Jurys Croke Park Hotel, Dublin

When you are planning on staying the night somewhere, it is always a good piece of mind to know you are finding somewhere that will not only offer value for money, but will be in a good location as well.

If you are planning to Dublin you will notice that when researching a plac eto stay, there will be an absolute influx of choices available to you as a potential customer. You will be inundated with the selection and therefore it can ...
...an absolute amazing place to visit and it takes more than a day to experience the culture, nightlife etc so it is certainly recommended staying at least for the night.

As for my own personal experience, back in April 2008 I decided to take my girlfriend to Dublin for a surprise night away. I am usually rubbish at planning things but I took my time to find the perfect place and after searching hotels.com I come across Croke Park. Before ... more

When you are planning on staying the night somewhere, it is always a good piece of mind to know you are finding somewhere that will not only offer value for money, but will be in a good location as well.

If you are planning to Dublin you will notice that when researching a plac eto stay, there will be an absolute influx of choices available to you as a potential customer. You will be inundated with the selection and therefore it can be a bit overwhelming.

Dublin is an absolute amazing place to visit and it takes more than a day to experience the culture, nightlife etc so it is certainly recommended staying at least for the night.

As for my own personal experience, back in April 2008 I decided to take my girlfriend to Dublin for a surprise night away. I am usually rubbish at planning things but I took my time to find the perfect place and after searching hotels.com I come across Croke Park. Before I explain all about Croke Park, I want to say I could have not picked a better hotel for the money I paid if I tried.

If you have never been to Dublin before, finding Croke Park will not be the easiest. It is not to far but far enough if you do not know where your going. So from the centre you are looking at around a ten to fifteen minute walk. It is best to either find out directions before hand, ask when you are there or if you are not keen at walking, you can get a bus near it or get a taxi which may be a good option.

When me and my girlfriend got to Dublin, we had no idea where to go so we asked for directions. We did take a wrong turning but after 20 minutes we finally found it. The first thing we noticed was Croke park stadium which is absolute huge and is certainly something to see. If you are a sports fan, Croke Park will certainly wet your appetite as well as hosting music concerts as well. If you are going to Croke Park, literally the hotel is right outside. Our room was on the second floor and you look out the window to see the stadium in its full glory. To get some idea of what you will be looking at, the stadium has a capacity of 82,300 so this really is a big stadium. Certainly on this occasion, seeing is believing.

So what were the first impressions of the hotel from the outside?

Well the hotel was exactly how I imagined it after seeing the pictures of it. It has a very contemporary look to it with white walls but in the middle it is a terracotta type colour. It looked very professional and with the front doors and the presentation of the flowers outside, it all seemed very impressive. Me and my girlfriend looked at each other with excitement but were yet to know what was inside.

The check in times for the hotel is 2 o clock and we arrived at the hotel at 11. So when we got inside, we were greeted by the helpful staff who checked our bags in and allowed us to come back later on to check in which was very good of them. By doing this we could enjoy going round Dublin for a few hours soaking up the atmosphere without having to pull a suitcase around with us for ages.

When we got back to the hotel after going in temple bar for a few drinks at 3 o clock, we checked in and went up to our room. To operate the lifts you use your room key card.

First impressions of the room

When we got to our room, our first impressions were wow. Quite literally we were gob smacked and it really was something to make us speechless for the first time ever.

The presentation was fantastic, the room was sleek and stylish, had two double beds, it was spacious and had the amazing view of Croke Park outside.

The room offered everything we wanted and more and for the great price of 80 pounds, this four star hotel certainly gave us value for money. And something we discovered was I booked the very last room so it made it feel even better.

The bathroom was good although the only negative was the shower as it wa snot very powerful. But with absolute everything, that was the only negative so all in all, this for me was the best choice hotel to go for.

The hotel is a respectable size offering 232 rooms all of a great size and each one of them offer customers with a great bathroom suite, LCD screen televisions, a sound system and much more. And the great thing is it has pay per view movies and even has all the sports channels as well so if you want to watch your favourite sport in your room, you can. I know that when my girlfriend was getting ready for us to go out, I was watching the football so it was good for me, not so great for my girlfriend. And we also noticed in the brochure, it said we could go downstairs and ask for a cd from the collection they had to offer. So we both went downstairs as we thought it would be good to listen to before going out. Unfortunately they only had Johnny cash left. Us being complete random people and nut cases, we thought why not so we ended up listening to burning ring of fire whilst finishing getting ready to go out.

The staff were helpful throughout and anything we wanted they were always keen to help. It's like we needed a bottle opener so they searched for one for ten minutes till they found us one.

As well as the great amenities offered in the rooms, the customer also has a great chance to dine with style at the bar and executive lounge in the hotel. If you do want to experience the sideline bistro at the hotel, prepare to experience a great selection of European cuisines although I did find it a bit too pricey. If you want to go for a nice meal and do not want to go out in the cold or do not know where to go, this is certainly an option.

If you are staying for a few days and have been hitting the ale a bit hard and over eating, you may want to work some of it off and you can with the fully equipped gym. I never got to experience the gym as I was only there for one night but I have heard people who used it and said it was very good with a good selection of equipment to choose from.

If you are driving to Dublin, the hotel offers parking for up to 178 cars which helps to give you a piece of mind. If you are on a business trip or need to take your laptop with you, you will be pleased to know the hotel offers high speed internet access in all of its rooms which is handy for some people.

There are always special offers on at Croke park hotel and you can either visit the website direct at: - http://www.jurys-dublin-hotels.com/jurys_crokepark_hotel/OFFERS for the offers or search on hotels.com. It is extremely easy to find a cheap room and if you do book early enough you will get the best rates.

So what is my opinion of Croke Park?

In my honest opinion of Croke park, it is a four star hotel which is well located if you are going to Croke Park. It is a bit of a walk to the centre but its not too far. The presentation outside and in is completely exceptional and the staff were amazing as well. The rooms were spacious and offered everything you could wish for in a hotel room. The views were brilliant and the room was also fairly soundproof as well. There was a great selection of channels on the television and also offered a sound system for you to listen to music.

This is an amazing hotel and as mentioned before you can get some amazing prices for a room at Croke Park hotel. As well as this, it is a family friendly hotel as there were a lot of families staying there at the time we were there.

If you are thinking about staying over in Dublin, seriously consider Croke park as you will not be let down by the quality or the service that will be offered to you. If I go to Dublin again, I will certainly be staying here again. 

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