Staying in Dublin

My wife and I have been planning a trip to Ireland for awhile, the original plan was to go west coast but now we have shifted to do more so a Dublin trip. We'd play Portmarnock, The Island, European Club and drive up to Royal County Down 1 day. We'd rent a car and do the driving.

We have never been to Ireland. We would like to experience Dublin a bit, would it be crazy/make our trip a lot more difficult to stay in the city of Dublin? We each have a ton of Marriott and Hilton points so that is helpful as well. When we went to Scotland it seems a lot different, we stayed in St Andrews and had the amazing town and all of the golf courses we could want right there (+drove to north berwick). To play the courses we want to play it seems like staying in 1 place is easy, but I guess my question is should that 1 place be in the city?

Thanks for your help.

I am sure you would love staying in Dublin but it may be a little tedious driving in the heavy traffic all the time.

One alternative to consider might be staying in Malahide which is very close to Portmarnock and The Island and is only 25 minutes into Dublin on the train. It also offers easy access to the Motorways North to RCD and South to TEC. There's quite a few good pubs and restaurants also.

While in the European Club area you could take a look at Macreddin a very cheap but IMO high quality parkland course. Just as good as Druids Glen but waaay less expensive.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Staying in Dublin is not that difficult - depending on where, there are straight shots in and out. The driving on the other side is the toughest part. I stay at the Westin almost exclusively and it is pretty easy in and out once you get used to (and study/plan) your route. I love Jurys in and the Merrion, but they can be pricey if you don't catch a deal or in high times.

Once you are back from the course - having to not drive anywhere in the Dublin City Centre is great! Biggest thing is to leave before morning traffic and either be back before or after evening traffic.

If outside the city, My recommendation would be to stay out in Maynooth at Carton House if you want to have a little bit of peace and easy accessibility. The property is one of the best around. 2 courses if you need an extra round. The place is amazing to walk/hike with river and ponds. Getting into town from there is simple on the bus or a quick park for the rail. Maynooth has some excellent restaurants and pubs

With your list, you can also consider Baltray for golf.

Going to Ireland and not going to the west coast is a waste in my book.  Dublin frankly is just a city and not all that nice of one.

fly to Shannon instead and go the Kerry.  Instead of driving the ring of Kerry in one day spend a week doing it.  Waterville has two great courses plus golf in Kenmare Hosted Euro tour events and Dooks is my fav in Ireland

On 6/23/2020 at 9:59 AM, mci711 said:

My wife and I have been planning a trip to Ireland for awhile, the original plan was to go west coast but now we have shifted to do more so a Dublin trip. We'd play Portmarnock, The Island, European Club and drive up to Royal County Down 1 day. We'd rent a car and do the driving.
We have never been to Ireland. We would like to experience Dublin a bit, would it be crazy/make our trip a lot more difficult to stay in the city of Dublin? We each have a ton of Marriott and Hilton points so that is helpful as well. When we went to Scotland it seems a lot different, we stayed in St Andrews and had the amazing town and all of the golf courses we could want right there (+drove to north berwick). To play the courses we want to play it seems like staying in 1 place is easy, but I guess my question is should that 1 place be in the city?
Thanks for your help.

With Marriott points for me I would stay at The Shelbourne - classy old European style hotel. I've stayed there 3 times...breakfast is fantastic.

Def check the small historic room off the lobby - lots of cool stuff about famous folks that have stayed there. and easy walk to many of the key sites.

I also rented a car and drove to RCD...it was no problem, other than it taking ~30 min more than I thought. With having to stop for petrol - and an ATM to get Pounds (for the caddy). SO we didn't get much warm up time - got sent pretty much straight to #1 tee.

On 6/23/2020 at 2:59 PM, mci711 said:

My wife and I have been planning a trip to Ireland for awhile, the original plan was to go west coast but now we have shifted to do more so a Dublin trip. We'd play Portmarnock, The Island, European Club and drive up to Royal County Down 1 day. We'd rent a car and do the driving.

