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 Guiness. 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.

On my first visit to Dublin my top choice of what to see what the book of Kells at Trinity college. Here's a link. Book of Kells

Irish people are very friendly and welcoming, and seem to be happy. No nicer people at first encounter to be found anywhere. But to me, it's a so-so country all the same.

Dublin is a small town in many ways with just a few attractions. TripAdvisor is always a good reference. Two full days in Dublin (assuming this doesn't count the day of arrival or departure) should be more than enough. On another visit, allow more time to rent a car and drive around the countryside and to see the West coast. It's lovely and there are interesting things to see there and along the way.

Ireland is a beautiful country and I was lucky enough to spend two days in Dublin a few years ago. I did the usual, such as seeing the Book of Kells, but what I found most interesting was visiting the National Gallery of Ireland and seeing Caravaggio's painting The Taking of Christ, created in 1602. I had read a fascinating book about how this painting had been lost for hundreds of years and was found after much research. The people who possessed it had no idea that it was a Caravaggio worth millions of dollars. Then there were mishaps with the restoration. Beautiful painting, amazing story! Lost Caravaggio painting

Another vote for Trinity College for the library and the Book of Kells. And the Guinness Storehouse.

Thank you, everyone! I've been looking at TripAdvisor (I'm a HUGE fan/contributor there!) but was hoping to get these sorts of answers.

Trinity College and the Book of Kells is now at the very top of our list. :)

I have a co-worker who toured the Guinness facility, and he raves about it. I'm intrigued, though, by the Jamesons distillery. :)

To answer a few questions - yes, it's two full days and we won't have a rental car on this trip, but do plan to spend a week or so there in 2019. Would love to drive through the countryside, as Elmer suggested.

As to whether we're attending Harry & Meghan's wedding, well... it's going to be happening while we're there, so if our invitation gets here (haha!) we'd consider going. lol

Be sure to share pics of your trip, please!!

Oh My, you are going to love, love Ireland and all the suggestions are really good ones...We flew into Dublin this past August, got there fairly early and spent the whole day, walking to the different places...Would you believe, we walked 10 miles but it was great...We then spent the night at Fitzpatrick Castle before driving up the east coast to Belfast..... We only stayed at B & Bs the rest of the trip and it couldn't have been better, I highly recommend it...The people in Ireland are a special breed, go out of their way to be super helpful...It was indeed a trip of a lifetime and already, we're planning to go back, soon.......

Sunnydj23 - we always walk SO much when we're in Europe! We average 10-12 miles every day. :) I love that - I can eat pretty much whatever I want, and not worry about weight gain. In fact, I almost always come home about 3 pounds lighter!

I love Ireland, Dublin not so much. I think the Guinness Storehouse is a waste of time- very commercial, and just Disney like. Don't miss the Long Hall. And, don't miss Kilmainham Goal and Museum- check if you need to make advance reservations. Have a drink at the Shelbourne Hotel. Western Ireland is just so beautiful; it's a shame you won't have time to explore. Ireland is a driving country. Dublin, for the most part, is like any other city.

@maddie260 - thanks for the info on Guinness. I don't think it's a "shame" that we don't have a chance to explore Western Ireland on this trip. We specifically built two extra days into our itinerary to visit Dublin only. As I mentioned above, our 2019 vacation plans include at least a week in Ireland. :)

"Dublin, for the most part, is like any other city"

It depends upon what your definition of "city" is. To me, by the standards of the great European cities, Dublin is a large small town. It doesn't come close to approaching the greatness, attractions and appeal, or history of the perhaps 20 or more great cities of Europe.

Elmer - have you, by chance, toured Dublin Castle? The descriptions on TripAdvisor are swaying me away from it.

I have and I don't really recommend it. It's not that old nor that interesting. It's one of those places I think of in this way: "if there were more to see and do in Dublin, fewer people would go there."

You may know that the history of British (really mostly English) subjugation and horrible treatment of the Irish over the centuries before Irish independence in the 1920s is ugly. I've heard from the many Irish colleagues and people I've met and worked with there during many trips over the years that while they are modern people and have MOSTLY moved on, all is not forgotten or forgiven. An Irish colleague told me that Dublin Castle (which was the seat of British rule) is somewhat a symbol of those past bad times and so is not a popular location among the Irish themselves.

EU membership (that I think began in the 1970s) gave Ireland more means to forge a separate existence and identity from the UK. They have benefited greatly from membership and often take the opportunity to make different EU decisions from the UK. They adopted the Euro as their currency (while the UK stayed with its own pound sterling) and Ireland will very much remain in the EU and wave goodbye to the UK if Brexit is accomplished.

That's kind of what I was understanding from the reviews; nobody I know, personally, has toured the castle, either.

And yes, I'm well aware of that British/Irish history (from the British side, of course). I see Theresa May is ensuring a "soft" border between Ireland & Northern Ireland after Brexit. We shall see how that works. :)

Here is a webcam of The Temple Bar. Be sure to click on it at night when it is all lit up for Christmas. It is very pretty.

The Temple Bar

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

We stayed at Number 31 during three separate visits to Dublin. The pros are that the location is excellent—quiet but just a short walk to Grafton Street and other sites. When we were there the Irish breakfasts were fantastic. Each day there were different selections that were wonderful. The cons are that the property now has new owners so I don’t know if the customer service has changed. We stayed in 3 different rooms, 2 in the main building and 1 in the Georgian building across the courtyard. One room was very tired and shabby, the other two were quite nice and spacious. The common living area with the fire place shown on their website looked very much in need of updating.

We really enjoyed the former owner, the scrumptious breakfasts and the location which is why we returned to Number 31. I don’t know if I would return unless I found a lot of very positive reviews and comments from recent visits by other travelers.