SVS – Our Guide to Dublin

As I’m sure you’ve probably noticed, we here at SVS are very passionate about Dublin and are frequent visitors to Dublin’s fair city so we thought we would put together a post with all of our favourite places to go in the city to share with you all.

From coffee shops and restaurants, to pubs , bars and shopping areas and hotels, attractions and surrounding areas, we give you a comprehensive guide to all of our favourite hotspots and show you how SVS does Dublin, we’ve even included some upcoming new additions to the city to look out for too!

 

Ok, so first stop – Accommodation! Dublin is full of great places to stay and has lots of different options to choose from and to suit all kinds of travellers and trips. We do have a little hitlist of hotels that we like to stay in and these include The Clarence, The Morgan and The Alex but you can usually find us residing in the Morgan hotel on the majority of our trips. We like to be right in the heart of it and be able to walk to most places in the city centre. We love the style and boutique feel of the hotel and its relaxed atmosphere; the breakfast is always great and full of choice and the rooms are beautiful. You can more often than not find us in the bar area sipping on an espresso martini while we catch up with emails or after a day out and about in the city before hitting up the nightlife! 😊

Next up coffee spots ….. when we need our coffee fix we definitely have our go to spots to frequent which are The Bailey Bar, Balfes , Dollard & Co , Bewleys on Grafton street , Clement & Pekoe , Kaph , Elle’s bistro at the Iveagh Garden hotel and Queen of tarts. Dublin has no shortage of cool local and independent cafes and coffee shops so you will never be stuck for choice. We often quite happily while away an afternoon in one of these places with our laptop , catching up with friends or just people watching and chilling out for a few hours with a good coffee and a nice bit of cake! The Bailey bar has a nice outside seating area and is just of Grafton street so it’s a great spot for people watching and a bite to eat!

When it comes to shopping Dublin has everything you need from high street stores, high end department stores and local independent boutiques and brands. We love to wander through Grafton street and its surrounding side streets to hit up River Island, Brown Thomas, Only, And other stories and then head into Stephen’s Green shopping centre for a browse. We also like to spend a few hours browsing in Avoca on Suffolk street and in the Powerscourt centre on South William street. We love popping into H&M on College Green near Dame street and also browsing through the boutiques and vintage shops in Temple bar like Siopella , On the North side you can find us in Penney’s , Irish department store Arnotts and the Jervis shopping centre. We also like to wonder around the CHQ building which overlooks the Liffey in the Docklands area of Dublin and has lots of little shops and restaurants to explore.

Dublin is a great city for brunch spots and in our opinion,  they have some of the best brunch offerings we’ve seen (and there are a lot!) so when we are brunching in Dublin (which is quite often!) we make a point of hitting up our favourite hangouts! We love San Lorenzo’s and if you’re a French toast fan (and who isn’t?!) you have to try their coco pops French toast – yes you heard that right and yes, it is to die for! Their French toast with bacon and maple syrup is also amazing. We also love Cleaver East for brunch who do a bottomless brunch offering with 2 courses and bottomless Mimosa’s or Bellini’s – what’s not to love there! And let’s face it anything with bottomless and brunch in the title is already sounding like a winner to us! You will also find us in Balfes a lot! , their pancakes are delicious, and they do a burrata to die for, not to mention amazing cocktails and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

If its attractions and points of interest that you are looking for there’s no shortage of those either! Museums, galleries, colleges, libraries, stadiums, tours , green areas and parks and monuments are all around the city to enjoy. We like to wonder around Trinity College and around Stephens green and we love Vintage Tea Tours where you can take a guided tour of the city on a vintage bus whilst enjoying afternoon tea. We also like the EPIC museum in the CHQ building which is a new addition to the city where you can take an interactive look at Irelands history. We have been known to take a walk on the roof of Croke Park stadium a few times on their skyline tour where you can see panoramic views all over and around the city and view the pitch from a new perspective and of course visit the Guinness Storehouse and enjoy a few pints of the black stuff in the Gravity bar. We also love to just wander around the city at our own pace and explore all the little side streets, there is so much to be seen , we find something new every time we go (and we do go a lot!)

We do love a good meal out and Dublin’s food scene is exceptional, there are so many restaurants, casual dining spots and cafes to choose from and whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner you will never find a bad meal in Dublin! We do eat out a lot in the city whether its solo or with friends/ colleagues and we have a collection of fave spots to visit. We often visit Elephant and Castle in Temple bar for their epic chicken wings, you definitely need to put these on your hitlist! Bunsen burgers are one of our favourite bargain eats and we often go to the Temple bar Bunsen for ours. For evening dinners are favourite places to go are Toscana on Dame street which is a lovely Italian restaurant with really good locally produced food , Robertas in Temple bar , Sophies rooftop restaurant at the Dean hotel on Harcourt street where you can see views all over Dublin with their panoramic glass windows, they also have a nice outside terrace area too , Fade Street Social where they do Irish style tapas and amazing steaks and Coppinger row where they do the most delicious prawns! For a posh occasion we love Cliff town house, they are renowned for their seafood and champagne bar.

