Reasonably priced places to stay in Dublin

but I am not up for searching all over Dublin for the best priced hotel that is clean and in a good location for easy access to the ferry and/or airport.

Good decision, stick to your guns...and see the link provided below to all the discussions/reviews had here of Dublin hotels with easy access to the airport.

I TOTALLY agree! We do have specific dates for Dublin, that's why I was asking for any suggestions available. Thanks for your input.

Two suggestions: For night one, you might want to give your kids a hostel experience if they are not very young. Avalon House has family rooms - they even have family floors! I stayed there and was happy with the accommodations. But I would reserve in advance.

For the last night, I needed to be by the airport, too. I was more concerned about a good night's sleep and easy access to the airport the next day than a cultural experience, so I stayed at the Holiday Express. It was perfect. Easy booking on-line and free shuttle to the airport.

Just a note about Trinity College: They rent out dormitory rooms when the college is not in session.

Thanks, Jo. Guess I should have added that our kids are older (23 and 20). Our son is staying on in Ireland for a semester of school in Galway, so maybe a hostel experience would be a good intro. for him. Good idea. Judy

Ahhh, then I was preaching to the choir (about the virtues of not winging it), as they say.

Here are all of the discussions/reviews of Dublin airport hotels that have appeared on this website

click here

Jo mentions the Holiday Express, others have referred to the Holiday Inn Express, these are probably one and the same hotel.

Others that have been mentioned here are:

Bewley's Dublin Airport Hotel

Crowne Plaza

Travel Lodge

stayed at harrington hall when i was in dublin in june...close to st stephen's green with all the access to shuttles to the airport, etc ... harrington hall is in a nice area and used to be the mayor's residence...

We were in Dublin in May and stayed at the Jury's Christ Church Inn in the Temple Bar District. We got it for 75 euro a night. Its your standard hotel but was nice. About a 12 minute walk to the airport bus stop and then about 30 minutes to the airport.

If you do a search on booking.com, you can narrow your search to ones that provide transportation to the airport. We chose to go that route, since a bus/taxi ride would easily add 20-30 euro to the price of the room. We stayed in Bewley's, since they had reasonably priced rooms for 4 and a free shuttle.

We just today returned from Dublin and stayed at the Harding Hotel (where Rick Steves tours stay, I'm told). It's a great location, we got a very nice room and the people were very friendly; however, I had been told it was noisy if you were by Darkey Kelly's Pub and the beer garden. I asked for a more quiet room (last September), and they could not accommodate that for us. So, I do believe we got the worst room in the entire hotel (3rd floor right above the beer garden). It's wonderful to hear the Irish music, but when it's so loud and until 1:00 in the morning, even ear plugs did not help. Perhaps this just shows our age, but that part of staying there was not pleasant. You take a chance when you book.