First, decide what the night is for
Wicklow beds do one of three jobs, and picking the wrong job is the only real mistake available here. Either you are decompressing after a transatlantic arrival, or you are having a proper country-house evening in the middle of a trip, or you are positioning yourself for a drive west the next morning. The three point at different addresses.
We have made all three bookings in the last two years. What follows is what we would do again.
For the arrival night: Powerscourt Hotel
Forty minutes from the airport, which after a red-eye is the whole argument. You check in, you look at the Sugar Loaf out of the window, you have a bath and a very early dinner and you are horizontal by nine without ever having driven on the far side of the road in city traffic.
It is a large hotel and it knows it. The rooms are generous, the spa is warm and dark, and the gardens are at the door for the twenty-minute walk that fixes jet lag better than anything else. Ask for a Sugar Loaf view rather than a courtyard room; the difference in the morning is considerable.
- Best for
- Night one of an Ireland trip, families, and anyone who wants comfort without complication.
- Book
- A Sugar Loaf-facing room, and dinner in the hotel on the arrival night rather than driving out.
For the proper Wicklow evening: BrookLodge at Macreddin
Deeper into the county, in a forested valley south of Rathdrum, and quieter in every sense. The Strawberry Tree was Ireland's first certified organic restaurant and it still cooks like it has something to prove, which is exactly the dinner you want after a day on the Military Road.
This is the two-night stay. It rewards staying put: the walks from the door, the mud, the fire, the pub in the village that belongs to the hotel and does not feel like it.
- Best for
- A slow midweek two-night stay, food-led travellers, couples who do not want a lobby.
- Book
- Dinner at the Strawberry Tree when you book the room, not on arrival.
For the drive west: Cliff at Lyons, then onward
If Wicklow is the opening move and Kerry or Connemara is the destination, do not double back through Dublin. Head west across Kildare and stop at Cliff at Lyons, a restored millrace village on the Grand Canal with rooms scattered through old stone buildings and a kitchen worth planning around.
From there the run to Ballyfin, Cashel Palace or the southwest is straightforward, and the trip has already learned to move at the right speed.
What we would not book
The coastal chain hotels around Bray and Greystones. They are fine, they are convenient for the DART, and they will give you no sense whatsoever of being in Wicklow. If the budget points that way, we would rather you stayed a second night in Dublin and drove the Sally Gap as a long day.
Equally, we would avoid stacking Wicklow into a single afternoon between the airport and a Dublin hotel. Either give the county a night or give it a proper unhurried day. The half-measure is what generates the reviews that call it overrated.