Where better is there to socialise over a few drinks than in Dublin?! We love chilling out and catching up with friends over a few pints of Guinness and there’s always some live music to go along with it, one of our favourite ways to spend an afternoon or evening in the city. Our favourite pubs to enjoy a pint in are the Merchants Arch, The Norseman, Kehoes, Bruxelles, McDaids, The Old Storehouse, Mulligan and Haines , the Stags head and The Long Hall.

We are also a big fan of an espresso martini or a cheeky gin cocktail or 2! Dublin’s cocktail scene does not disappoint and some of our favourite spots are Café en Siene, 37 Dawson street, the Vintage Cocktail Club, Liquor rooms, The Grayson, the Morgan hotel bar, Balfes, the Mint bar and Drury rooms. For live music the Merchants Arch, Norseman and Old Storehouse are all regular pub haunts for us and then there are places like Bad bobs, whelan’s and Dakota which are another few favourites of ours.

One thing we always like to do when we are in the city is take a little bit of time out and go and get a blow dry for a little bit of pampering every now and then and are favourite regular spot for this is Dry and Fly , they have branches on Wicklow Street and Merrion square where you can go and have a bouncy blow dry with a complimentary prosecco , gin or tea and coffee (bet you can’t guess which one we usually go for!) We also on occasion go to Preen hair and beauty on Dame street or the Aveda blow dry bar in Brown Thomas beauty lounge.

We here at SVS are whiskey and wine lovers for sure! There is a fab wine tour available with Dublin wine trails that takes you around the city visiting some of its best wine bars and tasting wines and tapas as you go and there are lots of whiskey experiences available in the city, we love visiting the Teeling and Jameson distilleries where you can do a tour and tasting and there are also bespoke experiences available with Whiskey Island and The whiskey experts who offer amazing tailored tours and tastings throughout the city. There are also some great new distilleries that have opened such us Roe & Co and the Dublin Liberties distillery to name a couple.

When it comes to getting outside of the City we love heading out to Wicklow and exploring the beautiful Powerscourt estate and Glendalough as well as experiencing the stunning hotels out there like Powerscourt hotel and Druids Glen resort. We have also tried our hands at baking scones at Ballyknocken house and cookery school with the fab Catherine Fulvio! As well as Wicklow another favourite of ours is Kildare where you can find the Kildare outlet village and the beautiful Cliff at Lyons estate, which is our favourite retreat in the countryside with stunning accommodation, beautiful food and amazing spa treatments with a cosy chillout room, it is a peaceful getaway location but also easy access to the city too. Dublin has lovely coastal and harbour towns too like Howth, Portmarnock, Dun Loaghaire, Greystones and Bray.

 

Believe it or not we do also work when we are in the city! Often we like to use hotel public areas and cafes and coffee stops to sit and go through our emails and catch up on to do lists etc. like the ones we mentioned at the beginning of this post but we also take time to go to various networking events and meet with suppliers when we are there. Networking events are held in various venues in the city ,the most recent ones we attended were Womens Inspire at the Aviva Stadium and Meitheal at City West hotel. We’ve attended a workshop at the Radisson Blu Royal hotel and there are several fantastic venues in the city for meetings, events and private dinners as well as an award-winning convention bureau and convention centre. The city is full of Unique venues and it’s a real hub for business and for small businesses, start-ups and SME’s.

There are a lot of new and up coming new additions to the city as well , look out for the Marlin Hotel that opens this month which promises a new concept of hotel in the city centre with different styles of modern accommodation, co working areas and an open plan ground floor, there is also a Hard rock hotel coming to the city located on Dame street as well as a Hyatt Centric opening in the Liberties area and the reopening of the Mont hotel and there is the Roe & Co distillery which only recently opened. Recent new hotels that have opened are the Iveagh Garden hotel and Hotel 7 and there are other new additions such as the Grayson. The EPIC museum is a fairly new addition to the city and Dublin has also recently acquired a gin and tonic bus tour!

Dublin shows no sign of slowing down and there are lots to come for this amazing city so watch this space!….

Check out some of our previous posts for more insights into Dublin below:

https://soverysarah.com/category/dublin/

Here at SVS Event Concierge we love giving people an experience to remember! With our dedicated Dublin concierge service, we are on hand to help you experience Dublin’s fair city to the fullest.

Whether your trip is a one-day visit, a special occasion or celebration, a weekend away or an educational exploration we can help you put together the perfect bespoke leisure experience for you to enjoy all that this amazing city has to offer.

We can put together tailored experiences and are also on hand to help you with activity suggestions and arrangements, dinner reservations and much more.

Whether you need a dinner reservation or a cool brunch spot, a private party or special occasion location or a great group or leisure trip experience or are even looking for a spot of afternoon tea, pampering or a retail therapy experience we have the low down on all the local hotspots, venue recommendations, places to visit and much more.

We can also help you source the best Dublin based suppliers and vendors for your event or special occasion needs including talented local musicians and photographers as well as event theme and décor suppliers and gifting options through our sourcing service.

Let us be your personal Dublin concierge and help you create an experience to remember with our expert knowledge and sheer passion for all things Dublin!

Contact us today to find out more about our Dublin concierge service and rates. sarahwenman@soverysarah.com

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