World Traveller 73 
Review: Aloft Dublin City, Ireland
The time we had in Dublin, Ireland had us starting and ending our trip in Dublin. In addition to being a great city, it has some terrific street scenes and a generally great vibe to the place. We would base ourselves at the Aloft Dublin City hotel, which was located a short ten minute walk away from the Temple Bar district of Dublin. Would we find the distance of the hotel from downtown Dublin an issue ? Read on to find out. . .
This post is one chapter on our trip to Portugal, the United Kingdom (England and Norther Ireland) and Ireland. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines Advantage and enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
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Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland via TAP Portugal and British Airways Business Class.
- A Positioning Flight: Air Canada Vancouver – Toronto
- TAP Portugal Business Class: Toronto – Lisbon
- Sheraton Lisboa Hotel and Spa, Lisbon, Portugal
- The First Steps in the Hilly Capital City of Lisbon, Portugal
- Exploring the Turrets of Castelo del São Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal
- The Seaside Town of Belem and the Jerónimos Monastery, Portugal
- The Lisbon Cathedral and Iberico Ham at Time Out Market, Lisbon, Portugal
- TAP Portugal Premium Business Lounge, Lisbon, Portugal
- TAP Portugal Business Class: Lisbon – London Heathrow
- Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge: London Heathrow Terminal Two
- The Residence Inn by Marriott London Kensington, United Kingdom
- Walking Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street, London, United Kingdom
- Churchill’s War Rooms & Westminster Abbey, London, United Kingdom
- Touring the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, London, United Kingdom
- Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
- De-Cyphering the Rosetta Stone and Camden Locks, London United Kingdom
- Day Tripping to Stonehenge, Salisbury, United Kingdom
- The Moxy London Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom
- The Plaza Premium Lounge, London Heathrow Terminal Two
- Aer Lingus: London Heathrow – Dublin
- Aloft Dublin City, Dublin, Ireland
- Discovering Temple Bar District, Dublin, Ireland
- Calling on the Guiness Storehouse and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
- The Shertaon Athlone Hotel, Athlone, Ireland
- Drinking at Ireland’s Oldest Bar, Athlone, Ireland
- Hiking Along the Cliff’s of Moher, Ireland
- Crystal Springs Bed and Breakfast, Killarney, Ireland
- Circling The Skelling Islands and Driving the Ring of Kerry, Ireland
- Kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle, Cork, Ireland
- AC Hotel by Marriott, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Experiencing the Tragedy of the Titanic at the Titanic Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- In the Shadows at the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland
- Terminal One T1 Lounge, Dublin Airport, Ireland
- British Airways Club Europe: Dublin – London Heathrow
- Cathay Pacific Business Lounge, London Heathrow
- No1 Lounge, London Heathrow
- British Airways Club World Business Class: London – Vancouver
Review: Aloft Dublin City, Dublin, Ireland
The newly constructed Aloft Dublin City ended up being a perfect place for our two stays in Dublin, Ireland. We would explore almost all the features of this property during our time here.
Booking the Aloft Dublin:
I decided that we’d stay at the Aloft Dublin during our stay in the city. It was the cheaper option compared to the more business oriented Westin Dublin hotel. The paid rate for this bank holiday weekend in the United Kingdom put rates up to 268 per night.
As a result I decided that a redemption under Marriott Bonvoy points were a better value. At a category 4 property, I redeemed 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, per night for a total of 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy points redeemed. I value Marriott Bonvoy points at about 0.005 cents per point. Under this math, I would aim to redeem points at this property if the room rate was higher than $125 USD (116 ) a night.
We had two nights here on arrival into Ireland, and one night on departure with our last night in Europe. Overall, it was a great two stays and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again.
Getting to the Aloft Dublin:
After arriving off Aer Lingus London Heathrow – Dublin, we collected our checked bags. Instead of taking a taxi, we ended up taking the group bus into town. The original plan was to take a taxi from the airport into town, but the effective tourist bus marketing around the arrivals area won us over and we opted for a 7 per person trip into town.
