Hire a travel-guide in Dublin?

I had an 8-hour layover in NY once and I made my flight back to Belfast OK. You just always have to be aware of the time!

You can get AirLink and Tour Bus tickets ahead of time at Dublin Tourism Desk, Dublin Airport. This saves time getting the ticket on the bus. or, you can get tickets online and save 20%.

Get the AirLink bus to O'Connell Street--When you arrive at Dublin Airport take a left at the main exit door at Arrivals and the Dublin Bus stops are facing you. Let the driver know that you want to ge off at O'Connell (specifically Dublin Bus Head Office, 59 Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin 1). They will be helpful (you will know when you are getting into the city centre). There is a huge metal pole in the city centre, lol yes I am serious.

When you get to the Dublin Bus Head Office on O'Connell Street, you can get on the hop-on hop-off tour bus. The tour operates daily from 9.30am and can be joined at any of 20 stops, each conveniently located near one of the most popular Dublin attractions. It is €14 for the whole day. You don't have to get off the bus (you probably will not want to if the weather is bad!). SInce you don't have much time, you can just stay on the bus. It is about 2 hours to complete. You will see on the bus: the Wirters' Museum, GPO, Trinity College, National Gallery and Merrion Square, St. Stephen's Green, go down Suffolk Street to the tourist office (you can get off here and get brochures and gifts if you want), Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Guinness Stirehouse, Kilmainhaim Gaol, Phoenix Park/Dublin Zoo entrance, Collins Barracks, Snithfield/Jameson distillery, and finally back to where you started. You can get the airport bus back where you started.

Also, it gets dark early in December, by 330-4pm it is getting dark! by 5 it will be pitch black.

Good Luck!! Have Fun- you will love Ireland!

You would be cutting it kind of short so you would need to make sure you get your schedule right.

you can get the 746 (or in fact, several other buses) from the airport into the city (about a half hour) and there are tour buses that are constantly going...you can hop on and hop off meaning you can time your trip to whatever length you like and spend as long as you want where you want

http://www.dublinbus.ie/sightseeing/index.aspx

Enjoy