We stayed here for four nights during our trip to Ireland in April 2012: the first three nights were were in Ireland and the last night before we flew back to the States. I was satisfied with my entire stay at this hotel.
Location: this hotel is located on Bachelor's Walk in the Dublin's city center. While at first the location was overwhelming to get to (I am new to the navigating Dublin), once we were settled in the location unfolded itself as being perfect. Being centrally located like this in Dublin means everything I wanted to see in the city was well within walking distance. I was able to explore the whole city, and any time I needed to stop by the hotel it was so easy to swing by because of the easy location. This hotel is a five minute walk from Trinity College, many places to shop, and awesome pubs and restaurants. It's a ten minute walk to Jameson distillery and Guinness Storehouse. If the place you want to see isn't within walking distance, a bus to take you there is.
Staff: The staff here is super friendly. Genuinely! One of the staff members who stands out the most for me are Carly who works at the front desk. She was always very attentive to our needs and very professional. On our last night in Dublin, we let her know that we needed to leave for the airport at 5:30am. When we told her this she let us know that the parking garage we parked in is not open until 7am. After she informed of this, she immediately came up with a solution that allowed us to still leave at our original time. She called up a coworker and arranged to have our car moved to the car park below the hotel. Normally this doesn't happen but she understood we didn't have another choice short of turning the rental car back early by a day, taking a cab back to Dublin and then using Arlington Hotel's shuttle service. While that was an option it would have taking a lot out of our last day in Dublin, so her solution was super fantastic. Thank you Carly for helping us out with that. All of the staff that worked in the restaurants, especially the breakfast staff were also friendly, attentive, and chatting us up on how our day has been or what we were up to if it was still the beginning of the day.
Food: We had three breakfasts, one dinner, and one lunch at Arlington. The breakfasts were delicious. Fresh fruit, yogurt, pastries, brown bread, toast, muffins, cereal, juices, baked beans, scrambled and fried eggs, hash browns, and sausage (although I didn't partake in those). There was so much to eat for breakfast you would be hard pressed to walk away still hungry. We ate dinner at their traditional Irish music and step-dancing show. Three appetizers to choose from we had the vegetable soup which was tasty. My husband tried their stew and I had the salmon. He told me the stew was good but wish there was more in the portion size for the price. I had the salmon and it was fantastic and more than enough food for me. The dessert was a selection of small pastries, pie, and tarts. Our last day in Dublin we had a late lunch at Sinatra's Piano Bar which is also located in Arlington Hotel. I had the seafood chowder (AMAZING) with a side of chips. It was so delicious, and a perfect amount of cod, prawns, and potato to leave me satisfied. My husband had the fish and chips and he said they were very good. The batter was not too thick and the cod was fresh. Overall a fantastic lunch.
Irish Dancing Night: The show was a lot of fun. The band was energetic and the Irish step-dancers were very talented. The show is free to attend if you don't mind sitting in the back by the bar. If you want a reserved table, you have to book the dinner (which I mentioned above). Some people reviewing the hotel say it is touristy, but hey you know what we are tourists, so why not have some fun and enjoy yourself?
Accommodations: Comfortable beds, spacious shower with excellent water pressure (I have used showers were the water pressure is so weak it takes my thick hair almost five minutes to get wet enough to shampoo), plenty of dresser drawers and wardrobe space for our clothing, pants press, tea maker, hair dryer, and a safe in the room. Also free Wifi! Not too many places around Ireland had that so it was nice to use to keep in touch with family in the States.
Next time I come to Dublin I would have no problem staying in this hotel again. Thank you all again for helping our stay in Dublin be wonderful. read more