We have never been to Ireland. We would like to experience Dublin a bit, would it be crazy/make our trip a lot more difficult to stay in the city of Dublin? We each have a ton of Marriott and Hilton points so that is helpful as well. When we went to Scotland it seems a lot different, we stayed in St Andrews and had the amazing town and all of the golf courses we could want right there (+drove to north berwick). To play the courses we want to play it seems like staying in 1 place is easy, but I guess my question is should that 1 place be in the city?

Thanks for your help.

I’d be tempted to take the European out of there and put in another north Dublin or northern club, then you could stay that side of the city in malahide for instance, 15 mins from airport and lively enough restaurants and bars etc and on the train line back into Dublin.  
 

portmarnock and the island are both 10-15 min drives then and it cuts your drive north to rcd down as well by an hour or so. Quite a few courses like Baltray etc then on the way, or could squeeze in another Dublin club. 
 

presume not planning until later in 21, would leave it as late as you can obviously. 

I visited Ireland for the first time a few years ago and stayed in Dublin at the Paramount Hotel...not a super nice place but nice enough as we were literally only there to sleep.  Anywhere on the southside of the River Liffey is solid for walkability to the old churches, Dublin Castle, St. Stephens Green which is a really nice park, Trinity College and a boatload of bars though most in the Temple Bar are touristy.  North of the river tended to be more blue collar while the south side was more banking oriented with higher end restaurants and prices.  

If you are into bars, I highly recommend Brazen Head, The Stag's Head, Porterhouse which has mostly other local brews aside from Guinness, Piper's Corner is a newer one, Murray's on the north side of the river has live music and dancing most nights but gets packed.  There are a ton of others but they stick out to me at the moment.  Guinness storehouse and the Jameson Distillery are pretty cool as well.  

If you have time, I highly recommend taking a day trip or two. Galway is cool, the cliffs of Moher were great and we did Kilkenny which was enjoyable as well.

Also just a heads up....we found most people in Ireland to be pretty sarcastic and blunt but very friendly....personally I enjoyed the sarcasm and personality but I can see how it would be off-putting to those who don't expect it.  We saw several American's who were visibly irritated by some of the comments but I typically gave them right back and in many cases resulted in a celebratory shot or two at the bar lol.  

I personally loved Dublin and would go back every year if I could.  I wasn't totally sure what to expect when going but it's just a really cool place. 

On 11/25/2020 at 12:47 PM, ferrispgm said:

I visited Ireland for the first time a few years ago and stayed in Dublin at the Paramount Hotel...not a super nice place but nice enough as we were literally only there to sleep.  Anywhere on the southside of the River Liffey is solid for walkability to the old churches, Dublin Castle, St. Stephens Green which is a really nice park, Trinity College and a boatload of bars though most in the Temple Bar are touristy.  North of the river tended to be more blue collar while the south side was more banking oriented with higher end restaurants and prices.  

 

If you are into bars, I highly recommend Brazen Head, The Stag's Head, Porterhouse which has mostly other local brews aside from Guinness, Piper's Corner is a newer one, Murray's on the north side of the river has live music and dancing most nights but gets packed.  There are a ton of others but they stick out to me at the moment.  Guinness storehouse and the Jameson Distillery are pretty cool as well.  

 

If you have time, I highly recommend taking a day trip or two. Galway is cool, the cliffs of Moher were great and we did Kilkenny which was enjoyable as well.

 

Also just a heads up....we found most people in Ireland to be pretty sarcastic and blunt but very friendly....personally I enjoyed the sarcasm and personality but I can see how it would be off-putting to those who don't expect it.  We saw several American's who were visibly irritated by some of the comments but I typically gave them right back and in many cases resulted in a celebratory shot or two at the bar lol.  

 

I personally loved Dublin and would go back every year if I could.  I wasn't totally sure what to expect when going but it's just a really cool place. 

LOL; I lived there for many years and when I returned to the states I had to go through a cultural orientation both going and returning...going = understanding the Irish culture; returning = don't do the things I learned back in the US. 🙂

On 11/29/2020 at 7:57 AM, puttnforthe8 said:

LOL; I lived there for many years and when I returned to the states I had to go through a cultural orientation both going and returning...going = understanding the Irish culture; returning = don't do the things I learned back in the US. 🙂

hahahaha that's awesome.....what a great place though....I'm dying to go back.