What I enjoyed most was the opportunity to be in an Irish home and have great conversations with the owners in English. Living an Irish life buying in the supermarket and cooking your dinner at home some days and staying in an Irish home gave us the opportunity to feel very much at home
The best part about staying at a homestay is that we have a local family who can guide us once we arrive to a foreign country. When I first arrived, I had a lot of admin to sort out and it was honestly so stressful
I loved connecting with the family I stayed with. They are such treasures. It has been beautiful having chats with my hosts and even playing some games and instruments with their kids.
Homestay is hardly any luxury nor offers hotel style privacy. However, after seeing downtown touristic streets, lines of souvenir shops, loud and much too easy hostels, rolling trolley suitcases on cobbled alleys you feels so happy to take bus no.16 to your temporary home where the locals live, to a calm and "normal" districts.