Seven days in Ireland isn’t enough time to see such a beautiful country, so we’ll have to go back! In one week, you can explore Dublin and just a little bit more. If this is your child’s first trip to Europe - you might want to play it safe and keep it simple by spending the whole week in Dublin with an excursion or two outside the city.
Find Your Home Away From Home in Dublin
Vacation apartment rentals are ideal for families traveling with autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent conditions. It’s easier to maintain familiar daily routines, manage special diets, and most important, there’s enough space (and separate spaces) for everyone to spread out and decompress after a busy day.
Living in Dublin is easy and comfortable. Most attractions open at 10, so you’re not rushing out early in the morning unless you have a bus or a train to catch.
There’s at least one pub on every block, most of which serve food, and kids are welcome in them until 9 PM. In addition to traditional Irish food, Dublin has ethic restaurants from every corner of the earth, many of which do take out if you need it. Our local LIDL supermarket was well stocked with an excellent selection of food that was ready to heat and serve, including American kid friendly classics like Mac&Cheese, chicken nuggets, and microwave popcorn.
When we need a vacation apartment in Europe, I always start by checking on Booking.com for aparthotels. An aparthotel is usually an apartment building where all of the units are short term vacation or corporate rentals. They are generally well maintained with full kitchens and laundry facilities, and professionally managed with a staff person at the front desk and a maintenance team, always a solid choice. We have also done well with VRBO apartments - although these require careful vetting since these are usually unique properties, with individual owners who have varying levels of responsiveness to problems. See here for tips on how to vet a VRBO apartment.
Line Up Your Activities
The GoCity Dublin all-inclusive pass offers admission to almost everything you would want to do in Dublin, except the Book of Kells Experience, which you need to book separately. Since we can’t go non-stop all day long, this type of pass isn’t a good value for just a day or two, but if we’re in a city long enough to use a 4-5 day ticket, we always come out ahead! We avoid waiting in line to buy tickets, and if an attraction doesn’t work out, we just leave and try another without feeling badly about it. The Guinness Storehouse and food tours require reservations, which you can make on the GoCity website after you buy your ticket.
Looking for Community Feedback on Day Tours!
Here are a few places that people commonly visit outside of Dublin. We visited some of these places but didn’t take these exact tours. We’re hoping that others in our community will add comments so we can update this post with good sensory details.
Cliffs of Moher with walking tour of Galway. We visited the Cliffs on a tour that left from Galway, so I can’t comment on the bus experience for this tour. This would be a long day but the Cliffs are a 10 out of 10 for Wow Factor and surprisingly sensory friendly. Click here to jump over to my review of the Cliffs of Moher.
Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough, and Kilkenny. This 10 hour bus tour brings you south of Dublin to a traditional sheep farm where you’ll see a sheepdog herding exhibition, a ruined 6th century monastery at a mountain lake, and the medieval city of Kilkenny. I’m planning to give this one a try the next time I’m in Dublin!
Malahide Castle and Howth. This is an easy 7-8 hour trip without too much time on the bus! We spent a morning at Malahide and found the 12th century Norman fortress both exciting and sensory friendly, but didn’t have time to do a full day tour including Howth.
Belfast, the Titanic Museum, and Giant’s Causeway. This is a long, 13 hour day, but if your child would think it’s cool to visit two countries on the same trip, this is your chance.
Farewell to Ireland
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind always be at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face…
This is the beginning of a well-known Irish blessing, wishing comfort and happiness to a loved one about to embark on an important journey to a far away place.
Irish hospitality made us comfortable and joyful throughout our stay in Ireland. We can’t wait to get back to the Emerald Isle!
