Sights in and around Dublin

[MindTone]

Me and my SO is going to Dublin for a week and would like some tips on what to see, do and eat of course we'll have a rental and would like to see the countryside as well so any tips on what's out there is also appreciated!

 

[The Edge]

My wife and I went to Ireland last year for 16 days. We stayed in Dublin for 4 nights. Guinness was fun. We both enjoyed the natural history museum and the Chester Beatty Museum, with the latter one having some premium examples of 15th century Japanese swords (the exhibit regularly changes, but even one of the guard was able to explain all of the pieces on display with detail). The food was surprisingly good almost everywhere we went.

We did one really nice dinner out at "Dax" which was nice to see the finer dining side of things.

We basically covered the southwest after that. Glendalough was a good day trip, and we just bought some cheese, bread, and salami and did a picnic there.

Hope some of that helps.

 

[McMan]

Land, pick up the rental, drive to Howth for lunch (good seafood, it's an active fishing port), take a quick drive around the ring road there for good scenic views, and then drive into Dublin to get to the hotel and in time for pints. I liked to do this since Howth is relaxing and easy to get to from the airpot.
I'd also recommend a drive to Cork (Dublin to Cork is about 3-4 hours) and day or two exploring the coastline in the SW--lots of nice towns and smaller villages. I prefer Cork to Dublin.
Another option would be to drive from Dublin to Galway; might be very touristy this time of year though.
Crack a hubcap your first day there--get it out of the way sooner rather than later