The shortest transatlantic hop from Pearson
Destinations › Europe › Dublin
Dublin is one of the shortest transatlantic crossings out of Pearson and Aer Lingus flies it nonstop year-round, which is what makes it the dependable gateway into Europe for anyone in the GTA — land at DUB and you can be on a short-haul to almost anywhere in western Europe the same morning. The city itself is small enough to cross on foot in an afternoon, and the things actually worth your time — Kilmainham Gaol, the Book of Kells, the bog bodies on Kildare Street — all sit inside that walk.
Aer Lingus runs the YYZ–DUB nonstop year-round, roughly seven hours eastbound, and it is one of the few Pearson transatlantic routes that does not disappear in midwinter. Air Canada and Air Transat add their own Toronto–Dublin nonstops seasonally, so summer gives you choice and January really does not. You land at Dublin Airport (DUB), where Aer Lingus transatlantic flights use Terminal 2. There is no rail link to the airport at all — MetroLink remains a proposal with no construction under way — so every option is by road, and the operators do not share a stand: Dublin Express coaches, Aircoach routes 700, 700X and 702, and ordinary TFI city buses including Dublin Bus 19 and 24 between the airport and Merrion Square all leave from different clusters outside the terminals. Ignore any guidebook that sends you to the Airlink Express 747 or 757: Dublin Bus suspended Airlink during the pandemic and then withdrew it permanently, and it no longer exists.
Everything sits under Transport for Ireland (TFI): Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland on the buses, Luas Red and Green lines on the trams, Irish Rail's DART and Commuter services on the rails. You want a TFI Leap Card, or a Leap Visitor Card if you would rather buy unlimited days up front. The TFI 90 Minute Fare is what makes Leap worth carrying — a single deduction covers your transfers across Dublin Bus (Express and Nitelink excluded), Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City buses, both Luas lines and DART and Commuter rail within Dublin Zone 1, provided you tap for every leg. Leap also runs daily and weekly caps: once you reach one, eligible journeys stop deducting credit for the rest of the period. Validation differs by mode and this is where visitors get caught — on buses you tap on only, but on Luas you must tap on AND tap off at the platform validator, and on DART you go through barriers at both ends. Forget to tap off a Luas and you are charged the maximum fare for that journey. Paying cash on Dublin Bus means exact coins into the farebox at the driver's cabin: notes are not accepted and no change is given.
Access is by guided tour only and you must pre-book. A limited allocation of tours is released in advance on the official Heritage Ireland site and goes fast; if your date is gone, check back on the morning of your visit for cancellations and returns. No third-party site is authorised to sell tickets, and anyone holding one is refused entry.
The Old Library Redevelopment Project has emptied the Long Room of its books apart from the first four bays as you enter, so the shelf-lined photograph in your head is not what you will see. The visit now pairs the manuscript and the Long Room with digital exhibitions in the Red Pavilion, a short walk from the Old Library.
Free entry, and the Iron Age bog bodies and the gold hoards are a genuine reason to go, not a rainy-day fallback. The Collins Barracks and Natural History branches and the National Gallery are free too.
Coastal commuter rail on the same Leap card, a cliff loop walk at the far end, seafood at the harbour. Tap in and out at the barriers at both ends or you will be charged the maximum fare.
Suits a short first trip: you are beside Trinity, the Saturday food market, the quays and the Tara Street DART and city-centre Luas stops, and you can walk home from anything. It does not suit light sleepers, anyone travelling with parents, or anyone hoping to pay Dublin prices rather than tourist prices. The cobbles are loud until closing time and the pints are the dearest in the city.
Suits people who want the old, working Dublin: the medieval cathedrals, the Guinness Storehouse, Francis Street antiques, and pubs where you are the only visitor. Does not suit anyone who wants a dense dinner scene on their doorstep, or who is bothered by long stretches of street that empty out after dark. There is a real hill up from the river.
Suits a calmer base with a proper local rhythm: canal-side cafes, a fifteen to twenty minute walk into the centre, and the Luas Green Line at Charlemont or Ranelagh when you cannot face it. Does not suit anyone who wants to roll out of bed into the sights, or anyone unwilling to walk in Irish weather.
Suits repeat visitors and families wanting space: Victorian terraces, small pubs with no tourists in them, Phoenix Park nearby, and the Luas Red Line at Smithfield straight into town. Does not suit people who want nightlife density or hotel choice, because it is mostly apartments and small guesthouses, and the walk back over the Liffey at night is very quiet.
Pork sausages, rashers, onion and potato simmered pale in a broth. It is a genuinely Dublin dish that barely exists elsewhere in Ireland, and it is pub food, not restaurant food. Watch the blackboards in the Liberties and around Camden and Wexford Street, where it usually appears on set days rather than every night.
Thick creamy chowder with brown soda bread is the default lunch on the coast, and Dublin Bay prawns are langoustines, not shrimp. Skip the city-centre versions and eat it at the harbour in Howth or Malahide, both terminus stops on the northern DART line, where the boats land beside you.
