Guinness Storehouse tickets explained

Every ticket tier, stripped of the marketing

The Guinness Storehouse has a reputation for confusing visitors with multiple overlapping packages. This page unpicks every current ticket type, lists what each one actually includes, and tells you when it is — and is not — worth upgrading.

Before we get into it: whatever ticket you buy, book online rather than at the door. Online tickets are cheaper, and they include a timed entry slot that lets you skip the ticket-office queue — which regularly stretches 30–45 minutes on summer afternoons. No other single action will improve your visit as much.

Standard self-guided ticket

The standard entry ticket (from ~€26 when booked in advance) is the core product. It gives you:

• Unrestricted access to all seven floors, including the ingredient rooms, brewing history, advertising archive, cooperage display, and tasting rooms
• One complimentary drink — a pint of Guinness, a Guinness 0.0, or a soft drink — redeemable in the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor or in the lower-floor bars
• No time limit once you are inside (the whole experience runs around 90 minutes to 2 hours for most people)

The Guinness Storehouse entry ticket with free pint is all most first-time visitors need. Do not pay door-price (which is noticeably higher) if you have any internet access before arriving.

Both sites operate timed entry, and the risk of a self-organised double visit is arriving at the second with the last slot already gone: a Jameson and Guinness private tour with transfers books both windows and the transport between them.

Skip-the-line signature package

The signature skip-the-line package (~€40) is the same experience as the standard ticket, but with:

• Priority access that shortcuts the entrance-security queue at peak times
• A better-looking souvenir admission card

Honest verdict: on a quiet weekday morning, this upgrade is wasted money. In July or August on a Saturday afternoon, it is worth every cent. If you are visiting in peak summer, book the skip-the-line Guinness Storehouse signature package. Off-peak, save the extra €14.

Connoisseur Experience

At ~€55, the Connoisseur Experience is the Storehouse’s premium single-visit option. It replaces the standard self-guided tour with:

• A guided, tutored tasting of four distinct Guinness variants in a dedicated private bar — usually Guinness Draught, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Guinness Over the Moon Nitro IPA, and one rotating specialist
• A host who walks you through the flavour differences and brewing process in detail
• A more intimate group size (typically 10–15 people)

This is the right choice if you are genuinely interested in stout rather than just ticking off the famous name. The flavour differences between the Guinness variants are more significant than most people expect, and the guided format is far more educational than the standard self-paced floors. If you are pairing the Storehouse with the Dublin whiskey trail, doing the Connoisseur version here adds genuine depth. The Guinness Storehouse Connoisseur experience is bookable directly via GetYourGuide and sells out earlier than the standard tickets.

Perfect pint and pub tour combo

The perfect pint and pub tour (~€55) bundles standard Storehouse entry with a guided walk through nearby pubs in the Liberties and a tutored pour at one of them. This is an excellent option if you want the brewery context and the living pub culture in a single afternoon. It pairs neatly with the best pubs in Dublin guide if you want to continue on your own afterwards.

Book the Guinness Storehouse entry and perfect pint pub tour if this sounds appealing — the combination is better value than doing each separately.

Guinness Academy add-on

The Guinness Academy — where you pour your own pint and receive a certificate — is not a separate ticket purchase at the time of writing. It is included for those who want to participate when capacity allows. Expect a queue of its own at the Academy counter during peak hours. The certificate is, frankly, not worth framing, but the pour is more technically interesting than it sounds.

House of Guinness experience

There is also a premium House of Guinness package (~€122) that bundles Storehouse admission with a private guided tour of parts of the St James’s Gate brewery and a hosted tasting experience. This is aimed at special occasions and corporate bookings rather than individual travellers; if you are interested, check current availability directly as schedules are limited.

Combo with hop-on hop-off bus

If you also plan to do a bus tour of the city, the hop-on hop-off Dublin bus tour can be bundled with Storehouse entry for around €50. Useful if you want both on the same day — one booking rather than two.

Should you use the Dublin Pass?

The Dublin Pass includes standard Storehouse entry. If you plan to visit three or more major paid attractions in a day, the Pass typically works out cheaper. On the Storehouse alone it does not break even. Check the maths before you commit — our Dublin Pass vs individual tickets comparison does the numbers.

All tiers side by side

Group size and accessibility

The standard self-guided floors accommodate large numbers of visitors simultaneously, which is part of why the lower floors can feel crowded even with a timed ticket — there is no cap on how many ticket-holders move through at once within an hour window. The Connoisseur Experience and the perfect pint pub tour both run in much smaller groups (10–15 and similar), which is part of what you are paying the premium for. The Storehouse itself is fully accessible, with lifts serving all seven floors, though the Gravity Bar can get busy enough that wheelchair users may want to ask staff about the best time to go up.

When to visit and how to minimise queues

Even with a timed ticket, the Storehouse gets crowded. The least-visited windows are:

• 09:30–10:30 (opening slot) on any day
• After 16:30 on weekdays, when day-trip groups have largely cleared out
• November to February on any day — the tourist volumes are dramatically lower

Avoid Saturday afternoons from June to August if you are in any way queue-averse. The mid-afternoon crowd in high summer is genuinely uncomfortable in the lower floors.

Practical details

The Storehouse is a 20-minute walk from Dame Street, or reachable by the 40, 40A, 40B, 40D, 123 or 151 Dublin Bus routes. There is no useful visitor car park. For the full picture on getting here and what to expect floor by floor, read the Guinness Storehouse guide. To decide whether the visit earns its money, check is the Guinness Storehouse worth it.

