Avoca House

The accommodation is as advertised with multiple bedrooms on the premises as well as a shared sitting room and breakfast room. The host provided us with a basic introduction to the room and area. The bedroom and en-suite bathroom were clean with modern furnishings. The shower was excellent. The bed was comfortable and the room mostly quiet except for the noises made by other guests. heating worked very well. Breakfast was a mix of cold self-serve fruit, cereal or pastry, or a full Irish breakfast with bacon, sausage, fried egg, black/white pudding, tomato and mushrooms. Jenny served us for breakfast and was very helpful. The food was well cooked.

The room is small with little space to store luggage which made it feel more cramped and difficult to navigate with two people. The bathroom has been sectioned off from within the main bedroom area so creates a challenge with the overall room layout. The window looks out to a rendered wall (about one foot away) so there isn’t much natural light. The toilet is an unusual system and made a very loud noise when flushed. Not ideal when you have to go in the night. The location was close enough to Dublin city centre but not easily walkable at 2.5km. It means that when you go into the city you really need to go for an extended time. As we like to come back to the room for a few hours before dinner this wasn’t ideal for us. The bus is 3€ each way and is easy enough to catch but transport costs add up when you’re travelling into the city multiple times each day. Next time we will pay a little more to stay closer to the city. Be aware that the bus at rush hour moves slowly, we ended up walking half way to save time.