Many travelers don’t realize that you can leave the airport during a layover — and in many cities, it’s surprisingly easy. If your itinerary gives you enough time and you’re able to clear immigration, a long layover can become a mini-excursion instead of hours spent wandering around duty-free shops.
Depending on the country you’re transiting through, there may be rules about whether you need a visa, how long you can stay, and whether you have to go through immigration. In some cases, you’ll never actually “enter” the country and will stay airside the whole time. In others, you’re required to pass through immigration even if you’re just connecting.
On one of our trips to London, Sharon and I decided to take advantage of that. Instead of racing straight to our connecting flight, we turned our layover into a short (and delicious) visit to Dublin.
Planning an 8-Hour Layover in Dublin
Our journey started in Orlando, where we boarded an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin with a connection to London. Our original itinerary only gave us about an hour between flights — barely enough time to get from one gate to another, much less relax.
Based on experience, we also knew our hotel in London probably wouldn’t have a room ready until the mid-to-late afternoon. So instead of landing in London and killing time in a lobby, we decided to build in time to enjoy Dublin first.
I rebooked our connecting flight so we had approximately eight hours between landing in Dublin and departing for London. At the time we took this trip, all connecting passengers landing in Dublin had to go through immigration (that’s no longer the case for some connections, but it was then). Since we were going to enter the country anyway, we figured: why not stay for lunch?
It made for a fun conversation with the immigration officer when we honestly said we’d be in Ireland for about eight hours — mainly so we could have lunch in Dublin. Yes, we really did say that.
Dropping Our Bags and Heading into the City
One of the biggest questions with any layover side-trip is, “What do we do with our luggage?” We didn’t want to drag carry-ons around the city, so before our trip I researched our options and found a place where we could store our bags at the airport for a small fee. (If you ever need to do something similar, here’s more about one of the solutions we’ve used elsewhere: what to do if you need to store your luggage for a few hours.)
After checking our bags, we hopped into a taxi and headed into town. We asked to be dropped off at what was then the Westin Dublin, a hotel we were familiar with from our Adventures By Disney trip. It’s now called The College Green Hotel Dublin, but it’s still in the same fantastic, central location.
We liked using the hotel as our “home base” because it’s an easy landmark to find from just about anywhere in the city. If you don’t know a city well, having a clear and familiar point to return to can make a quick layover visit much less stressful.
What We Did With Our Layover in Dublin
With roughly eight hours on the clock (minus time for immigration, luggage storage, and the taxi ride each way), we knew we weren’t going to “see all of Dublin.” That wasn’t the goal. Instead, we focused on simple, low-stress things that sounded fun.
Our very loose itinerary looked like this:
- Get coffee at Starbucks. (Don’t judge — when we land after an overnight flight, familiarity and caffeine are both high priorities!)
- Stroll through Temple Bar and pick up a few souvenirs at a touristy shop.
- Go to lunch at Gallagher’s Boxty House because it’s really that good.
- Try (and mostly fail) to find the Leprechaun Museum — we got a little turned around.
- Accidentally end up at a shopping mall. (Long story for another time.)
- Head back to what’s now The College Green Hotel Dublin to catch a taxi to the airport.
- Check in and spend some time in the Aer Lingus lounge before our flight to London.
Not all of Dublin is scenic; some of it looks like this. The sign reads, “Here is not a toilet! PLEASE do not pee or sh*t in here. Thanks!”
Is Leaving the Airport on a Layover Worth It?
This little adventure was something we did simply because we could. We knew the risks: if there was a delay getting through immigration, traffic into the city, or a problem getting back to the airport, the day could have gone sideways fast. We also knew we weren’t going to “do Dublin right” in just a few hours.
Between the taxi rides and the baggage storage fee, it definitely wasn’t the cheapest way to kill time on a layover. We barely scratched the surface of the city and didn’t check off any major attractions on our list. But we did exactly what we wanted to do: walk around a bit, revisit a favorite restaurant, and turn a long travel day into a story we still talk about years later.
Would I recommend this as your first-ever visit to a brand-new city? Probably not. A rushed few hours in an unfamiliar place, constantly watching the clock, isn’t the ideal way to get to know somewhere.
But if:
- you have a long layover (think 6–8 hours or more),
- you’re required to clear immigration anyway,
- you understand the visa and entry rules for your nationality, and
- you’re realistic about how much you’ll actually see,
Then, leaving the airport can absolutely be worth it. Instead of sitting at a gate for hours, you might end up with a memorable meal, a funny story, and a reason to come back for a proper visit.
Final Thought
Our lunch-in-Dublin layover wasn’t about sightseeing checklists or “doing it all.” It was about turning a long connection into something a little more special — a few hours of fresh air, familiar landmarks, and really good food before continuing on to London. If you ever find yourself with a long layover on your itinerary, it might be worth asking the same question we did: could this be more than just time spent in an airport?
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