Abigail’s Hostel

clean facilities, reasonable prices, basic breakfast– toast, cereal, jam, hard boiled eggs

Après les partiels, mes amis et moi avions vraiment envie de changer d’air. Une promo nous décide: 30 € l’aller-retour pour Dublin, go on réserve ! L’auberge de jeunesse semble être le meilleur choix pour dépenser peu, on choisit Abigail’s Hostel. Comme on était 5, on opte pour une chambre de 6, à 19 € la nuit, avec petit-​déjeuner.
La localisation est vraiment au top: la navette de l’aéroport né s’arrête pas très loin, et vous êtes à quelques mètres du quartier Temple Bar (coucou les pintes, coucou les Irish coffees).
L’endroit est sécurisé: pour accéder aux chambres, vous devez montrer votre reçu. Et si vous avez des objets de valeur, des casiers sont disponibles.
Les chambres sont relativement propres, à 19 € la nuit, il né faut pas non plus s’attendre à une odeur de rose, des coussins tout doux et compagnie. Chaque lit bénéficie d’une lumière et de deux ports USB, c’est certes pratique mais les miens né fonctionnaient pas.
Le petit-​déjeuner est correct: du pain, du café, du thé, du jus de fruit, de la confiture, des fruits en sirop, des œufs. Il y a aussi un frigo et un four que vous pouvez utiliser pour cuisiner.
Le staff est très sympa, n’hésitant pas à nous conseiller sur des potentielles excursions à la mer !
Il y a la possibilité de laisser sa valise le dernier jour dans un local dont la porte est fermée.

Hostel is okay. For a European hostel it could be a lot better. You won’t regret staying here but if you can find a better alternative then go for it.
Cons: Mold in bathroom. 4^th floor under construction. Hallways have a chlorine smell. Elevator and printer out of service. Baggage storage is not secured. Anyone can freely enter with a key.
Pros: Excellent location. Easy walk to fun bar areas and historical sites. Easy access from airport.

The free wifi is excellent as is the location. € 1 to rent a towel. The hard boiled eggs for breakfast were good, but the canned pears were not good.
We had to make a trade-​off between noise and a warm room. We opened the window to keep the room cool.
We had trouble with the toilet but the water pressure in the shower was awesome.
I think the value is good. I tried to have realistic expectations and they were exceeded.

I can’t believe this place has such great reviews. It’s not terrible but the entire hostel reeks of mildew and mold and the ambience of the hostel is somewhere between homeless shelter and mental institution. To be fair, the rooms themselves are less depressing, but still very mildew-​y. There is free wi-​fi but it’s pretty slow and basically un-​useable during peak hours when everyone’s back at the hostel. All other services (lockers, towels, etc.) have a small fee, which partially explains the very cheap price to stay here. The one redeeming attribute is that the factor is that the hostel is extremely central to Trinity/​Temple Bar/​Grafton St. However, given how small Dublin is, I wouldn’t suggest staying here unless location is vital to you.
One more tip — if you pay with credit/​debit here (and at a few other restaurants), the machine will ask if you want to pay in USD. If you say yes it actually charges you an extra 2.75%! I didn’t realize this until a nice waitress pointed it out, so make sure you hit no so you don’t end up with extra fees!

I stayed at Abigail’s on March, 2013 for eleven days on my way. It was a comfortable place to sleep and have fun with people from different countries. Really good atmosphere and very good customer care. Breakfast included relative quality and price. Highly recommended.

