How to travel to Ireland for $1700

I know, $1700 still seems like a lot of money. But consider this:
That $1700 bought me: my plane ticket, a 5 night stay in a hostel, all of my meals, two day trips to different locations in Ireland, and ALL of the money I spent on souvenirs or other items I brought home.
Now of course, some of that money was unnecessary spending. But when you consider it, $1700 for a 6 day trip to Ireland is not bad. So I want to lowdown on how you can do a trip like that for yourself.

Booking the flight
When booking your flight, there are a few things you should do.
1) Use a private browsing window.
The cookies in your web browser track your searches. Hence, if you search for a flight to a specific destination multiple times, the prices can increase because of your frequent searching. Be sure to enable an incognito/private window when browsing for flight options frequently. Cookies are automatically reset in incognito/private browsing sessions.
2) Use Skyscanner to book your flight.
Skyscanner is my favorite way to search for cheap flights. It pulls all the cheapest flights to your location on the dates you want to go. If you know your destination, but not the exact airport you want to go to, you can type in your general location and Skyscanner will search all airports in your destination and pull the prices for each.
3) Find the cheapest day to fly out
When on Skyscanner, you can find the cheapest day to fly out in the month you'd like to depart. When searching for a flight, select "one-way" (even if you're in need of a round trip ticket, just to determine the cheapest day to fly out). Next select depart and click whole month. This will display the cheapest days of the month to fly out. After selecting your desired dates, click search and Skyscanner will search all airlines and websites to find your cheapest flight possible.

Finding a place to stay
While in Ireland, I stayed in a hostel in Dublin the whole time. It is the cheapest option and you get to meet people from all over the world! While in my hostel room, I met people from Australia, Germany, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Hostel's can be intimidating, but they're so much fun! I now have connections with people across the world and people that I can meet up with on future adventures.
I stayed at Abigail's Hostel while in Ireland. Abigail's is a cheap, but great hostel. They provide a free breakfast in the morning, free WiFi, free bed linens, and much more. The staff is incredibly helpful as well. They helped me book two day tours to different locations in Ireland.
Abigail's is located in Temple Bar in Dublin. Temple Bar is a major center for nightlife, shopping, and eating. There's a pub on every street and restaurants of variety, including, but not limited to: traditional Irish, Italian, American, Mexican, Japanese, and much more. There's plenty of shopping in the area, both recreational and souvenir. Temple Bar is a great place to be if you want to be in the midst of the nightlife but also in proximity to many of the tourist attractions that Dublin offers.

Tourist attractions in Dublin
Dublin has a lot to offer in terms of tourist attractions. There are many bus tours and walking tours to go on, in addition to location specific tours. While in Dublin, I toured Trinity College and the Guinness Storehouse. Other than those two specific tours, I did a lot of wandering. I explored the city by walking around and seeing things for myself. Additionally, I did a lot of research (on Pinterest) of places to visit in Dublin. Pinterest was actually a big help in my trip planning. It gave a lot of insight into where to go, where to eat, and what to do.

Trinity College
If you've heard of Trinity College, that is likely because it is home to the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is a manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament. It is very ornate and extravagant in design. The Book of Kells is now housed in the Old Library at Trinity College. I learned about The Book of Kells my freshman year in my Art History class, so I knew It was something I should absolutely visit. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the book, but you can find photos and more information here.

The Spire
​The Spire is a 390 foot tall stainless steel pin-like monument. The base of the monument is based on rock sample from under where the spire is currently located. The top of The Spire lights up at night, and it is truly beautiful. From what I've heard, many locals are unimpressed with The Spire and think it is useless. Nonetheless, I think it's pretty cool.

The Guinness Storehouse
The Guinness Storehouse is a must-see in Dublin. People of all ages can attend, and in my opinion, should. Even if you are not a "beer person" (like me), the tour is still really fun and interesting. The tour is seven floors about the history of Guinness, the brewing process, Guinness' advertising (past and present), and they will even teach you how to pour a proper pint of Guinness (if you are of proper age, of course). At the end of the tour, you can go to the Gravity Bar up at the top of the storehouse. The Gravity Bar has a 360° view of Dublin.

Giant's Causeway Tour
I previously mentioned that my hostel helped me book tours to different places in Ireland. The first place I toured outside of Dublin was Giant's Causeway. This tour was €60 ($70) and included admission into Giant's Causeway, admission to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and had a lot of fun little stops along the way. I got to see the Causeway like I wanted to, but I also got to see places that I never heard of or would have thought to visit. The tour left around 6:45 a.m. and returned at approximately 8:30 p.m. It certainly makes for a long day, but it was a beautiful tour with bountiful time in each location we went to.

The Cliffs of Moher
The Cliffs of Moher is the second tour the hostel helped me book. This tour was €45 ($52) and included admission to The Cliffs of Moher and stops in Galway, Doolin, and The Burren. This tour also left around 6:45 a.m. and returned around 8:30 p.m.
The Cliffs of Moher have been featured in a couple of movies. Most popular, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I won't post what part of the movie (believe it or not, there are people out there who haven't seen Harry Potter, so no spoilers), but you can see it here. The Cliffs are also home to the Cliffs of Insanity in The Princess Bride.

Other than those specific tours I just wandered a bunch. That's very different for me. I like to have concrete plans where ever I go. I like to have my plans in order. In relaxes me. During this trip, I tried to break that mold a little bit. I wanted to learn to "go with the flow" and just have fun wandering. I highly recommend wandering. You'll learn the area better than if you use Google Maps for everything and you'll find things you never expected to find.