A Dublin invention, generally credited to a Chinese takeaway in Templeogue in south Dublin, though the exact year is disputed: fried chicken, chips, peppers, onions and five-spice salt shaken together in a paper bag. It went from local secret to national dish fast enough that the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2024. Any Chinese chipper does one, and the late-night stretches of Camden Street, Rathmines and Phibsborough are where it lives.
Temple Bar Food Market on Meeting House Square runs on Saturdays, the Victorian George's Street Arcade covers coffee, cheese and secondhand browsing under one roof, and Moore Street north of the Liffey is fruit stalls plus African and Asian grocers. For breakfast, a full Irish means white pudding and black pudding alongside the rest, and the soda bread is the point.
Start at the Book of Kells before the tour buses. Get the current state of play right, because most guidebooks have it wrong: the manuscript is still displayed in the Old Library's Treasury, and the Long Room is still open, but under the Old Library Redevelopment Project its shelves have been emptied of everything except the first four bays as you walk in. Go for the manuscript, the room itself and the Gaia installation now hanging in it, not for a wall of books. The same ticket covers the Red Pavilion on New Square, which holds the digital side, including Book of Kells 360 and the Long Room Reimagined. The Old Library closes to visitors at the end of 2027 for the building works, after which the manuscript moves to the Printing House. Leave by the Nassau Street gate.
A short walk from the Nassau Street gate to the National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology. Free entry, and the bog bodies and Iron Age gold are the reason to come, not a wet-weather fallback. Cut through St Stephen's Green afterwards.
Ten minutes downhill through Grafton Street and west into the George's Street Arcade, then into the edge of Temple Bar. On a Saturday, take Meeting House Square instead for the food market.
Board the Luas Red Line at Jervis or Abbey Street. Ride to James's for the Guinness Storehouse, or stay on to Suir Road and walk to Kilmainham Gaol. Kilmainham is pre-booked online only, with no walk-up tickets at all; tickets are released twenty-eight days ahead at midnight Irish time and go the same day in summer.
Walk back down Thomas Street through the Liberties for pubs that are not performing for anyone, then pick up the Luas Red Line to Abbey Street. If you need the Green Line, know how the interchange actually works: the two Luas lines cross in the city centre but share no platform, so it is a one to two minute walk from Abbey Street round to Marlborough or O'Connell GPO, and you tap off one line and tap on again at the other.
From Tara Street, Pearse or Connolly, take the DART to Howth for the cliff path loop and harbour seafood, or to Malahide for the castle and a gentler seafront. Tap in at the start and tap out at the end with your Leap card, at both ends of the journey, or you are charged the maximum fare.
Both are northern DART termini from Tara Street, Pearse or Connolly, on the same Leap card as the city. Howth gives you a signed cliff path loop from the station and a working fishing harbour to eat in; Malahide is flatter, with a castle and gardens, and is the better call with a pushchair. One warning worth more than the walk itself: the Bray to Greystones cliff walk that older guidebooks push is closed after repeated landslides and Wicklow County Council has said it will stay shut for years, so do not plan around it. The DART still runs to Bray and Greystones perfectly well if you just want the seafront.
A sixth-century monastic settlement between two lakes in the Wicklow Mountains, and the easiest way to see real Irish upland without a car. St Kevin's Bus runs it from St Stephen's Green North, opposite Stephen Court. You buy from the driver at the stop, and it takes most credit and debit cards, cash and a standard Leap card, but explicitly not the Leap Visitor card or the Young Adult card.
The cross-border train from Dublin Connolly to Belfast Grand Central, roughly hourly and about two hours each way, jointly run by Iarnrod Eireann and Translink's NI Railways, and the only cross-border rail service on the island of Ireland. Do it as a full day. Remember you are entering the UK: pounds sterling, not euro, and your Leap card is worthless there.
Dublin is one of the kinder European capitals for visiting parents and small kids, and that is worth saying plainly because Prague, Edinburgh, Lisbon and Porto are not. The centre is flat, compact and genuinely walkable end to end. There is no metro at all, so there are no stair-only underground stations to trap a stroller. The Luas trams are level-boarding and step-free at every stop, which means you roll straight on with a pushchair or a walker and nobody has to lift anything. Where it gets hard: Temple Bar, Dame Lane and the medieval core are laid in setts and cobbles that rattle wheels, catch cane tips and are miserable in any shoe with a heel. Footpaths on the older streets are narrow, and Grafton Street and Henry Street get shoulder to shoulder on weekend afternoons. DART stations are mostly step-free but boarding usually needs a staff ramp, so arrange assistance with Iarnrod Eireann in advance where you can, and otherwise arrive with time and find someone in uniform rather than assuming. Dublin Bus takes exact euro coins only into the machine beside the driver and gives no change, so a Leap card removes an argument you do not want to have with two kids on the step. Plan for weather rather than hoping: the free National Museum branches and the National Gallery are the reliable indoor days. One honest warning, Kilmainham Gaol is a long guided tour with a lot of standing and stairs and a genuinely heavy subject, so it is a poor fit for restless young children and for anyone who cannot stand for an hour.
