11-05-2025
Four-star Aloft in heart of The Liberties is the perfect city-centre hotel
I love a good hotel. Forget nights out in bars and pubs, hotels are where it's at for me. You can eat and drink in comfort, the whole family can join and it's the height of luxury.
Living in The Liberties in Dublin, I'm surrounded by new ones that have sprung up all around us in the past few years. But I hadn't found OUR hotel yet.
You know that perfect hotel that works for a family gathering; is handy for a coffee meeting or a few drinks with friends; and has a good restaurant to drop down to dinner when the mood takes.
Somewhere nearby that relatives from abroad can stay when they come to visit. A place conveniently around the corner where you can escape domesticity for a night of romance with the husband. Or indeed without the husband, as the case may be.
Well, I've found it and it's the sky-scraper-like Aloft Hotel on the cobbles of Mill Lane, the road that runs from the residential area of The Tenters and comes out at St Patrick's Cathedral.
Some of you might remember the old, legendary pub that used to be there on the corner, also called The Tenters. They've kept it on the ground floor, where it's now the hotel's chic gastropub.
Aloft's location is deceptively central; as it feels like it's in a neighbourhood amid apartments and terraced houses. Yet you can walk to Temple Bar in ten minutes and the Guinness Storehouse is the same distance in the other direction.
The vivid, all-glass, brightly-coloured, seven-storey, four-star Aloft is a towering tribute to modernity in one of the oldest and most historic areas in the capital.
Yet this urban chic amid the ancient architecture is complementary and not clashing. It works, in a kind of Belfast/Berlin/Basel type vibe. It's not like anything we're used to in Dublin.
The whole hotel has a pleasingly European feel. Everything is centred around the family, in a way that you don't feel like you're coming down to the kids' level. The hotel offers family sized rooms, and they can be turned into a campground, with a roll-out bed of its own complete with a teepee. Even pets are most welcome, with cosy beds and food provided, once you ask in advance.
The hotel's focal point is the stunning WXYZ rooftop bar, with its floor-to-ceiling bar windows providing impossibly high views of the city. Its vertigo-inducing, swish, spacious balcony area is the perfect place for a sundowner after a busy day. It was the talk of the locality when the hotel opened five years ago. I often look up while walking past and wonder who's lucky enough to be up there.
Books, board-games and even newspapers - remember them? - provide entertainment and a pool table at the end is a fun addition.
There's also the sight of Lofty, the hotel's robot waiter, mostly used for room service but who can often be seen gliding along on errands.
There are sweet local touches everywhere, a nod to its legacy and the importance of community. When we visited, I enjoyed the Billy's Barracks cocktail, named after Liberties' photographer William Mooney, who is now 93 and still a patron of the place.
In the sophisticated Tenters gastropub on the ground floor, old maps of the area - which used to be a Huguenot hotspot - adorn the walls. The restaurant is 1920s style, with rich teal banquette seating, and wood and brass food here has an emphasis on quality, with its beef from FX Buckley, and strong seafood and grill options overall.
I had the slow braised 10oz featherblade beef (€31) with herb mash, carrot puree, tenderstem broccoli and red wine jus, which was so meltingly delicious I ate all of it, despite myself.
My husband (Only joking, I did bring him) had the striploin steak of Hereford beef (€35), with wild mushrooms and pepper sauce, which also went down a treat.
There's a genuinely friendly vibe here due to its genius - and genial - general manager Jonas Treffers. Jonas can't do enough for you, and that culture permeates the place. The staff at Aloft seem like a community, and you can feel the goodwill and sincere hospitality.
After an indulgent evening, it was time for bed in the stylish and modern king room, with its huge bed, and 49inch LCD TV. I preferred to lie down and look out floor-to-celling windows onto the Teeling Distillery site below.
It was so close to home for me, I was able to get up in the morning and round teenagers up for school and come back for another lie-in before respectfully reasonable check-out time of 12 noon.
I was glad I did return, because it was then I got to experience the piece de resistance, a walk-in power shower that looked out through glass frosted windows onto the streets of the capital. If you've never showered in front of the whole city before, I'd highly recommend it. I will dream of that shower for the rest of my life.
Rates at Aloft [Aloft, 1 Mill Street, Dublin 8, D08 XK58] start from €189 B&B based on two people sharing. For bookings, events, or to find out more, visit
