Hello everyone
I am having a hard time narrowing down our final hotel. We will be in Dublin for 1 night. We leave at 10:00am to fly back to the states. We have two hotels under consideration. Radisson Blu Royal and The Merrion. We have 2 small children and we will have just completed 4 days in the country. Is there a different recommendation?

Hi there,

Both of those are very fine hotels. But the Merrion is quite "hushed tones" if you have two small children in tow!
What kind of accommodation have you chosen for the 4 day trip prior to Dublin? Will you have a car or will you use public transport/taxi to get to the airport in Dublin? Uber does not operate in Dublin.

With a bit more information, I and others may be able to narrow down other options for you.

We have a rental car that we are dropping off Friday morning at the airport and had planned to taxi into town. We are also considering a hotel further north along the sea. The prior 4 days we will be in Kilkenny.

If you decide to stay Northside by the sea instead of going into the city, the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links would be a good choice. Right on a really wonderful beach (weather permitting!) which the children would adore. Short hop by taxi to the airport also.

If you decide to stay in Dublin City, the Radisson Blu is good as are the Davenport and the Westbury. The Merrion is a beautiful hotel, but I wouldn't stay there with young kids. Just me really!

The choices are immense, but the three mentioned above are close to the sights and public transport. Hope you have a pleasant trip.

I just booked the Portmarnock as a back-up. Wow, thank you!!

You do need to be at the airport by 7 or earlier for your 10 am flight. Malahide has some nice hotels. I booked an airport hotel for December since we have an 8 am a flight to Munich from there. You can turn in the car and take the bus into town for the day and return late then you are there in the am. Less rushed. Just my opinion with two children.

Quick follow up on our trip. We got to Portmarnock right before a huge storm hit. I took the rental car back to the airport right away. Side note- internet and gps sucks in Portmarnock area so have a map handy for the drive back to the airport. I took a taxi back to the hotel that afternoon. My girls, husband and I walked along the beach after lunch and before the storm got there. So many beautiful dogs and lots of kind people were walking along the beach.
We had dinner in the room because of the rain and had an uneventful trip back to the airport in the morning. Customs is in Dublin, if you are traveling back to the US plan on having at least a 3 hour airport adventure.

Glad that all worked out. We love our time at the airport. We duty-free taste all the samples. I do all my gift shopping there, grab a bite to eat and then once at the gate you can buy more duty free Dingle Gin. We have a direct non stop flight home so we buy more there. We love it. Glad you got a walk on the beach at least.