🇮🇪 Dublin

“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.”

– Irish Blessing

Dublin City 🇮🇪

I haven’t blogged for a while but I thought it was time to catch up as this year I’ve began to solo travel. I have been learning along the way(and learning from mistakes) and discovered travel hostels which has then put me on a path to seeing how to travel on a budget.

I’d only ever stayed in one hostel and that was in London a few years ago. I’ll be honest, I didn’t last an hour before I left, got a hotel and thought I’d never stay in one again. However, knowing what I know now, I know I was just unlucky and hadn’t done any research.

I went to Dublin in May as although I’d been around the world, I’d never been to Dublin which was literally only a 50 minute flight from Liverpool. At the beginning of the year, I worked for Ryanair as crew for a short period of time and from that, I discovered how cheap the flights can be. Id gone back to my job as a Rapid Response Health care worker and work a week on/week off rota which gives me plenty of spare time to go off and explore by myself.

I found a flight with Ryanair for £30 return then began to look for accommodation and came across Jacobs Inn, a travel hostel in the city centre and a fraction of the price of a hotel. It looked fresh and funky on the website but I was a bit wary due to my London experience but decided to take a gamble and book for 2 nights for 80€.

I arrived in Dublin at 09.20 so this gave me plenty time to take a bus to the city centre rather than paying for a taxi. I made my way to Jacobs Inn hostel and it definitely lived up to its online description, if not better. I was in an 8 bed mixed dorm and each pod had its own privacy curtain, light, low light for reading, plug socket and hook. As ex-cabin crew, this was just like an upgraded bunk on the aircrafts when doing long haul. Due the privacy curtain, I never even seen any of the other guest so would never have even known I was sharing. For me, all I wanted was somewhere to sleep, shower and store my luggage then be out exploring the city. Its thanks to Jacobs Inn I found a new love for travel hostels and realising how travel could be done on a budget.

Dublin Castle

Once I had settled in at Jacobs Inn, I headed straight out in to the city. I hadn’t looked into it prior to my trip so I was surprised to discover that Dublin Castle was located in Central Dublin, just off Dame Street and cost me around 7€ for a ticket into the Castle to look around.

“Constructed in the early thirteenth century on the site of a Viking settlement, Dublin Castle served for centuries as the headquarters of English, and later British, administration in Ireland. In 1922, following Ireland’s independence, Dublin Castle was handed over to the new Irish government. It is now a major government complex and a key tourist attraction”. Source: http://www.Dublincastle.ie

Hop on, hop off bus tour

From my time travelling with BA, I learned that the quickest way to see a city in a short space of time was to take one of the bus tours. I chose the Big Bus Company and a single ticket was around 27€

Dublin Central

Jacobs Inn Travel Hostel

2 night Mid-week stay in May: 80€

I loved this hostel and felt safe as a female solo traveller and the location was great and so handy to get around. If I go back to Dublin, even in a group I think I’d opt to stay here