Liffey River Cruises

We had a voucher from the living social to enjoy a cruise ride for both of us for just € 10. I guess the cost usually is € 25 so we thought it was a fantastic deal. Well, the ride was for about 45 minutes, starting near the O’Connell bridge. It didn’t take us that far in the river but was quite enjoyable. The tour guide was a very nice man called Ray and he talked through the history of Dublin and the bridges of the river. I know many tours like this would have such boring manner of explaining the history and stuff, but I have to say this man knows what he’s doing and articulated in to fun and cherish words where anybody would listen to him for hours, even Irish people who probably knew much about the things he talked were stunned by Ray. However, this isn’t the most exciting thing to do in the city, but when you have nothing else to do this may be worth doing, specially when you have a cheap voucher.

Ah yea, every city that’s situated near a river has to have one of those. I’m not sure why anyone would want to go for a cruise on the sludgy Liffey but tourists seem to like it. I had to try it myself to find out if it was something my family might like to do during one of their visits. The boat was actually not open-​topped as I’d feared so I didn’t have to sit in the rain and the tour guide was quite knowledgeable. But there was nothing really sticking out about the tour, there were not pretty sights along the river and 14 quid for 45 minutes are quite a lot. Personally I prefer the Viking Splash Tour– it’s a lot more fun.

I never thought the Liffey River Cruise would survive for more than a season. The low, long boat put puts along the filthy river, with live commentary on the sights visible from the water, before dumping passengers back onto the Boardwalk, the riverside construction originally envisaged as one of Dublin’s finest tourism assets which is now the number one hangout for the city’s junkies, alcos and homeless people.
But the «cruises» have been running for years now, duping tourists into thinking that our Liffey is worthy of comparison with the Seine. 45 minutes for € 14? Don’t do it. Take a walk instead.

This river cruise takes you through a journey of the heart of Dublin via the brown dirty river Liffey, why any one would want to do this is beyond me, for sure it is not the Seine or Danube!
Although, I suppose the cruise does give you an insight to the history of Dublin City as the city was built and laid out to be seen from the river.
All sailings are forty five minutes long and depart and return to Bachelor’s Walk.