€5 for a pint of Guinness 😅
€12 for a full Irish breakfast 🐖
€6 for a bus ticket to the centre 💳

That’s your £20 spent before you’ve even left the airport…

Dublin’s been on ‘Europe’s most expensive cities’ lists for years now, and it’s all true - a round of drinks or a hearty meal will leave you sweating fifties.

But there’s a loophole.

Almost all of Dublin’s museums and galleries are free. And there’s parks, live music, and cheapo deals across the city. So just how far will £20 stretch in Ireland’s spenny capital…

Drop your first shiny Euros on a coffee. 3FE does the city’s best cup for €3. Or get a tasting tray of different filters for €6. This Scandi-industrial roastery sits out by the newly developed docklands which are worth a gander themselves.

If you’re watching your pennies you’ve got to stay out of the pubs (til lunch). This UNESCO city of literature is spewing with more art and culture than you can shake a dog-eared copy of ‘Ulysses’ at.

Start with the National Gallery (free) - home to Caravaggio's masterpiece ‘The Taking of Christ’ and the world’s biggest Jack B Yeats collection.

The Hugh Lane Gallery (free) shows ever-changing multi-media exhibitions and has a permanent (perfect) recreation of Francis Bacon’s studio.

For something weirder and more Victorian, head to the ‘dead zoo’ - Natural History Museum (free) where moth-eaten stuffed animals hang out with whale skeletons. It’s pretty great that this place exists.

If it’s not raining, or even if it is (it will be) you’ll want to get the Phoenix Park in.

The biggest park in Europe, it’s bigger than all the parks in London put together and twice the size of New York's Central Park. Boom.

Spot Bambi and his mates, then take a free tour of 'Áras an Uachtaráin’ (The President’s House). It’s grand AF.

Try to remove the cold weather from your bones with some alcohol. There’s a reason drinking’s a hobby here…

Grogan's will do you one of those famous black pints (€5). Forget any pint of Guinness that’s ever come before it. This is the real creamy deal.

Doyle's, Whelan's and Sweeney's are good bets if you’re after live music (mostly free) - and we’re not talking little Irish men playing the fiddle in Temple Bar’s tourist traps.

Local musicians have been jamming in these pubs since James Joyce was a boy (or thereabouts).

What? You could eat the arse of a nun through a convent gate? Then grab a pizza from the Big Blue Bus at the back of The Bernard Shaw (€6) or sit down for an Irish beef burger at Bunsen (€9).

Dublin nights out are notoriously expensive but can you put a price on craic? Exactly.

L'Gueuleton (many €€€) might look like a fancy French restaurant from the outside, because it is, but after 11 it’s taken over by DJs on a Thursday and Friday night.

Izakaya (yes the Japanese restuarant) is another unlikely spot that loses the run of itself at night. Check the website for upcoming nights (€10ish).

Dublin can be as expensive as you want it to be. Visiting the Guinness Storehouse and other (great but touristy) attractions will have you crying over a Eurosaver burger at the back of McDonalds. Instead embrace all the bohemian culture the city serves up free on a platter.