Dingle Skellig Hotel

As you may know our extended family of 6 adults and a baby travelled through the south of Ireland on a 12 day road trip flagged by Dublin on both sides of our trip. I have a lot to share with you about travelling in Ireland with a baby but I’m going to start of by sharing the most kid friendly hotel we’ve ever  come across! The Dingle Skellig Hotel! Ofcourse we don’t usually pick our hotels based on family friendly activities and to be honest we didn’t this time either. An Irish friend (with two lovely young boys!) recommended the Dingle Skellig when I mentioned that I had B&Bs, private apartments and a castle hotel in our accommodation mix, but not a regular hotel. The online pictures looked fab and I did not notice that there were some kids activities but it was the cozy cottage like setting that drew me to make the booking (and the awesome staff who replied promptly to my email queries!).

Our two day stay was absolutely lovely and it was just the perfect level of family friendly luxury we were craving after being on the road for a week in ‘rawer’ settings. We loved our suite which had a king bed and overlooked the green green pastures. Complete with cows to greet the Little Monkey whenever she wanted (her favourite animal!!). I was impressed by the 5 star service when it came to kids, we received a fridge (so important!!) and a clean crib (you’d be surprised on the state of most of the public cribs we’ve seen!) only issue was that the additional mattress was smaller than the crib which made it a bit awkward for the Little Monkey to wrestle around in her sleep. What was even more surprising is that I was able to get milk and snacks (at no cost!!) for the little one at the drop of a hat. I recommend the suite because it gave us some privacy to hide away from the baby while she took her naps and we were able to lounge around in bed out of her sight! Yes there’s that much extra space!  The lovely staff constantly filled the milk bottles and sippy cups whenever I made a request. The video below will show you the various daily activities for kids of all ages…which leaves the adults free to enjoy the spa, head out for a drive of Slea Head or just basque in the warm, cozy comforts of the hotel. Nightly entertainment of all sorts- craic (if you don’t know what that is.. click here for some examples!), kids throwing a jam session and movie nights-were all in place which meant that we were able to enjoy some traditional music with the Little Monkey well past 11 p.m.! We loved that we were able to do everything we wanted in one place and still get a good feel for the local culture. The Little Monkey made a lot of new friends and it was cute to see our travelling toddler enjoying different cultures and people from a young age.

As you know food is very important for us and it was shocking that we ended up dining at the hotel for all our meals! The buffet breakfast comprised of everything you can imagine including a la carte options that’s sure to impress even the snobbiest of palates. The Blaskets Bar and Lounge had great offerings and our favourite discovery was a smorgasbord of fresh seafood. Dinner is a prix fixe that had something for everyone and a view to calm even the stressed out of tycoons.

Weather wise this is a sea side town that you read in your British story books – but don’t expect to trapezie around in your swimsuits because it was quite cold for summer and though it did warm up every afternoon for a couple hours, this isn’t your beach town. It’s a place to enjoy your European summers and winters at and is all year spot for families to spend a couple days or weeks at! From the service to amenities Baby and Life highly recommends Dingle Skellig Hotel if you’re looking to rest your tired bones at in comfortable settings. Don’t get me wrong the B&Bs and accommodations we had along the way were fantastic (and more reviews to follow) but there was definitely a touch of luxury that we greatly appreciated after all the rural lodgings. If you’ve got kids this is the place.. and if you don’t have kids, it’s still fab but remember if you don’t like kids..stay clear because they are everywhere!