My wife and I were traveling around Ireland on our honeymoon and this was just one of several B&B's…read moreand hotels we stayed in on our trip and while we enjoyed all of them on this trip, Newtown Farm Guesthouse was our favorite! The room we had (upper front with a nice balcony) was fantastic and had a wonderful view of the sea. We enjoyed going for a walk around the grounds too....it's a small working farm with many animals and beautiful landscaping. The host was exceptionally friendly and accomodating! We were very pleasantly surprised too to get a menu with several great choices for breakfast. Most B&B's have a very limited breakfast but this location offered many nice choices and it was all delicious! If we are ever back in this area, it will certainly be the place we stay again....and hopefully for longer next time!

Very pleasant comfortable rooms, good breakfast, attractive location. The only minuses, which were…read moresmall, were light coming in from the hall over the transom window above our door and hearing other guests coming in late. The owner was very nice, and gave us an upgrade to a larger room.

Lovely atmosphere and a sweet lady attending to our every need. Helen offered very comfortable…read moresleeping quarters as well as delicious food and beautiful gardens to enjoy during a relaxing stay.

There's just something about this place keeps drawing me back. The staff are lovely, the rooms…read morespacious and the hotel well kept. Food is hotel food if you know what I mean but the breakfast is above the ordinary. Add to that the spa and leisure centre and it's location in Birr close to Birr Castle, the bog sculptures etc. and there ye have it. I like it ...nuff said

We stayed here for a wedding. The reception took place here as well. The food was incredibly…read moregood. You wanted for nothing. Anything you wanted or needed was at your fingertips. The staff was very warm and receptive and extremely helpful. I recommend this hotel to anyone who wants great service, good food, and a comfortable place to lay their head down after their travels.

Ever stayed the night in a legit castle from the 1200s? We hadn't either until we came here! It's…read morethe crossover the history and comfort, and was just plain awesome! Located in Kinnity county, this castle sits atop a hill just below the Sleeve Bloom mountains. You drive through woods, turn a soft corner and BOOM, there's the castle. It's magnificent! Old Gothic style, dungeon and all. The castle is equally beautiful inside. There are dozens of rooms inside, all at different levels of the castle. We stayed in a big room up top. The view is the grounds out front was beautiful - a huge field, surrounded by woods and containing a ton of deer that just seem to hang out. The bed was huge - two queens side by side, so we slept 4 across (and one on the floor) and had plenty of room for everyone. There are four spots to eat on site. A nice restaurant, and three bars including one in the library, one in the dungeon and one outside. The grounds were magnificent. There are miles of trails out back, tons of small structures to explore outside, a lovely courtyard that housed an abbey and even a sport court for those so inclined. We also had afternoon tea in the front room. A wonderful experience with nice tea and lovely little sandwiches/cakes. They don't give it away, but it was less expensive than a nice spot in Dublin. All in all, this was a homerun! It's something we'll do again in the future and you should do if you're in the area!

We had our wedding here for about 45 people including us all from the states. Our coordination for…read morethe tasting was handled by Ana and for the day of was mainly by Emma and Connor. All three individuals and all of the other staff we met were absolutely incredible, kind and generous. We had the most peaceful and surreal weekend as did our family and all of our guests. This place is so incredibly special, from the hikes, to the surrounding land, the castle architecture, the history itself, and the people here. There are not enough words to express just how amazing this place is. We will be returning for many many many years to come

We stayed here for a weekend just recently and loved it. Fabulous Georgian house and Paddy and…read moreHannah were fabulous hosts. The food was excellent, wine selection small but good, service was excellent, rooms were clean and nice. Paddy was so kind as to drive us out to the pub for some trad on Saturday night and we had a really late night. All in all really enjoyed the experience and will definitely come back.

Wow. Where do I start? My wife and I decided to seriously indulge ourselves so we went with a two…read morenight package (via Relais et Chateaux) in Ballyfin Demesne, a grandiose 18th century house on 600 acres in the leafy Laois countryside. We arrived at the main electronic gates (you need to dial reception for entry) and made our way along the winding 3km road to the main house. It was a bit disconcerting to have all of the staff lined up outside the hotel to greet us, but it certainly made us feel very welcome. Our luggage was taken, my car driven off to be hidden away out of sight and we were given a short introduction about what we could expect from our stay. Our deluxe room was incredible. It was very well presented, looking very much like what it would have looked like two hundred years ago (I'm sure) and the mini bar was filled with complimentary (non alcoholic) drinks and nuts. The quality of the products (soaps, shower gels etc) were of the highest order. We relaxed for a while then went down for a guided tour of the house hosted by the extremely pleasant & imitable Lionel. The house has been lovingly restored to its former glory in the finest detail by its owners. I could talk for hours about what a beautiful hotel it is. The main points to note are that: yes you do pay a lot to stay/eat there, but it is worth it for the relaxation, the excellent food, the incredibly friendly, attentive (and not in any way overbearing) staff. There are many activities on offer (we took a spin in one of the golf buggies and explored the estate and all of its follies, grottoes and forests), including clay pigeon shooting, fishing, archery etc...I enjoyed not having to worry about running up huge bills, as most teas, soft drinks, newspapers and a pre dinner champagne etc were complimentary. The team were accommodating in every way - they had no issue with us bringing a bottle of our own wine (for nostalgic reasons - our wedding wine) and just charged corkage. The food, including the breakfasts, was incredible. I recommend to anyone looking to seriously indulge themselves in truly opulent surroundings to treat themselves to a night in Ballyfin. I would personally prefer the Cliff House for a foodie break, but for the whole end to end package it is hard to beat the luxury on offer at Ballyfin.

