Dublin

Dublin wears its history in layers. Georgian terraces and elegant squares sit alongside medieval streets, Victorian pubs, former warehouses and some uncompromising 20th-century architecture, while the River Liffey divides neighbourhoods with very different personalities. Literature is as important to the city’s identity as architecture: Joyce, Yeats, Beckett and Wilde turned Dublin into one of the world’s great literary capitals, and its libraries, theatres and independent bookshops keep that tradition alive. Contemporary galleries, creative studios and ambitious adaptive reuse add a younger layer to a city that works best when its rougher edges remain visible.

Food and drink have moved well beyond the old stereotypes. Excellent Irish beef, seafood, farmhouse cheeses and produce from the surrounding countryside supply a generation of chefs taking a lighter, more confident approach to Irish cooking. Traditional pubs remain fundamental—not simply for Guinness, but as social spaces where conversation and live music still matter—while natural wine bars, specialty coffee, bakeries and ambitious neighbourhood restaurants have transformed the wider food scene. Irish whiskey is enjoying its own revival, with new distilleries bringing production back into the city alongside the historic names.

Dublin’s most interesting hotels range from Georgian townhouses and Victorian landmarks to former institutional buildings and contemporary urban addresses, often combining Irish art, strong bars and informal hospitality with architecture that already has a story to tell. At DNA Hotels, we curate the places where design, food, literature and Dublin’s famously social character come together—hotels that capture a city where the best evening can begin with serious culture and end several hours later in a pub you never intended to visit.