After the Storehouse, the rest of the Liberties is worth an hour: Teeling Distillery, Roe & Co, and St Patrick’s Cathedral are all within a ten-minute walk — combine them in a Dublin 3-day itinerary for an efficient afternoon. For tasting Irish whiskey as well as stout, the Dublin whiskey trail is the logical next step.

How to choose without overthinking it

Most of the confusion around Storehouse tickets comes from treating the tiers as a ladder, where each step up must be better than the last. They are not. The standard ticket, the Connoisseur Experience and the perfect pint pub tour are three different kinds of visit, and the right one depends on what you want from the afternoon rather than on how much you are willing to spend.

Ask yourself three questions. Do you want to wander at your own pace, or be led by a host? Do you care about the beer itself, or about seeing the building and the story behind the brand? And will you be visiting at a busy time, or on a quiet day when a queue is unlikely? If the answers are “own pace”, “the story” and “quiet day”, the standard ticket is your answer and nothing else on this page needs a second thought.

If you are still undecided after those questions, the Guinness Storehouse guide walks through the floors one at a time, which makes it easier to judge whether you would rather linger there on your own or have someone guide you through.

Matching the ticket to your kind of trip

First-time visitors on a short city break. Keep it simple. The standard ticket fits neatly into a day alongside other sights, and our Dublin first-time guide and one-day itinerary show where it slots in. If you only have a day, you will not want to spend part of it queueing, which is the main reason to book ahead.

Couples and friends who love a good pub. The perfect pint pub tour is the natural fit. It turns the Storehouse into the start of an evening rather than a stand-alone attraction. Pair it with where to drink Guinness in Dublin and the Guinness versus other stout comparison if you like to know what you are tasting.

Whiskey and craft drinks fans. Many people combine the Storehouse with distilleries. The Dublin whiskey trail, the Teeling Distillery guide and the Roe & Co guide all sit in the same part of the city, so plan the order of your visits around your tickets. If you prefer something beyond stout and whiskey, gin and craft beer in Dublin is worth a look.

Families. Children can enjoy the exhibits, and the drink included with the ticket can be a soft drink, so nobody misses out. For wider planning, see Dublin with kids and the rainy day ideas for kids, since the Storehouse is also a useful indoor option when the weather turns.

Budget-conscious travellers. The standard ticket is the only sensible choice, and you can offset the cost by choosing free sights elsewhere. Our Dublin on a budget and free museums in Dublin guides help you balance the spending across the trip, and the Dublin trip cost breakdown shows where a Storehouse visit sits in the wider total.

What a timed ticket really means

A timed ticket gives you an entry window, not a guarantee of an empty building. Once you are through the door you can stay as long as you like, so the crowd you meet on the lower floors is the sum of everyone who arrived in the previous hour or two. That is why the opening slot and the late-afternoon slots feel so different from the middle of the day.

Arriving a little before your slot is sensible, because it leaves room for the security check and for finding your way in without rushing. Arriving long after your slot is the mistake to avoid, since there is no guarantee you will be let in later. Keep your booking confirmation on your phone, and save it offline in case the signal near the entrance is poor.

For wider advice on reserving things ahead of time across the whole trip, read booking attractions in advance in Dublin. It explains which sights genuinely need a reservation and which ones you can leave until the day.

Making the most of the included drink

The free drink is part of what you are paying for, so treat it as a moment in the visit rather than a box to tick. Most people head straight for the Gravity Bar on the top floor, and the view over the city is a large part of the appeal. If the bar is crowded when you arrive, there is no need to queue impatiently: take your time on the upper floors first and come back when the rush eases.

If you do not drink alcohol, the zero-alcohol option and the soft drink are real alternatives, not a consolation prize. Designated drivers, children and anyone avoiding a pint at lunchtime lose nothing by choosing them.

Pairing the Storehouse with the rest of your day

The Storehouse works best as one anchor in a day rather than the whole day. Once you have finished, the nearby streets reward a slow wander, and the Liberties has plenty of old-city atmosphere. Read hidden corners of the Liberties for a more personal take on the area.

For history, St Patrick’s Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral make a good pairing with the brewery, and Viking and medieval Dublin gives context for the oldest parts of the city. If you want to continue on foot, the self-guided Dublin walk is an easy way to link several of these stops without booking anything more.

In the evening, a traditional music session is a fitting end to a Guinness day, and the trad session etiquette guide will help you behave like a regular rather than a tourist. If you would rather sit down to a proper meal first, traditional Irish food covers the dishes worth trying.

Reading other visitors’ accounts

If you like to hear from someone who has already been, the blog post on a first pint at the Guinness Storehouse gives a visitor’s-eye view of the experience. It is useful for calibrating expectations, especially if you are deciding whether the visit is worth your limited time. And if you are comparing it with other big-name stops, overrated and underrated Dublin and Dublin tourist traps help you judge where the Storehouse sits among them.

Top experiences

Bookable activities with verified prices and instant confirmation on GetYourGuide.

Dublin: Guinness Storehouse entry ticket with free pint

• Free cancellation
• Instant confirmation

⏱ self-guided From €26

Dublin: skip-the-line Guinness Storehouse signature package

• Free cancellation
• Instant confirmation

⏱ self-guided From €40

Dublin: Guinness Storehouse Connoisseur experience

• Free cancellation
• Instant confirmation

⏱ 1h From €55

Dublin: Guinness Storehouse entry ticket + perfect pint pub tour

• Free cancellation
• Instant confirmation

⏱ 3h From €55

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