Learning to love Guinness in the Dublin Guinness Storehouse
Summary
Some head to Dublin for the architecture, museums and literary haunts. Sure, they are worth checking out if you’re keen to brave the weather in January, but the highlight at this time of year is undoubtedly the welcoming, great craic locals and heading to the Guinness Storehouse to learn to love the black stuff. It’s a cliché for sure, but one that lives up to its hype. Not a bad city for the lash / partying either . . .
This will be one of my shortest entries because I only visited for a weekend, don’t think I can do the city itself justice, nor add any particular killer tips. Only recommendation is the Storehouse. Its fascinating to learn how the stout is made with the intricacies of the barrels, the ingredients, the roasting and even the different marketing campaigns they’ve used over the years, and then sampling the drink you’ve heard so much about in the top-floor Gravity Bar with its panoramic views of the city. That free drink you receive at the end is one hell of an investment from Guinness considering, if anyone is like me, it’s led to a fan for life
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The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
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Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone