Doolin Hostel

One of my favorite hostels in the world. Hot showers, good food, and great people. Well situated and very affordable. The walk to the Cliffs of Moher is more advised than driving and more beautiful

Doolin Hostel is located fairly well… as central as you could possibly be in Doolin. Either side of the hostel, down the street you can find pub/​restaurants. And you can walk down to the coast in about 10 – 15 minutes. It is rather easy to spot, as it stands out on a little hill and it is a yellow building. If you are bringing a group, on a coach, beware that it will be very difficult to get the coach up the drive into the car park and it could be very difficult to get the coach turned around. If you are driving a car, you shouldn’t have any difficulty, just watch out for the walkers in the road.
The website looked nice and it was fairly easy to organize things with the staff. I arranged, for an extra € 3 per person, a continental breakfast for our group. However, was a little disappointed that it consisted of bread, juice, and milk. The staff member that helped us check in was really nice and tried to give us ideas of what the students could do. The rooms were ok, but really cold. There was one little radiator between the bunk bed and the double bed, but didn’t seem to be on and there were no extra blankets. I was meant to have a single, but ended up with 2 bunk beds, a double bed, and another twin bed.
The bathroom in my room was quite small… the toilet on one end, sink in the middle, and shower head on the other end. The problem was that the shower control consisted of a push button, but it only runs for a minute, and then you have to push it again. This can be a problem if you have shampoo in your hair and it is running into your eyes and you can’t find the button…
There is free wifi in the lobby area and that was nice, although there was our group and another group there and the lounge just didn’t seem large enough for everyone to be watching t.v., on their computer, or sitting in front of the small fire. The kitchen area is very nice and very large so if you want to cook a dinner instead of going out, you have the facilities… the only problem is finding a store where you can get items to cook. The hostel does have stock some groceries for purchase, but not a huge variety.
At night there is no staff around and not sure if there is a way to contact the staff if there is an emergency. I say this because the other group that was staying in the hostel (probably about 14 – 15 year olds) were wreaking havoc and their leader (who I think was in the room next to me) was having an epic telephone call in which she was yelling about the whole thing… and it may have been helpful to have a staff member from the hostel to help calm the situation down.
Overall, for a hostel I would say that it is fairly standard, more to toward the basic side, but if you are on a budget and you aren’t going to spend much time in the hostel or just passing through, then it may be for you. If you are looking for a more relaxing place to stay with a few more amenities, you may want to continue your search.