Jacobs Inn Hostel | Dublin

Jacobs Inn set the bar for the other hostels we stayed at on our trip to Europe in June. They are by far one of the best hostels around and I have stayed at quite a few during my travels through the years.

We arrived at the hostel around 10-10:30 in the morning on Saturday, June 15th. We were able to check in and put down a deposit for a locker to put our backpacks in until we could come back later and get into the room. Deposits for the locker were 2 Euros per day and you received the deposit back at the end of your stay which is an added bonus to having a locker for your things. Upon check-in, we found out we would have to move rooms on our third day. I had made a reservation for three beds for four days. As you can guess by now, we were going to be staying in one of the 12 bedded dorm rooms. I wish I was informed that we would need to switch rooms on the third day since I had booked the reservation months in advance and should have been given a room for all four nights.

Things happen….. I thought it was going to be a problem having to switch rooms on the third day since I booked a day tour through Paddywagon for Kilkenny and Wicklow. I didn’t think we would have time to get all of our stuff packed up and out of the room before we left on the tour. Amazingly, it worked out really well because the staff at the front desk gave us another locker to use (no deposit needed) to put the rest of our stuff in until we could check into the other room. On the third day, we moved all of our stuff into the two lockers we had and let reception know we would be coming back in the evening after our tour to check into the new room.

Breakfast was included in the price of the beds booked for our stay in Dublin. It consisted of milk, orange juice, bread, jams and cereal. What more do you need to start your day? Nothing…. The room used for breakfast was off of the reception area and then when breakfast was over, it converted into a place for people staying at the hostel to watch television or sit around and chat since there were couches in the room. There were some tables and chairs off to the side of the room which we used once while we were there to eat dinner that we had bought from the store down the street from us.

I loved that Jacobs Inn was close to where the airport shuttle dropped us off. We found out that the bus station where we would catch the shuttle back to the airport was just around the corner from the hostel.

There are many reasons to stay at Jacobs Inn. The list would be too long for me to name all of them but here are a few of the reasons why I would stay here whenever I go back to Dublin. Cleanliness of the rooms, security (you can only get through the main door from reception if you are staying at the hostel), key card access so that the only people entering your room are the ones sharing the room with you, roof terrace which we used once when we brought our dinner up to the terrace and ate while watching the city of Dublin below us. How could I forget about the guest kitchen that we never got around to using? How about having elevators that would take you up to your floor so that you didn’t need to climb stairs to get to your room? But the best reason would be LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

I didn’t realize how close they would be to everything we wanted to see. They were right around the corner from where the busses dropped you off from the airport and picked you up to take you back. They were a few blocks away from where we needed to be to take our tour with Paddywagon, they were so close to O’Connell Street which is one of the main streets and the shopping area of Grafton Street and Trinity College were not much farther to walk to from O’Connell Street. We did a lot of walking in Dublin and everything was within walking distance from the hostel.

My favorite word is location when talking about one of my favorite hostels because of how close they ended up being to Phoenix Park. You make a right out of the hostel, go around the corner and stay towards the right (not turning left at all) and you will get to the park, on foot, in less than 30 minutes. Well, it depends on how fast or slow you walk since the park is about 2 miles away from the hostel. I went to the park a couple of times I was there and loved how close it was to Jacobs Inn since I wanted to continue with my walking and jogging while traveling on this trip. Phoenix Park helped me do this a couple days while we were in Dublin.

As you can tell, even with the small room glitch, I highly recommend this place to anyone going to Dublin. I would give it 5 stars (out of 5) and go so far as to give it 100% because switching rooms went smoother than I thought it would. It went so smoothly that you wouldn’t even know you were switching rooms. That is how smooth the transition went from moving from one room to the next.

Check it out or better yet, book Jacobs Inn on your next stay in Dublin and you won’t be sorry.

Jacobs Inn

Disclaimer – I was not compensated by Jacobs Inn for this review. This is solely my own opinion/experience staying at this hostel while in Dublin.