In the city’s Georgian quarter, a grand terrace town house overlooking the People’s Park is owned and run by Patricia Roberts as a chic hotel with a spa ‘in the vaults’. Until 2003 it was a youth hostel – out went 65 bunk beds, in came chandeliers! The reception is round the corner, with 15 snug, contemporary ‘club rooms’ and a top-floor suite. The spacious, elegant town house bedrooms enjoy views of park or kitchen garden and terrace, a handmade brass and gilt bed. All have a bathroom with roll-top tubs, separate monsoon shower and VOYA toiletries. A reader was greeted by ‘porters in smart Irish tweed waistcoats’ and shown to ‘very roomy’ Vanderkiste. Tea and home-made biscuits ‘were brought up to the room promptly’. In the first-floor restaurant, ‘a very pleasant environment from which to watch the world go by’, ‘excellent’ dishes include slow-cooked beef cheek, bourguignon, colcannon, parsnip crisps. On the ground floor, an all-day menu offers fish and chips, cheese and charcuterie plates. The orange juice at breakfast is freshly squeezed, the porridge organic, the eggs are free-range, the kippers served with rocket, mustard and lemon. (DB)