Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

Missteps in Dublin: When Everything Goes Wrong

[shareaholic app=”share_buttons” id=”20872686″]

Our time in Dublin was frustrating at best. First, there was an infuriating fiasco with Ryanair—do you want to hear about this in detail? because if so, I’m more than happy to rat on my least favorite airline in the world—then a snafu with our rental car and then we arrived at our hotel, ready to throw down our increasingly-heavy suitcases and hit the city by foot, to find out that the hotel lost our reservation. And they were full. Ugh.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

But lemons to lemonade, right? The desk girl at the Fitzwilliam was very kind and helpful and called around to find an available room for us. At the end of September, it was still technically high season in Dublin, so this wasn’t easy (especially a room with two beds to accommodate three). But eventually, she was able to get us in at the Westbury Hotel, which is only one of Dublin’s most coveted accommodations. Hauling our ridiculous amount of suitcases (i.e. shopping purchases from Scotland) through the crowded Grafton Street was the not-so-fun part of that equation.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

From the time we stepped into the lobby, the stress of the first half of the day quickly melted away. Everything about this place was just perfect.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

It was one of those hotels that is so comfortable you don’t want to leave. We felt bad we had paid a hefty sum of money just to head out again for the night—though you don’t truly experience Dublin without a self-guided beer tour, in my opinion—but after the day we’d had, it was worth every penny, nevertheless.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

We only had one dud of a hotel during our eight nights and six different properties in Scotland, but it was still a nice change of scenery to stay in a more modern accommodation after a handful of bed and breakfasts.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

I can’t say I’ve ever stayed anywhere before that had seating in all of its elevators.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

Nor oversized velour booths on every floor.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

And all the mirrors everywhere appealed to our inner narcissists (or rather, made me realize how much I neglect my appearance while traveling!).

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

So thank you, Westbury—and also Rory Guinness—for redeeming Dublin in my eyes. Had it not been for the two of you, our time in the Irish capital would have been a total bust.

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

COMMENTS
  • November 23, 2012

    Wow, the last shot of Dublin is gorgeous! I like all of the family love that’s going on in these shots… it makes me want to travel with my mom and sister too 🙂

    • December 2, 2012

      Other than the fact that they have a terrible sense of direction, my mom and sis are pretty Fun travel companions 🙂

  • November 23, 2012

    Sometimes the unexpected turns out the best.

  • November 23, 2012
    Amanda

    I would love to hear more about the RyanAir fiasco. I had an awful experience with them as well, flying from Norway to Spain.

    • December 2, 2012

      Done! I will blog about it this week and you can chime in with your own experience. I love exposing slimy airlines for their underhanded ways! 🙂

  • November 23, 2012

    The start was horrid but look at the joys that followed eventually!! Such pleasing captures! Glad you had such a wonderful time after all 🙂
    Have a nice day 🙂

  • November 23, 2012

    A bit envious of your photos. Still trying to capture images you can tell the person in the shot. 🙂 Especially the last image. Simply beautiful. Dublin is one of our favorite places to visit. I know I certainly hope to visit again soon. Cheers!

  • November 24, 2012

    Oh boy can I relate to the RyanAir love. On our way to Palermo from Bologna they dropped us off at the WRONG airport! Let me tell you, with a toddler and baby in tow that was not fun. But we are hoping to head to Dublin next fall for TBEX, so hopefully we will have a much better experience. And yes, I need to learn how to drive a manual too. I have less than a year to do it. Fingers crossed.

    • December 2, 2012

      ARE YOU SERIOUS????? that’s way worse than our experience with them (which I will blog about anyway because these stupid airlines need to be held accountable!)

      • December 2, 2012

        No joke. As we were getting off one flight attendant asked us “did you get all that?” And we were like “what are you talking about.” We thought they were giving us the usual landing announcement in Italian, of which I speak about 10 words. We wer informed that because of a storm that had to drop us at a different airport and that RyanAir staff would be in the waiting area to tell us what to do next. No one was there. We just went down to baggage very confused, had no idea if we were even in Sicily, but finally found another airline agent that told us what an overhead announcement had told passengers. Way to take care of your international travelers there Ryan Air. I’ll be writing about this one as well. They definitely need to know we are NOT happy!

        • December 2, 2012

          Oh and that announcement? Yeah, it told us that a bus was coming to drive us all to Palermo. Don’t even get me started on that bus ride!

  • November 25, 2012

    Oh honey, I completely understand the hate for Ryanair. I sure want to hear about that big fiasco! Your hotel in Dublin looks amazing though. Wish I’d stayed there! x

  • November 26, 2012

    Can I join both of you? looks so cozy.. mmmm !

    • December 2, 2012

      Sure! Plenty of room for more! 🙂

  • November 28, 2012

    Dublin isn’t my favorite place but it seems you guys lucked out (well, luck if it happens after all that bad crap!) We arrived without a hotel because our friends told us it was so easy to get a hotel cheap once we arrived- dumb. We were young and stupid and dragging our bags around the city was the worst! Glad to hear you had a great place to stay once you finally settled in.

    • December 2, 2012

      Girl, I am so with you on that. Love Ireland, but Dublin is one of my least favorite European capitals. And I’ve been four times now.

  • November 29, 2012

    That last photo is one for the frames. Just not even real. And despite how much I love hearing about Dublin, I love the family shots in this post. There is so much love and silliness–the best part of family.

    • December 2, 2012

      Thank you! The lighting that night was simply unreal–one of the top five sunsets I’ve ever witnessed. And “silly” is actually the perfect adjective to describe my whole family!

  • November 30, 2012

    Wow, the hotel looks awesome! I have wanted to get over to Ireland for quite a while, my hubby has wanted to get to Scotland, after seeing all your posts it looks like we need to make that happen.

    • December 2, 2012

      When you do go, you must let me help you plan! I would say skip Dublin, except for Guinness, and spend all your time on the west coast instead.

  • December 4, 2012

    Nice shot and nice smiles, It’s good to know that you enjoy after all.

  • December 6, 2012
    Lynn Chou

    Beautiful photographs (especially the sunset one)! I’m a little curious what happened with Ryanair…lol I’ve only flown it once (from southern France to Rome) and it was a terrifying experience and took 3x longer than scheduled time to get there, ugh!

  • December 11, 2012

    I have a girlfriend in Dublin and never thought to visit her, but after this post and photos I really wanna it … :)))

  • December 19, 2012

    WOW! Dublin looks awesome, I just love your blog and cannot wait to visit this gorgeous country 🙂

Leave a Comment