By the power of my almighty thumb, my print was approved and I had no say in the matter! I found a return Ryanair flight for 3 nights in November for £55.75 including 10kg check in bag.

The next bit which knew would be more than my flight was accommodation! Dublin is expensive you can easily spend over £200 on staying somewhere for 3 nights! I decided to stay in Gardiner House, a converted cathedral hostel what has room up to 16 and a private room’s available!

The hostel is a 15 minutes walk away from the city centre. I stayed in a private room (room 17) and although it did not include a bathroom I was next door to two bathrooms; all bathrooms have a toilet, shower and sink in each of them. I never had to queue AND they were cleaned hourly!

I was welcomed by a free Wi-Fi, TV, double bed, shampoo, towels, tea making faculties and ear plugs! My room was facing the main road some may find it noisy at times and the windows are not double glazed so I did get a tad cold one night. However the reception desk has an unlimited amount of ear plugs to help you sleep!

Free breakfast is provided from 7am-10am which was toast with a choice of jam, selection of cereals, fruits, hot drinks and orange juice. The staff kindly set the breakfast up in the shared kitchen and they even did the washing up!

Gardiner House hosted regular film nights, had no curfew (no guests allowed in after 11pm) and it was cheap! My only negative is that they don’t organise more social events like tour meet ups so you get to meet more people. Breakfast is held in a lovely communal kitchen and I notice that a lot groups and families staying here. Which was great but I found it difficult to start conversions with groups.  As someone who travelled solo before the hostel served its purpose perfectly; I felt safe and comfortable there.

I would definitely love to go back to Dublin but for longer so I could visit Galway, Cork and Limerick

Naomi Hostel Rating 3/5

If you fancy reading more on how I ended up making friends please click &Travelling Tips