Afternoon Tea Vintage Bus Tour Dublin

St Stephen's Green

Your afternoon tea in Dublin begins and ends at St Stephen's Green, the best-loved park in the city centre. The green was enclosed in 1664 and opened to the public in 1880, when it was landscaped in Victorian style with a lake, an ornamental bridge, flower beds and shady lawns. The Fusiliers' Arch at the corner of Grafton Street, built in 1907, marks the main entrance.

The square around the park is lined with grand Georgian and Victorian buildings, and Grafton Street, Dublin's most famous shopping street, starts just beside it. Arrive a little early for your departure and take a short stroll by the lake to watch the ducks and swans. The meeting point at Stephen Court is on the south side of the green, easy to reach by tram on the Green Luas line or on foot from most central hotels.

Merrion Square and Georgian Dublin

From the green the bus heads into Georgian Dublin, the elegant district built in the 18th century when Dublin was one of the largest cities in Europe. Merrion Square, laid out from 1762, is surrounded by red-brick townhouses with colourful painted doors, delicate fanlights and wrought-iron balconies, the image found on countless Dublin postcards.

Around the square stand some of Ireland's key institutions, including Leinster House, seat of the Irish parliament, the Government Buildings and the National Gallery of Ireland. The central park of the square has gardens and sculptures and is a favourite lunchtime spot for locals. From the upper deck you get a perfect view over the railings, and your host explains how the Georgian doors became a symbol of the city.

Trinity College Dublin

Trinity College, founded in 1592, is the oldest university in Ireland and one of the most beautiful campuses in Europe. Behind its classical front on College Green lie cobbled squares, a tall campanile and the Old Library, whose Long Room holds some 200,000 of the college's oldest books under a soaring vaulted oak ceiling.

The library also guards a celebrated 9th-century illuminated gospel manuscript, one of the treasures of medieval Europe, and it is among the most visited sights in Dublin. Trinity College tickets are not part of this tour, but seeing the façade from the bus is a good way to plan a return visit. Is Trinity College worth visiting? For lovers of history and libraries, it is one of the essential stops of any Dublin trip.

Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral

Dublin Castle was founded in 1204 and for more than seven centuries was the seat of English and later British rule in Ireland, until it was handed over to the new Irish state in 1922. Today its State Apartments host presidential inaugurations and official events, and the Dubh Linn garden recalls the black pool that gave the city its name.

A few streets west stands Christ Church Cathedral, founded around 1030 when Dublin was a Viking town and rebuilt in stone by the Normans from the 1180s. Its 12th-century crypt is among the oldest structures still in use in the city, and a covered stone bridge links the cathedral to Dublinia, a museum of Viking and medieval Dublin. From the top deck you see the cathedral's flying buttresses and tower up close.

St Patrick's Cathedral

The loop continues to St Patrick's Cathedral, founded in 1191 beside a well where, according to tradition, Ireland's patron saint baptised early Christians. It is the largest cathedral in Ireland and the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland, with a soaring nave, medieval tombs and the colourful banners of old knightly orders.

The park next to the cathedral, with its fountain and flower beds, makes a lovely frame for photos from the bus. St Patrick's Cathedral opening hours and entry are separate from this tour, so many guests return later the same day. After the cathedral the bus heads back through the old streets to St Stephen's Green, where your afternoon tea and sightseeing loop end after about 75 minutes.