Column: Deep pockets are needed to enjoy the delights of Dublin

Last year we channelled our inner five-year-olds with a trip down to Alton Towers, so we thought we’d head somewhere a little more sophisticated this time.

Last weekend we hopped on a plane to spend a few days in Dublin. It was something we were all really looking forward to and, don’t get me wrong, we had an absolute whale of a time but, jings, was it expensive.

We arrived on the Friday morning and left in the early hours of Sunday, so we all reckoned we wouldn’t need a lot of spending money.

We had already paid for our trip to the Guinness Brewery, which I highly recommend by the way.

Therefore, we thought around €200 would be enough to see us through most of the weekend. Good grief, was I wrong.

The first night wasn’t so bad. I had managed to blag us free VIP in a club which came with complementary drinks but day two in the Temple Bar area was just ridiculously expensive.

One of the girls spent a whopping €27 on two drinks and two mixers – you’d expect to pay half of that on a round in Scotland.

Lucky for me, I put myself on a tight spending budget so I didn’t go too out of pocket but some of the girls ended up spending an extra €20 on something as small as a packet of hay fever tablets.

I wouldn’t say the extortionate prices would put me off going back to Dublin completely.

The city is absolutely beautiful and we struck it lucky with the weather.

As we learnt from the taxi driver on the way home, not everywhere is expensive and there are nooks and crannies that are relatively cheap.

But, if you’re going, make sure you’ve got plenty of spare cash!