We ended up getting off at Christchurch Cathedral stop. At this point, it was an advertised short ten minute “mostly flat” walk to the Aloft Dublin City.
The walk actually ended up taking about 15 minutes walk with our luggage through the city streets down to the Aloft. After a few back alleys, we made it to the Aloft.
The property is located in a more residential area of Dublin. This was actually welcomed to be situated just out of the noise and partying of Temple Bar District, where staying would have been a louder experience.
It wasn’t all to bad walking to the Aloft Dublin with my teenager son. We had reasonable weather and weren’t travelling too heavy in luggage. I might not feel the same way about this location if I was travelling with my parents or travelling in winter weather when rain would be expected.
Checking Into the Aloft Dublin:
The Aloft is a reconstructed building on top of an older pub, which can be seen in white below. It is a new build in this upcoming neighbourhood that is slowly being gentrified.
On arrival, we were informed at ground level by the bell captain that check in was on the 7th floor. We took the elevators up where we checked ourselves in.
On arrival to the lobby on the seventh floor, we found ourselves in a bright lobby space. The lobby had great windows and the bar had a nice view over the surrounding area. It was a nice change from the usual dark Aloft lobbies that I have previously experienced.
The lobby featured the usual reception desk immediately across from the arrival elevators, the XYZ Bar, and a flex space that offered chairs, couches and a pool table.
The Lobby also featured some iMac computers for internet surfing. While this is pretty much expected these days, it’s always convenient to have in the event you need to print something.
The bright nature of the lobby of the Aloft Dublin made for a great start to the stay. It was a welcome change of some hotel lobbies that are traditionally very dark and without any natural light.
On check in, we received a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level soft upgrade to the best available room. I appreciated this despite our stay being a Marriott Bonvoy point redemption. While there aren’t any suites available at Aloft’s in general, any upgrade is a good upgrade. We also selected Breakfast as the Marriott Bonvoy Elite welcome gift; which would serve us well over the next days ahead.
The Room: An Urban Double Double
We then led ourselves down to #514, an Urban Double Double. As mentioned, this was a soft Platinum upgrade to best available room. It was a nice larger room and a nice room upgrade as far as Alofts go; easily by far the largest Aloft room I’ve ever stayed in.
The room was particularly spacious for an Aloft Room and we had lots of space between the beds and the end of the room.
There was a work space desk that overlooked the student building complex next door. The desk itself wasn’t too large, but sufficient for what you’d expect in an Aloft.
There were also the usual simple Nepresso coffee services in the room.
Like other Aloft’s, the room featured art of a local feature. This feature was of the centre piece at Trinity College.
We had a very nice large shower and bathroom. The toiletries were Bliss branded toiletries, which were always handy for take aways at the end of the stay.
Our stay was comfortable and quiet. It was nice to be away from the hollering and shenanigans and freeways sometimes located around lower cost hotels. Our room was really quiet and we had no sleep interruption issues.
Around the Property:
Re-Fuel by Aloft
At the hotel reception when we checked in, I opted for the Marriott Bonvoy Elite Platinum breakfast option. We were issued coupons for breakfasts.
Breakfast at the Aloft Dublin City was a full continental breakfast option. There was no real “hot” option at this particular hotel. However, the continental offering was quite substantial at definitely met our needs. It offered a wide variety of cereals, croissants and pain au chocolat, along with smoked salmon and assorted European Cheeses and cold cuts.
The Bottom Line: The Aloft Dublin City
Overall, I enjoyed our stay at the Aloft Dublin City. Although it was not right in the middle of town, the Aloft met our needs for everything that we could have asked for. Using points here was a great option during the days of our stay and the soft upgrade to the larger room was greatly appreciated. The Marriott Bonvoy Platinum breakfast was reasonable and enough to meet our needs. All in all, it was a great stay and we would easily return.
World Traveller 73 
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