Dublin is great for Christmas Shopping as it has plenty of shops, a great atmosphere, and a number of Restaurants and Bars to wind down in after all your shopping. If you are in Dublin this December take advantage and do some Christmas Shopping here, we highly recommend it. Myself and Bryan went Christmas shopping yesterday so we thought it would be a great idea to share our eventful day with you all and maybe give you an idea of where to go and also a review of where we ate after all of the shopping.

We started out or day by going over to Grafton Street on Dublin’s Southside and heading to Brown Thomas. Brown Thomas is a big Department Store that houses many luxury brands as well as mid-range brands in perfume, makeup, homewares, shoes, womenswear and menswear. It is a must for luxury shoppers and make up addicts and you can be surprised what you find in there with several brands having pre-Christmas sales. I got some gifts in there for family members and also purchased a Gucci Scarf for myself as a pre-Christmas treat.

Our next stop was Hugo Boss, Bryan is a fan of Hugo Boss so I purchased a scarf for one of his Christmas Presents. They have many nice accessories that are great gift ideas for men such as scarves, gloves, and wallets or they also have nice jumpers/ sweaters and shirts. The stuff is really good quality and worth the money.

If you are looking for perfume sets and they don’t have the brand you are looking for in Brown Thomas, head up to St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre at the top f Grafton Street to the Perfume Shop, I went here to get my mam Gucci perfume as Brown Thomas did not stock it and they have amazing perfume sets that are great gift ideas. They also had a pre-Christmas promotion of 15% off sets and bottles of perfume.

Next on the list was Nespresso (Bryan is a coffee lover and is thinking of purchasing a Nespresso Machine) Located just off Grafton Street on Duke Street is the Nespresso Boutique. They do a range of coffee machines at many different prices as well as different types of kitchen wear such as cups and glasses that are actually quite cool and unusual. It is a must for coffee lovers even just for a browse and a free Nespresso at the Nespresso Bar on the ground floor of the store.

Now if its Irish Designers you are looking for head to Powerscourt Shopping Centre which is located on South William Street, a few streets down from Grafton Street. The Design Centre is housed here and stocks a number of Irish Designers so if you are looking for an authentic piece, this is the place to go. They also have a lovely light display in the middle of the centre which is also worth a look at.

We then headed to Massimo Dutti, Bryan bought a lovely Jacket there for himself . It is perfect for gift ideas for men and women as everything is really high quality and they have some beautiful pieces as well as a range of suits for men.

If you are looking for homeware gifts for loved ones or even just for yourself head to Penney’s on St Mary’s street (just across from Jervis Street on the Northside of the City Centre) Penney’s have some amazing homewares in at the moment with many themed sections. Penney’s are also great for sleep wear and little bits such as hats, scarves, socks and tights.

Avoca just off Grafton Street is another great store for Homewares, here you can purchase quirky gift sets and pieces as well as scents and candles that are nice gift ideas.

After all the shopping, myself and Bryan headed to Rustic Stone by Dylan McGrath on Georges Street in Dublin 2 for food. It was our first time here and we had an amazing experience. For starter, we had a portion of chicken wings to share, I do not usually like chicken wigs but these were amazing. Everything from the sauce to the soft chicken was just perfect. For main we had something On the Stone. We got a fillet of steak and polenta chips each. The steak comes out on a hot stone and bear in mind that you do have to cook it yourself. One of the restaurant staff does advise you on the best way to cook it which I thought was excellent as I was afraid I would ruin a good piece of meat. (I love my steak) It was a lot easier than I thought in the end and a great experience that myself and Bryan would highly recommend. We also had a few drinks with the meal and I fell in love with the Fusion Margarita on the cocktail menu, it is a must to try in my opinion if you ever decide to go. For dessert, we shared a rose and orange blossom trifle which was an excellent finish to the other courses. We were also given a voucher after we settled the bill for a half price cocktail upstairs in the Rustic Bar so we decided to finish off the evening up there with one last drink each. From our experience, we would definitely return to Rustic Stone again and would highly recommend it to anyone living in or visiting Dublin. It is also the perfect place for a special occasion as it is a bit pricey but it is worth it, in our opinion.

We didn’t get everything on our list and we didn’t get to go everywhere worth a visit but hopefully we gave you some ideas for Christmas Shopping in Dublin.

Tip* There are number of high street stores and boutiques on Grafton Street such as Topshop, Topman, River Island, Massimo Dutti, Ted Baker, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss to name a few and there are plenty more around that area also, so we would recommend heading there first for shopping as it has a lot to offer.

Tip* If you are interested in going to Rustic Stone please do make sure you book a table in advance as it is a very busy time of year. You can do so by calling them directly or also online on their website www.rusticstone.ie.

If you have any questions about this post or about shopping in Dublin in general, please do contact us via the contact tab above.

Happy Travels (and Christmas Shopping!!)

Nicole
Note* Our experience at Rustic Stone is our own and is not an add.