I stayed at Abigail’s this past summer (two nights in July, 2013, and two nights in August, 2013) on my way to and from a month-​long immersion course in Irish Gaelic. I learned about this hostel when a friend of mine stayed here during my previous visit to Ireland in 2008 — she was pleased with it, and I was less than pleased with my accommodations at the time — so I was glad to see it still operating in 2013!
First, I have to say that you just can’t beat the location (unless you’re a very light sleeper, in which case a dorm in a hostel probably isn’t your best choice in any case!). It’s right on Aston Quay, just steps from the O’Connell Street Bridge, Ha’Penny Bridge, and, of course, Temple Bar. Other attractions, including Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street, Henry Street, the GPO, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christchurch Cathedral, Dublinia, and the Jameson’s Distillery, are within easy walking distance, as is Busáras (the central bus station). The Airporter drops you off just a few blocks away. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, and pubs right nearby. If, like me, you prefer to explore a city on foot or via public transit, you just couldn’t be better situated.
I did mention noise and Temple Bar, right? If you plan on staying in any place in this area, you do need to understand that Temple Bar is a party/​drinking/​touristy destination, Especially if you’re there on a weekend, there WILL be a party going on outside your window at 2:00 a.m. If that’s going to bother you, Temple Bar is not your thing. If you’re like me, and can sleep through a major earthquake (or if you’re the one who wants to do the partying!), however, you’ll be just fine (and it is quite a bit quieter during the week).
I should add to this that, while Temple Bar is a party area, Abigail’s is NOT a party hostel. They are very good about enforcing quiet hours in the sleeping areas at night. You can drink in the common room, but there are no noisy dorm parties to worry about.
As far as the hostel itself goes, I just can’t say enough nice things. The staff is wonderful. Everyone was remarkably friendly and helpful (even to an aging flashpacker like me!). In fact, they really shone during my second stay, when I arrived with a broken foot (a legacy of all the walking I did during my trip), I couldn’t manage a ladder, and all the lower beds in my dorm had been claimed (and my dorm mates had quickly dropped off their packs and gone out to explore the city, so I couldn’t just negotiate a trade). Even though the hostel does not reserve specific beds, and no single was available for me to upgrade to, the staff really worked to help me (finally advising me to take one of the lower bunks and assuring me that they’d let the other people in the dorm know about my problem when they came in… something they can do easily because you have to use your hostel pass to claim a room key). In fact, they were so nice and helpful at every juncture… just really wonderful young people!
The hostel has some nice features, including a big common room with a TV and wi-​fi, a secure self-​storage room (where you can leave your luggage if you arrive before check-​in or if you have to check out before you’re ready to leave the city) and ensuite baths in the dorms (a feature I greatly appreciated!). The dorms were clean and the beds were very comfy. The free breakfast was an unusually good one for a hostel: cereal, toast, juice, coffee and tea, and (yum!) hard boiled eggs!
I’d quite happily stay here again, and can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for safe, clean, budget accommodations in Dublin.

Not impressed.
Positives: 24 hour desk person. Lockers. Bathrooms in room. Fast, free wifi. Fun location.
Negatives: my room smelled of body odor and mold. Mold in the bathroom, around the tub and on the wall /​ceiling. Not sure if it was my neighbor I had or the bed I was in but there was a pretty funky smell in there. Just really not that clean compared to some other hostels I have stayed at on this trip.

This was my review as posted on TripAdvisor in September 2010:
I’ve now stayed here for two nights (Friday September 3^rd and Monday September 6^th). The best quality (I meant «feature») about this place is the location. On Friday, the other travelers were more subdued than Monday’s travelers (lots of South Americans chanting loudly and banging the tables). The staff at the front desk were great overall.
Didn’t stick around for the breakfasts. Also, it cost 1 euro for a towel. The room was sweltering during most of the night.
Monday was the first time I got to sleep in a room full of girls — lucky lucky me!
Stayed September 2010, traveled solo

I stayed here for 3 nights when I came to Dublin. The price is reasonable, clean, and very safe. I stayed in a 8 girls dorm. The bathroom was clean and very well-​maintained. The first day I got there, it was raining hard, so I stayed in and watched Simpsons in the common area.
I also love how this hostel is in the middle of Dublin, so i was able to walk to all the attractions and the shopping area within minutes.

This was a great first hostel for my European backpacking adventure. The price was inexpensive and the hostel is easy to find, right in the heart of Dublin. The rooms were clean, the staff was friendly, and they have a common room with a homey feel if you’re trying to meet other travelers. I highly suggest this hostel and I’d definitely stay there again if I found myself back in Dublin.
Book early if you’re going in the late summer months. It was easy to find a room in May, but at the end of August it was completely booked.

This place was amazing to stay in for a cheap getaway to Dublin! Super clean, the staff were ALWAYS super friendly and willing to help, free breakkie was good (only cereal, toast and fruit, but still a good way to start the day) and the location could seriously not be beat! It’s always a good thing when you can stumble two blocks home from the Temple Bar area at 2AM. Also, the bathroom and shower room were the best I’ve seen in a hostel so far, quite clean and modern.
My friend (who’d never ever stayed in a hostel before) was nervous but admitted that she really enjoyed the place as well and would totally give another hostel a shot, which is a miracle in itself. We stayed in the 4-​bed girls dorm, so I can’t speak for the larger dorms but would probably still go with the smaller dorms, if only for more privacy.

I really loved my stay here! I’ve always had great luck with European hostels, and this was no exception. Abigail’s was clean, staff was friendly, the breakfast was ample, and there were hundreds of brochures advertising everything there was to do in and around Dublin. The beds were comfortable and sheets freshly washed. It’s also centrally located and close to multiple bus stops for easy access from any point! It’s nice to be right in the heart of things and able to walk pretty much anywhere.
For the price, I wasn’t expecting much, but for being so cheap Abigail’s truly delivers. I’d highly recommend this place to any traveler far and wide!