Dublin Marathon 2013: Clarion IFSC Dublin Hotel Review

Clarion IFSC Dublin Hotel Review

Clarion hotels is among a chain of Choice Privileges. My friend told me about this chain of hotels. As part of a travel deal a few months back, he purchased a large amount of points. He says that the deals are usually in Europe.

After speaking with him, I found that this hotel was only 8k points for the dates around the Marathon. It was a great deal! Choice Privileges is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards.

On the last day, there wasn’t any reward availability in Dublin but I had to fly out early in the morning so I booked a similar room at Clarion Dublin Airport, which was s short safe walk to Terminal 1.

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The Clarion Hotel is a few blocks from the Dublin International Financial Services Centre. It is only about a 15 minute walk to O’ Connell Street so it is in a decent location for 8k points. It is on the route of the Dublin Airport Express (link to PDF), which makes it very convenient. On the last day, I had my luggage stored there and walked back there after sightseeing to pick it up before hopping on a bus back to the airport.

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The check in area was nicely decorated for Halloween. The bar is to the right of the picture of the lounge area. The restaurant is beyond the bar.

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The room was of a nice size and the bathroom was pretty big. There was a dedicated tub and shower. I didn’t get a chance to use it. I was thinking about having a hot bath to loosen up my muscles before the Dublin Marathon but didn’t have time.

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There were chocolates in the room as a check-in amenity.

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This room also had a balcony. It was too cold to be sitting outside but during the summer it should be very nice to be sitting outside and having a view of the river (to the left of the picture of the balcony).

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Across the alleyway of the hotel were some restaurants. I stopped into a cafe to get a breakfast sandwich.

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Asian food is quite popular here, much more than I expected. The Clarion Hotel had an Asian Fusion restaurant while the below two restaurants, one Malaysian and one sushi, were just across the street.

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I managed to snap a few pictures of the gym before I was told I wasn’t supposed to. I had similar troubles at the Clarion Hotel at Dublin Airport. This gym was quite large. I believe that they sell membership to the gym as this looks too big for just hotel guests.

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The pool was quite long as well but only at a depth of about 4 feet. There was a hot tub to the left of the pool. There is a reception desk to hand you a towel for the pool at the left entrance closest to the window.

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It was a very good hotel and great price on points for it. The location was good. The only one I know of that has a better location is the Westin, which is just outside of the Temple Bar area, but also a few blocks away from Trinity College, Book of Kells, and College Park, which are all in the same park area.

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