March 12, 2008

Europe | Ireland | Dublin

Holy Hotel

By Nicole Cotroneo

St. Patrick can have Dublin; St. Declan’s got the Irish Riviera.

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St. Declan may have preceded Ireland’s patron saint in the Christian mission, but it’s St. Patrick (English-born, for the record) who gets Dublin’s love during five days of lively drinking festivities, starting tomorrow. St. Declan’s own feast day (yes, just the one) comes a little later, on July 24. Nevertheless, 150 miles south of the capital, the apostle’s seaside village of Ardmore — where he founded Erin’s first Christian settlement in the fifth century — has something else to toast this week: New boutique hotel Cliff House opens Friday right on the trendy southeastern coast — or County Waterford’s stretch of the Irish Riviera, as some insist on calling it.

Though set in a historic town, the 40-room Small Luxury Hotel touts its blend of “Irish classicism with warm rustic style” — that is, vibrant colors, walls of windows and a grass-covered east wing built into a cliff. But it’s the seaviews that characterize the sweetest spots: your duplex suite, the spa’s indoor pool, even the restaurant’s heated outdoor terrace. Still, you’ll want to do more than gaze at the sea. Since you’ll be visiting in summer (for St. Declan’s feast, remember?), head to Ardmore’s immaculate beach — one of Ireland’s first to earn Europe’s Blue Flag eco-accolade.