Anantara The Marker Dublin

Rooms and decor

Picture an angular white building patterned like a chequerboard, cantilevered out over the clear water of Grand Canal Square — that is the first hook Anantara The Marker plays before you even reach the lobby. The building is the work of Manuel Aires Mateus, the Portuguese architect, and it opened as a hotel in 2013 before joining Anantara and the Leading Hotels of the World in 2022. All 187 rooms and suites run a warm, dark modern palette, with carpets that pull their colours from the Wicklow Mountains, heavy curtains and timber furniture set against grey-blue walls. Some rooms have triangular or off-square windows that follow the facade, so stepping inside feels a little like walking into a piece of contemporary art. Rooms facing Grand Canal Square look straight onto Martha Schwartz's bright red plaza and the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, while the canal side catches the run toward Dublin Bay. Beds are soft, the linen is good, and the marble bathrooms are roomy with rain showers — and reviewers keep noting how surprisingly quiet it all is for a hotel in the middle of a busy business district.

Food and amenities

The heart of a stay here is the top-floor rooftop bar, wrapped in glass for a full 360-degree sweep: Dublin Bay, the River Liffey, old church spires and, on a clear day, the Wicklow Mountains in the distance. Plenty of reviewers call it one of the best rooftops in the city, especially at sunset when the Dublin sky goes through its layers. One floor down is Forbes Street by Gareth Mullins, a Michelin-recommended room serving contemporary Irish food built on local produce — Carlingford oysters, Wicklow lamb, properly smoked Irish salmon — in a setting more relaxed than most starred dining rooms. What turns guests into repeat bookers, though, is the basement, where a wide space becomes a pocket of calm: the indoor infinity pool sits under a fibre-optic starlight ceiling that maps a Milky Way overhead, so you feel like you are swimming through space. Next to it, the Anantara spa brings Thai treatment rituals together with Irish ingredients, with a hammam, a Finnish sauna, a steam room and a couples' treatment room. The staff are the other thing reviewers agree on — that warm, name-remembering Anantara service that tends to exceed what you expect from a hotel in Europe.

Location and getting there

The hotel stands on Grand Canal Square in the heart of the Docklands, the newest face of Dublin. If the old centre is the vintage, Irish-pub Dublin, this is the startup-era city — Google, Meta and Airbnb offices sit nearby, along with a run of newer restaurants, plus open canal-side paths for jogging or cycling. Step out the door and you meet Martha Schwartz's red plaza and Daniel Libeskind's Bord Gais Energy Theatre next door, which together make this the city's cluster of contemporary architecture. Getting into the centre is easy: the Luas Grand Canal Dock stop (Red Line) is about a 3-minute walk and reaches Connolly Station in a few stops. Trinity College and Grafton Street are roughly 15 minutes on foot, while Temple Bar and Christ Church run closer to 20. Dublin Airport (DUB) is about 20-30 minutes by car, or you can catch the Aircoach right outside.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. First, the thing several reviews flag: the location is a way from the old city. If your mental image of Dublin is stepping outside into ancient pubs, live folk music and Georgian brick, the Docklands may feel too modern and too tidy — you are 15-20 minutes on foot, or a Luas ride, from Temple Bar and Grafton Street. Second, the on-property extras run high: the breakfast buffet costs more than many expect, rooftop cocktails start well into the double digits, and the spa is genuinely luxury-priced, so some guests find the checkout total bigger than they had counted on. Third, no two rooms are identical, because the geometric chequerboard facade means rooms at the building's folds can have angled corners or smaller windows and less natural light; if you value light and a view, ask for a square-facing or canal-facing room when you book. And one small thing: the rooftop bar is open to non-guests, so it can get busy on weekends and feel crowded to people staying over.

Our take

After reading through a stack of real guest reviews and weighing it against Dublin's other five-stars, Anantara The Marker stands out for contemporary design, a city view from the very top, and an Asian-style spa experience that is hard to find in a city that mostly sells the classic. If your trip looks like waking in a sharp design room over the square and the water, heading down to swim in an infinity pool under a starlit ceiling, taking an Anantara treatment, then riding up for a sunset cocktail on a 360-degree rooftop — this hits a perfect ten for design lovers and couples after something memorable. But if the soul of your trip is soaking up old-pub, cobblestone Dublin and walking straight out into Temple Bar, the modern Docklands setting may leave you feeling a step removed from the city you came for. Overall we give it 9.0/10, best for couples, design-led luxury travelers, and businesspeople who want to stay close to the tech Docklands while keeping Leading Hotels of the World comfort in one place.