I cannot wait to come back! This is the most luxurious and beautiful hotel I have ever been too! We…read morestayed here for my husband's birthday. The attention to detail by the staff was phenomenal! From the pictures on the wall, flowers, decorations, I could go on.... Staff very helpful & always there to offer you, tea, water or coffee. Golf carts great way to get around!

We arrived later in the evening so there wasn't a lot of places open to get food. We resorted to…read morethe vending machines. There was only one vending machine that was working and it wasn't fully stocked. The kitchen was closed. The late night desk clerk was nice enough to take us back to the employee vending machine just to get something to eat. I think it listed somewhere as a four-star hotel, but it didn't seem that it was actually four star and maybe more a three-star hotel but that might be the reason why they're updating and doing all the construction. They were doing quite a bit of construction which was badly needed to update the interior and exterior of this hotel. I was a little shocked at how outdated the room was regarding the fixtures and room treatments. It also smelled old and as if the dust settles often. I will say that the room was quite large but it was lacking in some of the main amenities that you would find in a more prestigious hotel. At the end of the day, it was an okay place just to rest for the night. The Wi-Fi was terrible and got worse the further down the hallway you got away from the central part of the hotel. We kept getting kicked off the Internet and maybe had one or two Wi-Fi bars sporadically throughout the evening. There aren't also a lot of places to eat around there and a lot of food delivery services don't deliver there either. It was nice to have free parking at least and like I said the night desk staff was really nice. The check out was easy as well.

We were on our road trip from Dublin to Galway and needed a good resting point. We found this hotel…read moreand we were so pleasantly surprised; it was just what we needed. The hotel and amenities were great! Clean, spacious rooms, pool/hot tub, restaurant, comfortable bar/lounge area. The surrounding town is small, but again, it was just what we were looking for on our journey. Loved it!

The rooms in this hotel are outdated, however when we were here they were in the middle of…read morerenovating the rooms. The front lobby, sitting area, coffee/Tea area, and restaurant areas were updated and very nice. The front staff very friendly. The room was outdated. Their is no luggage rack stand. So we had to use the counter. The rooms are small, flat screen tv was small, and you were not able to use your travel Outlet Converters because they would blow the fuses in the hotel. The beds and pillows were comfy. I believe once the rooms are renovated this will be a very nice hotel to stay on. The breakfast was really good. Everything we had was good. It was an Irish Breakfast and buffet style, pastries, yogurt, fruit, cereal, juices, and so forth.

The reception area in this hotel is great, not just the desk bit but the whole front of the hotel,…read moreits huge and there are loads of seats where you can sit about for a chat or just rest while you're waiting for someone else. This is a feature that carries on throughout the hotel, outside all of the meeting rooms there are nice large seating areas. I think this is great when you are at an event but you wanted a small mini meeting with another participant, gives you lots of room but privacy at the same time. I had to mention that first because it is the bit of the hotel that stands out the most to me. The conference rooms in the old part of this hotel are not great, most of them do not have any natural daylight which means you feel like you are stuck in a box not knowing what time of day it is if you don't have a watch and you have no idea what the weather is like outside, it's like they are trying to imitate casinos or something where they want you to stay longer! This has the totally opposite effect on me! The bedrooms in this hotel are okay, fairly standard nothing special to say here really. Hotel rooms can be so boring can't they!? oh one great thing is the fact that this is one of the few hotels that still gives shoe shine kits and sewing kits in the rooms, brilliant! The kitchen and waiting staff are really nice in this hotel and are very eager to please while you are dining. The reception and other staff however I have found are the total opposite, I thought that the reception staff were a bit untidy looking to start with (am I being too pernickety?) and when i had any requests they were not to helpful at all! ( i will say though the guy dedicated to ourevent was really great)At one particular event the heating in the room was mental, it was like being in the arctic one minute and then suddenly you were trekking through the Sahara, the reception staff were looking at me like I was a complete nuisance, maybe I was but we were not going to pay lots of money for an inferior room, no siree! There is a new wing to this hotel which i will get to test out later this month, hopefully it is better than the old part of the hotel, I hear it has natural light anyway, I'll be back with an updated review and hopefully la few more stars!