Guiness Hop Store, Dublin

Advantages: Interesting Attraction, Complimentary Pint, Indoor Attraction
Disadvantages: None

I read about the Guinness Storehouse on Ciao about two years ago, and decided it would have to be on my list of attractions to visit on my next visit to Dublin; the thought of a complimentary pint of Guinness after browsing through seven floors of attractions of liquid black gold artefacts, being just to tempting to refuse. The museum is open seven days a week, with the exception of Xmas Eve – Boxing Day and Good Friday. During the summer the Storehouse ...
...of the year, the Storehouse closes at 5pm. Opening time is from 930am each day. The Storehouse itself is based at the Guinness Factory on the banks of the Liffey. You can reach it by strolling up the banks of the Liffey, which will likely take about 30-45 minutes depending on the length of your stride. Alternatively the Storehouse is on the Dublin Tour Bus route. The Dublin Tour Bus normally costs 12 Euros, however the very nice driver did take ... Read review

Advantages: Well thought out tour
Disadvantages: Entrance fee and souvenir shop a little expensive

INTRODUCTION My wife and I kept sightseeing in Dublin to a minimum. You can spend too much time looking at the main sights of a city and not mix enough with the local folk. We could have visited Dublin Castle, Dublin Zoo, the Wax Museum or the Dublin Writers Museum. But we plumped for a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. We declined to visit the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam and the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen. So this was third time lucky. ...
...Guinness. So it was nice as a shareholder to visit the premises. A hotel receptionist told me that some Irish men drank 20 pints of Guinness per night. This must increase the turnover of Diageo considerably. HOW WE GOT THERE There was a hop-on and hop-off tourist bus, which started from O’Connell Street. We got tickets from the Irish Tourism Office. The atmosphere inside the office resembled a morgue. No one was smiling. Tickets cost 8 ... Read review

Advantages: fascinating experience, complimentary Guinness
Disadvantages: none

A trip to Dublin would not be complete without a visit to the home of the Black Stuff – the Guinness brewery. So we headed off to the new Guinness Storehouse on the last Saturday in September to sample the Guinness experience (as well as the Guinness!). There has been a brewery on the site at St James’ Gate in Dublin since at least 1670 when it was owned by Giles Mee (a brewer who later became Dublin’s Lord Mayor). 21 years later ...
...brew ales and beers. Rainsford’s son leased the brewery in 1715 to John Paul Espinasse. In 1759, Arthur Guinness – the 34-year-old son of a land agent from County Kildare – signed his name to a 9000 year lease, paid for with a legacy he had inherited, and so the Guinness legend was born. The new Guinness Storehouse was only opened to the public in December 2000, after it was decided that the old Guinness Hopstore was having difficulty ... Read review

Advantages: Interesting, or some the free Guiness
Disadvantages: Disgusting stuff

Dublin = Guinness, Guinness Dublin. You cant separate the two! You're surrounded everywhere you go by advertising, souvenirs and the fact that the brewery covers rather a large area of the city! So a visit to the Guinness Store House is almost obligatory, its rather an imposing building, part of the still working brewery which stills produces 10 million pints of the stuff EVERY DAY and its a massive 7 seven storeys high. Standing the reception ...
...see-through elevator goes right to the top and at quite an alarming speed! The entrance fee isn't too bad, 12 euros for an adult, 10 for students and OAPs and about 5 for kids. This gets you entry to the Storehouse, a lovely little pin in the shape of a pint with a cheery face and the most important thing, a ticket for a free pint of Guinness up in the bar or a soft drink. I was a bit let down that they now had paper tickets for the free drink rather ... Read review

Advantages: Best pint of Guiness you'll taste, some interesting facts
Disadvantages: Guided tours can seem to long

...about the wonder that it Guiness and much better it tastes in ireland (which is true by the way!) when work suggested this as an outing I jumped at the chance... Getting there and getting in: The Hop Store is situated on St James Gate, Dublin 7 there are many buses that will take you there (51B, 78A, 123, 99) the excellent Luas service also stops on James Street. If public transport isn't your thing (and with work paying it definitly wasn't ours!) ...
...the differences in the way Guiness is brewed then and now. Personally myself and most of my collegues found that the tour went on for far too long and didn't provide enough interesting information in order to keep you interested for that long. Don't get me wrong I did learn some interesting titbits but overall I think reading the text next to the machines would have been enough. Advertisements: I'm sure everyone can remember at least one Guiness ... Read review