Number 31. Heron and Grey was mentioned as Dublin's newest Michelin
starred restaurant.

This link offers a brief overview of places featured but the article was much longer.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/features/best-trips-destinations-2018/#temple-bar-dublin-ireland

See what’s playing at the Gaiety Theater. I really enjoyed The Little Museum of Dublin. Our tour guide was Cara and she was so funny. It’s small and located right at St Stephens Green. I enjoyed the tour of jail mentioned above. I have to be honest and say I was underwhelmed by The Book of Kelly’s but the long Library was amazing.

Just do the pubs. Craic will ensue. From an Irish girl who misses her homeland.

Great suggestions, everybody! Can't wait to explore Dublin. I'll skip the Cliffs of Moher but will do Howth Cliff.

We'll be in the Wicklow Mountains for two days. Is there anything I shouldn't miss?

My family went to Ireland in 2013 and stayed in the small town of Doolin, on the west coast, at a B&B. All of our bedroom windows had a view of the Cliffs of Moore. We loved all the little pubs in Doolin and seeing the Cliffs, of course. A few days later we drove east across the country, (doing a tour of Bunratty Castle on the way) as our departure flight was from Dublin.

Once in Dublin, me did most of the things mentioned by other posters. But we all agreed that we actually loved visiting the rural town of Doolin, the most. Dublin reminded us of Toronto, where we live, meaning, vibrant and interesting, but both are large cities with different tourist attractions.

I know you only have 4 days, but any driving you can do outside of Dublin, to get a more 'homey' perspective of Ireland's small towns, will be something you'll greatly appreciate. I've told my kids that someday I want them to return to the Cliffs of Moher, and toss my ashes over the edge, as I truly left part of my heart in Ireland. Have a wonderful trip!

P.s., funny thing we encountered in Dublin, was that the street name signs are often printed on the bricks of the buildings that are on the intersections, rather than on street corner poles, like in North America. We missed a few turns because we couldn't see any street signs, until someone finally noticed that they put the street name on the corner buildings, instead of simply on the intersection. Like this:

https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA773CA773&biw=1536&bih=759&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=7np0W9TUHOfOjwTsvYCQCg&q=intersection+in+Dublin+showing+street+name+on+building&oq=intersection+in+Dublin+showing+street+name+on+building&gs_l=img.3...34326.50551.0.51637.91.64.6.3.4.0.175.6754.9j51.60.0....0...1c.1.64.img..28.21.1894...0j0i67k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.0.aIrpbZBuh-E#imgrc=kS17ynvsObGpuM:

Bookmarking this thread! Speaking of bucketlist travel, one of the places we want to go, but I don't see us taking a super long tour or fly/drive since when I am off school in the summer, DH is super busy. Saving our miles so we can get business class.

Amicus, I'm with you. I wish I would have had time to visit more of outside Dublin. I was underwhelmed by Dublins tourists attractions. For me a perfect vacation is meeting locals to an area and eating/drinking in less touristy places...places they go. Or, walking. When doing the Howth walk we went off trail and temporarily got lost. We ended up meeting two nice women on horseback and had a nice chat. That's what it's all about, a "feel of the land".

When we were in the Wicklow Mountains we toured the Glendalough Monastic Settlement originally settled in the 6th century by St. Kevin. We combined it with a tour of Powerscourt Gardens and the shops. The mansion was renovated nearly 50 years ago but then gutted by fire and just the shell was left. It's now been re-opened but not as a home instead it houses shops that feature Irish-made goods like Avoca and some imported furnishings, clothing and a terrace cafe.

The first time I went to Ireland I took my son on a graduation from Law School adventure. I hired a private driver who was a retired high school history teacher, a former B and B owner in Galway and who now is a private chauffeur who arranges travel plans. He's a native Irish speaker and he seemed to know everyone. We discussed the itinerary and then I let him make our reservations. It worked out really well - if the weather looked iffy he'd just call his contacts at the hotel and change or cancel our reservations. He gave us suggestions for restaurants, shops, tours etc. He had planned on taking my son golfing at the Galway Country Club but that turned out to be a rainy, windy day.

The other advantage was that I didn't have to adjust to driving on the other side of the road or learn to navigate the round-abouts and he was free to make little detours here and there. So I was able to sit back, gaze out the window and listen to his stories and songs. He had a sweet tooth and his favorite mid-afternoon detour was to a coffee shop or pub that had great desserts. He knew the staff at Ashford Castle (once owned by the Guinness family but is now a 5 star luxury hotel - and arranged for us to have a private tour. We did Dublin on our own but used Dave for the week we traveled outside the city.

My son's favorite stops would probably be the night scene around Temple Bar but I loved the small picturesque towns we stopped in along the way. Our first night was in Kinvara, a quaint little harbour town with it's own castle (Dunguaire), then on to Killarney, Kinsale, Glengarriff, Galway, Connemara. My second trip was shorter and I spent most of the time in Northern Ireland. Now that I've discovered the Townland in Sligo where my great-grandparents lived I'd love to go back and see the remains of their tiny deserted village and spend time along the Wild, Atlantic Way. I'm trying to convince my DS and DDIL who are avid hikers and bikers to join me.

For those who may have more time to spend in the Dublin area - this notice from Tourism Ireland was in my in-box - "Nature Walks and Hikes near Dublin."

https://www.ireland.com/en-us/what-is-available/sightseeing/destinations/republic-of-ireland/dublin/articles/dublin-coastal-towns-and-villages/?utm_source=acton&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MainCTA_longemailaugust18-StonesThrowFromDublin&utm_campaign=2018_warm_email_program

I'll report back :)