Discover Dublin With Your Kids

Dublin is a brilliant city to visit with kids. The warmth of the people and the universal family friendliness of Dublin’s attractions and venues will ensure you feel welcomed with open arms wherever you go. Dublin boasts a huge number of sites and activities specifically tailored for children, but of course the city is also renowned for its fantastic pubs and vibrant live music scene. It is remarkably easy to enjoy these fabulous aspects of the city with your little ones as you’ll quickly discover that Dublin beer gardens and pubs are in almost every instance extremely child-friendly, including many which offer live music in more child-friendly afternoon slots for the whole family to enjoy.

Delve Into Dublin

Whether this dazzling jewel of the Emerald Isle is a new city for you and your family or you’re already familiar with Dublin’s charms, here are a few highlights and ideas to help you plan your visit and guarantee fun for everyone in this fair city.

Getting Around the City

Dublin is a beautiful city to walk or cycle around and it is also served by a tremendous public transport system enabling you to travel by train, tram or bus.

A great option that allows you to use all of these modes of transport would be snapping up a DoDublin Freedom Travel Pass. This is an all-in-one sightseeing and transport ticket that gives you the freedom to travel anywhere in Dublin using the extensive public transport system, and visit all the most famous locations and attractions on Dublin’s Hop-on Hop-off tour. What makes it even better is the fact that with each adult ticket purchased, one child up to the age of 15 goes free – told you Dublin was super child friendly!

The ticket includes:

• 72 Hours Travel Pass
• Airport Bus Routes 16 + 41
• Entire Dublin Bus Network
• Tram (Luas) and Train (DART) Networks
• 48 Hours Hop-on Hop-off Tour

It is a great value option that gives you the freedom to explore the whole city, so let’s have a look at where you should go.

Phoenix Park

Magnificent and expansive, Dublin’s Phoenix Park is one of the largest enclosed public parks in all of Europe so it provides plenty of space for kids to run around, cycle, and explore. You can hire bikes within Phoenix Park, visit the park’s many historical sites, let the children clamber and scamper happily in the universal access playgrounds and look out for the park’s resident herd of wild deer.

Dublin Zoo

For animal lovers, Phoenix Park not only hosts the aforementioned deer herd and an abundance of wildlife, the park is also the location of Dublin Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in the world. The zoo is up there as one of Ireland’s top visitor attractions and cares for a wide range of wonderful animals, carrying out fantastic work in species conservation.

Dublinia Viking Experience

Dublinia is a fantastic museum that let’s your little budding historians explore Viking and medieval Dublin through interactive exhibits and reconstructions. Children’s events and craft activities run regularly and the fascinating history of Dublin’s Viking history is brought vividly to life.

Viking Splash Tours

For a further Viking fix, hop aboard the Viking Splash Tours amphibious vehicle which enables you to enjoy a fun and unique tour of Dublin by land and water.

Children Welcome

Relaxing in a pub or beer garden which welcomes children (and the vast majority of Dublin establishments do) is the perfect way to unwind after some action-packed sightseeing. One thing Dublin is not short of is pubs, they are everywhere! So the fact McGowans of Phibsboro was awarded ‘Dublin’s Best Pub’ in the 2024 Bar Awards is quite an accolade – and it also boasts a lovely beer garden.

We have only scratched the surface here of this wonderful city, but hopefully these highlights will give you a starting point to curate your own Dublin adventure. So explore the city, enjoy the craic, then treat yourself to a well-deserved refreshment in one of the cities fabulous pubs, ‘Slainte!’ to that!  

See more of my family travel posts here

Becky

Meet the award-nominated UK lifestyle blogger behind Spirited Puddle Jumper – a mum of three living in South East London! Becky shares the real ups and downs of family life, parenting tips, and lifestyle inspiration, proving that being a mum doesn’t mean you stop being fun or having other interests! Follow along for honest insights into UK family life and opinions on a whole range of topics, from travel and food, to beauty reviews, home and DIY, business and health and wellness.