The Lonely Planet Guide to Dublin strongly recommended pre-booking a hostel if traveling during the peak season. It would indeed be quite a pain to show up and have to tramp around for hours with all my stuff, looking for somewhere to stay.
As such, I have booked my first four nights (Wednesday to Saturday) and my last night (Tuesday) at a hostel they heartily endorse: Isaac’s Hostel. While it’s not the cheapest place (16 Euros for a bed in an eight-bed room), the guidebook says it has the best atmosphere of any hostel in town. Some online reviewers have been far less kind, however. My authoritative determination will find its way to the blog soon enough.
The plan, then, is to do any day trips between Sunday August 20th and Tuesday morning. Picking those out, I will need to do later, for the fish paper beckons.
The reviews of Isaac’s on this site are quite mixed, but The Lonely Planet has rarely steered me wrong in the past.
Also, one doesn’t exactly go to Dublin in search of peace, quiet, and a good night’s sleep…
Booking does seem like a good plan.
I hope Lonely Planet doesn’t let you down. The few times I’ve used that guide book, I’ve been very disappointed with their recommendations.
Meghan,
The Dublin book specifically, or Lonely Planet books in general?
“We finished off at Isaac’s Hostel, and all I can say about that is it was no Hilton!” (Source)
“There wasn’t a lot of thought or research into the hostel we were booking, just something that was cheap and had room for the four of us, enter Isaac’s Hostel, in the ghetto. That’s right even our cab driver from the airport commented on the ghetto-iness of the area, but that the place was clean and safe. Right, thanks buddy. Not like I wasn’t already freaking out that I was basically paying to stay in a room full of bunk beds, now I’d have to deal with the ghetto. Side note: I was extremely proud of myself for packing for an entire weekend in one small Jansport backpack, granted it could have easily knocked over a small child had I turned too fast the wrong way, but come on me packing so light is really an accomplishment. Ok back to the hostel, we pull up and there are these hooligans, who clearly haven’t showered in days, smoking outside the door. I was almost in full freak mode as I walked through the smoked infested entrance, but I held it together, it wasn’t until I got a good whiff of the room where I would be spending the weekend that I flipped. ” (Source)
“The hostel, Isaac’s Hostel, was in a slightly “dodgy” area and full of typical backpackers… a.k.a. those who shower in a weekly/monthly basis. Understandable, considering the hot water ran out one of the days we were there. Other than that, though, the beds were clean, the rooms were comfortable enough and the people were actually very friendly and nice. We had a locker that fit all four of our backpacks and we had access to them any time we needed. Not too bad for the cheapo price we paid.” (Source)
I didn’t have a guide to Dublin specifically, but the Lonely Planet for Western Europe was disappointing in their recommendations. Perhaps I have higher standards than they do. The books we used for France and Italy were Rick Steves’ guides to those respective countries, and I found them highly useful.
Meghan,
The Rick Steves’ guides were excellent. He has the benefit of being able to personally update them every year. I am not sure how the Lonely Planet maintains the integrity of their books, but it is probably less personal and direct.
If the hostel is truly terrible, I can always switch to somewhere else for all but the first hour days and lose one day’s worth of deposit.