Leap Card and Leap Visitor Card Dublin

Leap Card or Leap Visitor Card – what's the difference?

The TFI Leap Card is a contactless smart card for public transport in Ireland, comparable to London's Oyster Card. There are two versions relevant to visitors, and they work in fundamentally different ways.

The regular Leap Card is a rechargeable pay-as-you-go card – you top up credit, tap the card on the reader as you board, and the discounted fare is deducted automatically. The Leap Visitor Card, by contrast, is a time-based ticket – you pay once for 1, 3 or 7 days and travel unlimited on bus, tram and train for that whole period, with no need to think about individual fares.

Which one is worth it depends on how much you'll actually travel. If you're crisscrossing the city all day, you'll get the most out of the unlimited Visitor Card. If you're only making a handful of trips a day, or staying for longer, the regular Leap Card with its automatic price cap usually works out cheaper.

Leap Visitor Card prices for 2026

As of June 2026, the Visitor Card costs:

• 1 day (24 hours): €8.00
• 3 days (72 hours): €18.00
• 7 days (168 hours): €24.00

There's no deposit on the Visitor Card. One important detail: validity runs in hours, not calendar days, and it only starts once you tap on at a validator for the first time. So a 24-hour card activated at 14:00 stays valid until 14:00 the following day. An unused card doesn't expire until twelve months after purchase, so there's no risk in picking one up well ahead of your trip.

If you end up needing more time, you don't have to buy a new card. Any Leap Card outlet in Dublin can extend the same Visitor Card for further periods (1, 3 or 7 days), at the same price each time, up to five times.

The regular Leap Card's fare cap

The big advantage of the regular Leap Card is its automatic fare cap. However often you travel, you'll never be charged more than the cap – the system works out the cheaper fare for you at the end.

• Daily cap: €6.00 (day period starting at 04:30)
• Weekly cap: €24.00 (Monday 04:30 to the following Monday 04:29)

These caps have applied since 28 April 2025 and are unchanged for 2026. One important catch – the cap applies strictly to Zone 1 only, meaning the core city area. If you take the DART across zones into the surrounding area (say, through Zones 2 to 4 to Greystones), the €6 daily cap doesn't cover the whole journey.

Purely on the numbers, the regular Leap Card with its fare cap pays off if you're mostly travelling within Zone 1 – the €24 weekly cap matches the price of the 7-day Visitor Card exactly, without tying you to a fixed period.

Which transport is included?

The Leap Card gets you to practically every corner of Dublin. It covers:

• Dublin Bus: the backbone of the network, with more than 130 routes across the city, including the regular public airport buses
• Go-Ahead Ireland: additional bus routes across greater Dublin
• Luas tram: both lines (Red Line and Green Line) through the city
• DART and commuter rail: ideal for coastal trips to Howth, Malahide or Bray

A note on the bus network – because of the ongoing BusConnects overhaul (new spine and orbital routes, with the A-Spine from autumn 2026), the exact route count varies between sources. For up-to-date connections, it's best to rely on the real-time app rather than a fixed number.

At the airport, it's worth checking the fine print – the Leap Card only works on the regular public routes run by Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead and Bus Éireann, such as routes 16, 41, 101, 102 or 109A. The private express operators Aircoach and Dublin Express run their own ticketing systems and accept neither the Leap Card nor the Visitor Card, and the separate Airlink service isn't covered by the Visitor Card either. For help picking the right bus route for your journey, see our page on Dublin Airport.

How tapping on and off works

Using the card is simple, but it varies by mode of transport.

• On the bus: tap the card on the reader beside the driver as you board at the front. A beep confirms the fare – there's no need to tap off.
• On the Luas: tap on at the platform before boarding ("Touch On") and tap off again after you get off ("Touch Off"). Tapping off matters – skip it and you can run into trouble during ticket checks.
• On the DART and commuter rail: the same as the Luas – tap on before the platform, tap off at your destination station.

This is also where the 90-minute fare (TFI 90) comes in – your first tap deducts the fare, and every further journey within 90 minutes is free, as long as you tap on again each time you board. The fare is mainly designed for Zone 1. If you arrive by train from Zone 2, 3 or 4 and tap on again in Zone 1 within the 90 minutes, that onward journey is free – just don't forget to tap off on the train. You can check the time left on your 90-minute window in the separate Leap Top-Up app.

To put the fares in context, the TFI 90 fare is €2.00 for adults, €1.00 for young adults and students, and €0.65 for under-18s. For the bigger picture of how this fits into the wider fare and route network, see our overview of public transport in Dublin.

Children, students and discounts

There's no separate Visitor Card for children – discounts run through the regular Leap Card types instead.

• Child Leap Card (ages 5 to 15): available anonymously, with no proof of identity needed. It costs a €3 deposit and needs a minimum top-up of €5. No birth certificate required.
• Young Adult / Student Leap Card: 50% off the regular fare. This personalised card does, however, require proof of status or identity.

Children under 5 travel free in any case. Each traveller needs their own card – you can't tap several people through on a single card.

Where to get a Leap Card – and which app helps

Leap Cards are sold at more than 2,000 outlets across Ireland – every post office and PostPoint location, Payzone outlets (green logo), selected DART ticket machines in Dublin, and online. Because stockists change fairly often, TFI keeps an up-to-date list through the "Where to buy" locator on leapcard.ie, which is a more reliable way to find your nearest outlet than relying on a fixed list of kiosk names.

Ordering the Visitor Card online in advance is possible, though it needs lead time – once dispatched, delivery to Ireland's neighbouring markets and the rest of Europe can take up to 10 working days (Ireland 3–5, UK up to 7, rest of the world up to 14 days). There's no way to activate it before you arrive – your chosen period only starts with your first tap in Dublin. If you're travelling at short notice, it's usually simpler just to buy the card once you land.

For planning on the ground, the official TFI Live app from the National Transport Authority is the essential tool (free for iOS and Android). It shows real-time departures for Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead, Luas, DART, Irish Rail and Bus Éireann, and plans door-to-door routes. If you're planning to do a lot of sightseeing in Dublin anyway, it's also worth comparing our guide to the Dublin Pass first – depending on your itinerary, a combined ticket might work out better value.