The Wilder Townhouse is on Adelaide Street, a short stroll from the centre of Dublin, between Camden Street, St Stephen’s Green and the canal.
Planes
Dublin’s airport is a 45-minute drive away; the hotel can pre-book you a taxi.
Trains
The hotel is close to two of the city’s main rail hubs: it’s a 20-minute drive from Heuston Station and 10 minutes from Pearse Street. Staff will gladly pre-book you a cab.
Automobiles
The townhouse has a handful of free parking spaces (available first come, first served). Nearby street parking is also free between 7pm and 7am, and on Sundays. The hotel is perfectly placed slightly away from the action (we’re looking at you, Temple Bar), but within a five-to-10-minute walk of the centre.
Other
Ferries call in at Dublin’s port from Holyhead and Liverpool; it’s a little over 20 minutes by car from the port to the townhouse.
Worth getting out of bed for
Once you’ve worked your way through the Wilder’s gin collection, enjoyed a charcuterie board out on the lantern-lit terrace and read all of Ulysses (good luck with that), the centre of Dublin awaits, a 10-minute walk away. The shops of Grafton Street and buzzy brasseries of Camden Street are all within strolling distance. If you’re taking the James Joyce literary-holiday thing seriously, book a walking tour that pays homage to the writer and the city he loved to write about. Ditto if you’re going down the Oscar Wilde route: plot a voyage around Dublin in tribute to its famous son. Contemporary-art lovers will lose hours at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, on 48 acres of land in the city centre, on the site of the 17th-century Royal Hospital Kilmainham. It may be crowded with hen and stag dos, but Ireland’s most-visited tourist attraction is number one for a reason, and you’re bound to have fun when there’s pint after pint of Guinness involved: get yourself to the Guinness Storehouse.
Local restaurants
For coffee and croissants, duck into Network, a boutique brunch spot on Aungier Street. For the trendiest Thai in town, try Saba on Baggot Street, near the canal. Over on Camden Street, Pickle serves up Indian dishes that are almost too pretty to eat. On the same street, Delahunt is in another Victorian building, almost as fabulous as the Wilder’s, with a menu that focuses on seasonal local produce, with a whole lot of curing and smoking done on site; expect dishes such as roast chicken with sweetcorn orzo and wild mushrooms, and house-made black pudding with apple and quail’s egg. And if that sounds good, don’t miss Delahunt’s sister property Frank’s down the same road. The Wilder’s owners’ favourite Dublin haunt is Roly’s on Ballsbridge Terrace, where you can eat hearty homegrown fare (aged Irish beef, fresh Irish seafood).
Local bars
If you like your cocktails whiskey-based, head to Bar 1661 on Green Street; if you don’t, you’ll need the luck of the Irish to get through that list. And we shouldn’t really be telling you about it, but The Blind Pig is a (ssh) not-so-secret speakeasy manned by an award-winning mixologist.
