The Blue Haven is a considered a Boutique hotel in kinsale but it is quite luxurious and comfortable rather than stark and modern.

The staff however make it quite special - we arrived with 3 small children after a 3 hour drive having stayed in a horse drawn caravan for 4 days (i.e. not looking our best) and were welcomed with open arms with staff depatched to get our bags from the car and carry them up to our room.

The hotel's 2 restaurants are rated as some of the best in Kinsale (and Ireland) and we ate in the Conservatory twice because the live music put on in the bar next door was so good.

This is definitely a gem of a place and one worth escaping to for a weekend - easily reachable from Cork airport or a 4-5 hour drive from Dublin (but a new motorway is nearly finished and will halve the journey time), we left determined to come back again.

My family and I checked in to the Blue Haven for one night but wish we could have stayed longer.

The staff was beyond nice and gracious which was very welcoming after our long day of driving.

All of our rooms (3 in all) were superb with comfortable beds, high quality linens and fluffy pillows. A small box of chocolates and Molton Brown toiletries add to the sumptuousness.

Definitely eat in the hotel restaurant or bar. I usually wouldn't recommend eating in a hotel (they usually suck and are over priced) but the food here was delicious! All of our mains were first class and well priced. If you can have drinks in the bar afterward and enjoy the the live traditional music. Plus breakfast in the morning (included in our rate) was cooked to order with several choices beyond the traditional Irish.

All in all, I can not recommend the Blue Haven enough

Just returned from a short break in Ireland - stayed at the Blue Haven in Kinsale. Typical - spent months meticulously planning this trip for my partner's birthday - I then contracted gastroenteritis at the beginning of our trip (in England I hasten to add) and then spent most of the break on the floor of the fab bathroom of Room 12 - which although small and at the front of the hotel - was lovely. So whilst I cannot comment about the fabulous menus, the lovely rooms, the great bar with gorgeous fat sofas to chill out on, fires and everything else a romantic weekend should have.... I can comment about the fabulous staff who were a great help to me, in particular the ladies on Reception who were kindness itself and let me check in early as I was feeling so poorly. They helped me organise getting the to Doctor's (lovely man - very helpful - have forgotten his name though - duh) and could not do enough. We are definitely going back. On our last day I managed to get to the bar and sat within full view of the specials board propped up on the bar.. big mistake as it sounded wonderful and I could not eat a thing.. so here was me nursing mineral water and the other half was swigging Guinness and scoffing a wonderful Shepherds Pie - grrrrrrrr - well, it was his birthday and he had looked after me!! And he also said the full Irish breakfast was the best ever. Never mind - heck of a way to go on a diet but for a foodie like myself - it looked like foodie heaven - we'll be back.

We stayed here during our honeymoon, and it was okay. Cute hotel in a great location, but small. The room was cute, but a bit cramped, as was the bathroom. The hotel was very clean, and the staff was very nice. The breakfast was great, and the restaurant/bar was lovely. We had a great dinner and I could see the bar area being a lovely meeting place. A negative that we remember is that we were on the third floor (I believe) and there was no elevator, so my husband and I had to schlep four suitcases up the stairs without assistance. Our room overlooked the street, which was okay, but with the window open at night to allow the room to cool, you could hear people talking, but it wasn't overly loud. This hotel wasn't too expensive, so, for the money, this was a fine place to stay.