Ok, so I am excited. 
My husband and I are going to Dublin for a few days in the middle of our trip to his home in Yorkshire. We have airline tickets, but no place to stay. Does anyone have any suggestions about hotels, B&Bs, or search engines for either?
Also, what are the “don’t miss” things to do or see in Dublin?
I would like to visit a small, quaint town, but we won’t have a car. Any suggestions for how I can meet my quaint quotient using public transportation?
I stayed in Dublin for a week in 2001. We stayed in a hostel that was very close to Christchurch Cathedral and Temple Bar (kind of the “arts” area, with lots of pubs). Unfortunately I don’t know the name of the hostel association, but I know that the prices were reasonable and they did offer private/double rooms (we stayed in the communal bunk room). Nor do I know many “quaint” areas - the group I was with were very city-oriented, and we flew into Shannon and drove to Dublin so we got our countryside that way.
(With any luck I will at least have bumped this thread so that someone who knows more than I do will post!)
It’s not so much a town as a large fishing village, but Howth (pronounced “Hoath”, BTW) is nice. It’s the northern terminus of the DART (the local commuter railway) and is on a peninsula which sticks out into the Irish Sea. Quite scenic.
Howth sounds perfect, if I can just learn to pronounce it.
Rick’s parents are going with us, so no youth hostels for us. Thanks anyway.
<bump>
Just checking to see if anyone can help Brynda and I with any ideas. I have tried searching for hotels or B & Bs but we don’t know where would be a good area to stay in.
I strongly recommend that you get the number 44 bus out to Enniskerry and walk up to Powerscourt. Enniskerry is the quaintest of quaint villages. It’s also a very scenic location in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains and would make a good day out, especially if you like walking.
Getting the DART either north to Howth or to somewhere like Dalkey or maybe Greystones to the south sounds like a good idea. If you go to Howth, you might enjoy a walk up Howth Head.
The official Dublin tourism site has an accommodation section. I wouldn’t know what to recommend.
I’m not sure what you should see in Dublin, but it should probably include the Book of Kells. The Guinness Storehouse is a good attraction, but very expensive. There is currently an exhibition of bog men at the national museum, which might interest you.
I think the Guinness Storehouse is overrated - but the view from the bar at the end is almost worth the stupid and pretentious “museum”. Amazingly, the Guinness at the Guinness brewery is shite, so try Mulligan’s of Poolbeg Street for the best pint in the city.
Additionally, the pubs around the side streets of Grafton Street are IMO better than those of Temple Bar. The Chatham Lounge is nice, as is Keogh’s and that other one opposite Bruxelles whose name eludes me, and the International, and the Stag’s Head is OK.
I second the National Museum, and the museum of Natural History, while not a great museum, nor particularly Irish per se, is excellent as an unreconstructed piece of Victoriana - museums as they used to be a hundred years ago.
Dalkey’s nice, so’s Howth and Greystones. Killiney is OK for a drive around spotting millionaires’ houses, but not so good on foot.
Go to the Northside suburbs to get an idea of what the ‘real’ Dublin is like, too - Phibsboro’s a good place to start, then into Cabra, Finglas, and even Ballymun to get an idea of the Dublin that is a trifle rough around the edges.
McDaids. A favourite watering hole for Patrick Kavanagh and Brendan Behan. My uncle had to bounce the two of them for fighting one night when he was a apprentice barman there back in the day.
Kilmainham Gaol Is worth a trip as well.
When we were in Dublin several years back we:
1.) Saw the Book of Kells – intrinsically Irish. Good museum. Something you really can’t see elsewhere
2.) George Bernard Shaw’s boyhood home – I’m a big fan of GBS. Substitute your favorite Irish author, as needed.
3.) shopped Grafton street and environs.
We stayed in B&Bs throughout Ireland, and had a great time. There was a book you could get that listed all of them associated with a program, but I don’t recall the name of it.
We only spent a day in Dublin proper, but stayed longer in the area seeing Newgrange and other sites.
Thanks for all the good advice and feel free to keep it coming.
I second the view from the top floor of the Guinness Storehouse. It’s amazing…all glass, except where the elevators are, so you can see the entire city. I got some amazing photos at dusk.
Dublin Castle was nice. My first castle!
Temple Bar was OK, quite busy, but we had fun walking around and checking out the shops.
We went on one of the hour and a half bus tours, where they hit something like 17 stops and you see a lot of Dublin that way. We had a **great ** driver; he had the entire bus laughing. Very knowledgeable and fun.
I’ll have to look at my Ireland photo album when I get home and remember everywhere we went and anything more noteworthy.
Seconded - apart from the bit about the view 
In general, jjimm’s suggestions are very good.