Pax Guest House

I don’t know if I can do justice to The Pax Guest House, but I’ll try. It’s owned and operated by a man named John, who by all accounts is doing what he was put on this earth to do. Every inch and every moment of this place was thoughtful and intentional.

Let me start with the view, because that’s what you notice first when you set foot through the door.

Here are a few more shots from our room at the patio, and then I’ll try to describe the experience of staying here.

It pains me to realize that we never got a photo with the host, John, who knew and addressed every guest by name. He even left the kitchen to see us off… oh yeah, he also does all the cooking, which I’ll get to in a minute. For now, I want to talk about his attention to detail and the decor of the place, which was eclectic and wonderful, but somehow all fit together.

There were no room numbers. Guests stay in rooms named by the piece of art closest to their door and are given actual keys, not a card. Upon arrival, freshly cut flowers had been placed by each bedside along with individual pitchers of water… regularly filled by what I can only assume are Irish water ninjas because they were always full yet we never spotted anyone filling them.

We stayed in the Age of Innocence room.

Until 9:00 each night John offered wine and cheese on the patio but nothing was ever as described, in the best of ways. The first night we got a pot of tea and it came with all sorts of biscuits and other snacks. The charcuterie board (this I can spell, but not Guinness?) was decked out and the last night, when we got a few glasses of wine, he of course brought us pistachios with it (which he dutifully kept full).

Now, for the art and decor. I could have spent days taking pictures of everything but here are a few of my favorites. While you’re looking at these, keep in mind the following: In the common area (the first photo in this post) he had blankets and sun hats for guests to use on the patio. He had a basket of reading glasses available. Long before our arrival, John emailed Sarah a list of restaurants and urged her to make reservations far in advance… a tip whose value became clear when we saw tourists being turned away from eateries. Every inch of the Pax Guest House and ever moment of your stay is carefully engineered to make your stay peaceful, enjoyable, and personal.

The terrace tea, pictured above, was taken no more than 45 minutes after our arrival. John was dropping it off and in my truest “Rege McKenzie” voice I said “Hey John, this place is really remarkable.” He thanked me but said with a smile, “You haven’t been here long. Please reserve your judgement until the end of the stay.” He wasn’t being curt or cheeky, he was being sincere. I would go on to understand where this was coming from the more I interacted with him and learned about his life’s journey (and purpose) but I can honestly say my impression only got better from there on out.

I really thought I’d taken more pictures of the decor. but, you get the gist. And that’s not getting into the beautiful modern design of the interior and exterior, some of which you can see in the all-glass patio railing and beautiful lenai doors along the length of the property. I love clean, minimal design with exposed materials and this place had that in spades.

OK, now for the breakfasts. First photos, then the explanation. I encourage you to read the story of John’s life so far, which was printed on the back of the menu (shown below).

First of all, John makes all the food. He has some help, but he’s the head chef. And he takes his job very seriously. The first morning (see smoked salmon on a potato cake above) my food was a little slow to come out. Mind you, I was completely oblivious to this. We were enjoying the view, the slow morning, and the veritable ferris wheel of treats that come BEFORE your breakfast. Despite this fact, John personally apologized to me… multiple times. I had ordered some sourdough toast to go with my salmon and on the following day, our server brought me more as soon as we sat down because she “remember that [I] liked it so much”. Every. Little. Detail.

We both got the pancakes on the morning of our departure, and much like everything else from this stay, they will forever dominate their respective category. They were topped with locally made ice cream, dusted with sugar, were light, and had fresh berries snuggled between each tier. I still wake up in a cold sweat from dreams about them to this very day.

I’ll cover the town of Dingle in the next post, but before I wrap this up I want to send our heartfelt appreciation out to John and his staff. They’re not just housing travelers, they’re all caretakers through and through. I don’t know if he’ll ever read this but I imagine he’d brush this all off even if he did because he’s clearly not doing this for the praise. He’d tell you it’s the least he could do. If only everyone could do as little as John for others… If you’re ever in Ireland, you must spend at least a night in Pax Guest House.

The view and natural light certainly help, but it’s really John who makes it a special place.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the best part of our stay… Jules, their rescue dog who is the same age as our boys. She was the chillest little pup I think I’ve ever met. Jules roamed the grounds on her own, got pets from everyone who stayed there, and even had her own chair. We’d often find her looking out over the water or sitting on the stairs monitoring the parking lot or greeting the latest guests. 11 days is a LONG time to be away from your pups and having Jules as a proxy dog for a few days reset us both.