Where to Stay in Dublin on a Budget, Area by Area

Smithfield's open square holds the Generator hostel, the Light House cinema and the Jameson chimney, with the Luas Red line at its corner; Stoneybatter next door is the neighbourhood Dubliners themselves gentrified, all Victorian cottages, Hyne's-style corner pubs and small restaurants. You are a 16-minute walk from Temple Bar and a few tram minutes from everything else.

Good to know: The square can feel bare after dark and the walk home from town crosses the quieter markets blocks - the tram runs late and costs pennies, so use it.

Dublin's oldest quarter, wedged between Christ Church, St Patrick's and the Guinness Storehouse, with Staycity's Tivoli aparthotel and a spread of guesthouses under the city's usual rates. Thomas Street is scruffy, real and increasingly good to eat on, and everything medieval is a ten-minute walk.

Good to know: Parts of Thomas Street and Meath Street stay rough around the edges at night - it is more litter-and-noise rough than trouble, but light sleepers should ask for a back room.

The classic Dublin B&B belt: red-brick guesthouses along Drumcondra Road, the 24-hour E-spine buses and route 16 from the airport stopping outside, Drumcondra rail station one stop from Connolly, and the measured walk to O'Connell Street at 24 minutes. The Bonnington up the road even throws in an 18-metre pool at three-star rates.

Good to know: Croke Park is the neighbour - on match and concert nights the buses fill, the streets close and every bed doubles in price. Check the fixture list before you book, not after.

A northside crossroads that got its own Luas Cross City stop, so the Green line now runs you to O'Connell Street in minutes; on foot the GPO is a measured 23 minutes. Doyle's Corner pubs, the Royal Canal towpath and Dalymount Park football keep it local rather than touristy, and the room rates reflect that.

Good to know: Accommodation is guesthouses and small hotels rather than big inventory, so the good ones sell out earlier than the city average - book Phibsborough first, not last.

Gardiner Street and the blocks off Talbot Street hold Dublin's densest run of budget hotels and hostels - Abbey Court on Bachelors Walk with free breakfast, Latroupe Jacobs Inn by Busaras - and you can walk to literally everything: the GPO is on the corner and Trinity nine minutes over the bridge. It is the best location per euro in the city.

Good to know: It is also the area Dubliners warn you about first: the streets between Connolly and O'Connell Street feel scruffy and occasionally edgy late at night. Fine for streetwise travellers, wrong for a first-timer who wants to feel cosseted.

Dublin 4's leafy embassy quarter runs on conference and event demand, which means the big hotels - Clayton Ballsbridge among them - sell surprisingly cheap on quiet weekends. Herbert Park, the DART at Sandymount and Lansdowne Road, and the 4 and 7 buses cover the 32-minute walk to St Stephen's Green.

Good to know: The discount evaporates whenever the Aviva or the RDS has a fixture - the same room can triple. It is the area where checking the date matters most, in either direction.

A Victorian harbour town 25-ish minutes down the DART, with two great granite piers, the Forty Foot swimming spot at Sandycove next door, and guesthouse rates a Dublin postcode cannot match. DART services run every ten minutes on the core line, so the commute into Pearse or Tara Street is genuinely painless.

Good to know: The last DART back is around midnight - late-night city plans end in a taxi fare that eats the saving, so pick Dun Laoghaire for museum-and-dinner trips, not club nights.