The Republic of Ireland uses the euro. Northern Ireland, including Belfast, is the UK and uses pounds sterling, and euro is not generally accepted there, so a day trip north needs different money. When a card terminal offers to bill you in Canadian dollars, always decline and choose euro. That offer is dynamic currency conversion and the exchange rate baked into it is worse than your own bank's, every time.
Contactless is accepted almost everywhere, down to small pubs and market stalls. The exception that catches people is Dublin Bus: euro coins only, dropped into the machine beside the driver, no notes and no change given. Get a TFI Leap card, which covers Dublin Bus, the Luas and the DART on one tap. The private airport coaches are separate commercial operators with their own ticketing, so check their own websites rather than assuming Leap works on them.
Not obligatory and not expected the way it is at home. In a sit-down restaurant around ten to twelve and a half percent if the bill has no service charge, and check first, because larger tables often have it added already. In a pub where you order at the bar and carry your own drinks, you do not tip the bartender at all. Nobody will think less of you.
Type G three-pin plugs, the same chunky British ones, on 230 volts at 50 hertz. Your Canadian plugs will not fit and neither will a two-pin European adapter, so bring a Type G adapter specifically. Phone and laptop chargers are dual voltage and fine, but a Canadian hair dryer or curling iron built for 120 volts will not survive being plugged in.
Dublin tap water is treated to EU drinking-water standards and is safe to drink; carry a refillable bottle and use it. English is spoken by everyone. Irish is the first official language and appears on all public signage, so Sraid is street, Sli Amach is the way out on the Luas and DART, and Failte is welcome.
Canada's advice for Ireland is to take normal security precautions, and the realistic risk is opportunistic rather than violent: phone snatching and pickpocketing around O'Connell Street, the quays and Temple Bar, often by small groups working a distraction. Keep your phone off the outdoor pub table and your bag in front of you. Use ATMs attached to bank branches rather than standalone street machines. Licensed taxis carry a roof sign and a displayed driver ID card; if either is missing, walk on.
May, June and September are the sweet spot — long daylight, the driest stretch of a year that is never truly dry, and noticeably fewer people than July and August. Peak summer is busy and priced accordingly, and the St Patrick's Festival in March fills the city's hotel stock months out. Winter is mild but dark and wet, and a number of attractions close for several days around Christmas. Dublin Port does take cruise calls, but the city is large enough that they do not reshape a whole day; over-tourism here shows up as queues at three or four specific attractions rather than across the entire centre.
Compare the ways to get there, then build a day-by-day plan.
Aer Lingus runs the YYZ–DUB nonstop year-round, roughly seven hours eastbound, and it is one of the few Pearson transatlantic routes that does not disappear in midwinter. Air Canada and Air Transat add their own Toronto–Dublin nonstops seasonally, so summer gives you choice and January really does not. You land at Dublin Airport (DUB), where Aer Lingus transatlantic flights use Terminal 2. There is no rail link to the airport at all — MetroLink remains a proposal with no construction under way — so every option is by road, and the operators do not share a stand: Dublin Express coaches, Aircoach routes 700, 700X and 702, and ordinary TFI city buses including Dublin Bus 19 and 24 between the airport and Merrion Square all leave from different clusters outside the terminals. Ignore any guidebook that sends you to the Airlink Express 747 or 757: Dublin Bus suspended Airlink during the pandemic and then withdrew it permanently, and it no longer exists.
Everything sits under Transport for Ireland (TFI): Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland on the buses, Luas Red and Green lines on the trams, Irish Rail's DART and Commuter services on the rails. You want a TFI Leap Card, or a Leap Visitor Card if you would rather buy unlimited days up front. The TFI 90 Minute Fare is what makes Leap worth carrying — a single deduction covers your transfers across Dublin Bus (Express and Nitelink excluded), Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City buses, both Luas lines and DART and Commuter rail within Dublin Zone 1, provided you tap for every leg. Leap also runs daily and weekly caps: once you reach one, eligible journeys stop deducting credit for the rest of the period. Validation differs by mode and this is where visitors get caught — on buses you tap on only, but on Luas you must tap on AND tap off at the platform validator, and on DART you go through barriers at both ends. Forget to tap off a Luas and you are charged the maximum fare for that journey. Paying cash on Dublin Bus means exact coins into the farebox at the driver's cabin: notes are not accepted and no change is given.
May, June and September are the sweet spot — long daylight, the driest stretch of a year that is never truly dry, and noticeably fewer people than July and August. Peak summer is busy and priced accordingly, and the St Patrick's Festival in March fills the city's hotel stock months out. Winter is mild but dark and wet, and a number of attractions close for several days around Christmas. Dublin Port does take cruise calls, but the city is large enough that they do not reshape a whole day; over-tourism here shows up as queues at three or four specific attractions rather than across the entire centre.