HotelChatter

Mal-what?
I'd never heard of it before, but learned that Maldron is a hotel chain with 16 locations around Ireland, and ours was one of five in the Dublin area. It's rather new and modern-looking, with a sheer glass facade, but what it lacks in history it makes up for in being a comfortable and well-managed place to relax and sleep amid your Dublin adventures.

Helpful Hosts
The Maldron Cardiff Lane made a good first impression. The taxi pulled up to the hotel at a few minutes after noon, and we were afraid they wouldn't allow us to check in because the official check-in time wasn't until 4:00 p.m. But the receptionist slid the key cards across the counter without hesitation, informing us that we'd been upgraded to a "club floor," since we'd booked for five nights.

I had feared that having the Scarlet P (for Priceline) on our reservation would get us some basement-level room behind the mop closet, but this seemed a genuine effort to please. Other interactions with staff were equally positive, from getting directions for a day trip to Malahide to returning an electrical adapter we bought from a vending machine on our floor. (Also in the vending machine: Guinness, dry gin, bottled water.)

Room Raves
Our room was on the fifth floor of the hotel, which we accessed by one of three talking elevators. It wasn't particularly large, but it had everything we needed, namely, a bed, a bathroom, some furniture, a TV, a phone, etc. I found the dimensions of certain things kind of different from what I'm used to. The bed was both wider and shorter than the queen we have at home in the States. And the bathtub was longer and narrower. The kinds of things that make traveling to foreign countries interesting. The little differences.

The bed was comfortable, although the pillows were kind of squishy. The temperature in the room was on the warm side, and we had no way of adjusting the heat or air conditioning except by opening the balcony door. The TV got a couple of Irish channels with local news and history shows as well as BBC, Sky, and some English music video channel that showed the latest U.K. pop hits.

Eco-Aware Accommodations
The room had several built-in conservation measures. You had to put your key card into a slot on the wall to turn on any of the lights. Anchored to the walls in the bathroom were refillable plastic squeeze bottles of decent quality shower gel, which I actually preferred to the old mini-bottles. The toilet had buttons for two separate flush strengths. The room had no refrigerator, nor even an ice bucket, but there was an ice machine down the hall, and where there's a will, there's a way. A plastic shopping bag filled with ice does fine for chilling a couple of beers.

There was an iron and ironing board we never used, a coffee service we used once, and a hair dryer that Jenn used a couple of times. She said the hair dryer was fine, but she didn't like having to hold the button down the whole time. That's probably a conservation measure too.

A Room With a View, If You Turn Your Head
Being on a club floor, our room had a balcony. It was a pretty decent balcony, as balconies go. The view to our left was of the River Liffey, or at least a small portion of it. To our right were visible the Wicklow Mountains. Straight across from us was a tall building in the process of being built, and every day the laborers pounded and clanked and kept the dream alive. The noise didn't bother us too much, and we could drown out most of it by shutting the door.

One thing that was a bit weird was how our balcony was connected to the one to our right. Our neighbors could have waltzed right over, or vice versa. A little privacy would be nice. Still, it's not like we were out there sunbathing.

Beyond the Room
The Maldron's lobby was clean and tasteful, but not particularly memorable. Off to the side of the front desk was a fashionable bar/lounge called Vertigo, which made me wonder how you get vertigo on the ground floor of a building. We never did get a drink there, but it looked posh. Nor did we dine in the hotel restaurant, but I walked through the breakfast service once and everything smelled delicious.

We did, however, use the gym a couple of times. The Maldron has a big fitness center in its basement level with all kinds of equipment (treadmills, ellipticals, weights), an indoor swimming pool (but you've got to wear a bathing cap), and locker rooms. If you're a fitness freak, this is your place.

Lovely Location
The Maldron Cardiff Lane is located in an up-and-coming area known as Sir Rogerson's Quay in the Dublin Docklands. Fancy new office and apartment buildings are going up all along the street, and Tony the taxi driver said that U2's new recording studio was just around the corner. For the tourist, it's a short (like 10-minute) walk to the Temple Bar and all the pubs and fun stuff you're in Ireland to experience. Yet it's far enough away that you won't be kept up late by screaming drunks.

Cardiff Lane is a somewhat quiet street late at night, and while it never felt unsafe, I did see that a car's side window had been smashed in one morning as I was going to get cappuccinos and snacks from Spar, a nearby bodega. Oh, and be careful crossing Hanover and Pearce streets, because Dublin drivers do not like yielding for pedestrians.

Bottom Line
We were happy with the Maldron. It didn't have the charm that you'd find in some historic old bed and breakfast in the old town, but it did provide a clean, comfortable, and generally chill place from which we launched all manner of Dublin shenanigans. For a total of about $200 (U.S.) a night, it felt like a good deal, and we came away happy. You can't ask for more than that.

[Video: Victor Ozols]