The Merrion

The Merrion is Dublin's establishment address in the most literal sense: its four restored Georgian townhouses on Upper Merrion Street face Government Buildings, and the Duke of Wellington is said to have been born in one of them. Behind the listed facades lies a hotel of deep comfort rather than show—drawing rooms with turf fires, one of Ireland's most significant private art collections on the walls, and two peaceful 18th-century-style gardens hidden between the wings.

Rooms in the Main House carry the Georgian proportions and period detail; the Garden Wing offers more contemporary quiet overlooking the box parterres. Throughout, the mood is of a grand Irish country house that happens to sit two minutes from St Stephen's Green, Grafton Street and the national museums and galleries—the location for culture in the capital.

Gastronomy seals its position. Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Ireland's most decorated fine-dining room, operates within the hotel, while the Garden Room and the vaulted Cellar Bar cover elegant and convivial registers respectively. Art Tea, the hotel's afternoon tea with pastries inspired by its paintings, is the city's most original teatime. Add a marble pool and treatment rooms below stairs, and The Merrion remains the complete Dublin luxury argument.