A place in the sun
With just a week left before legions of hyper-energetic primary school kids are let loose on the nation — and summer continuing to behave like one of those downloads that never quite makes it to your hard drive — it’s time to consider a foreign holiday.
You don’t have to break the bank to get overseas, either.
Sure, the number of package holidays available is one third of what it was during the boom. But fewer people are travelling; there are more scheduled flights to sun holiday destinations, and once you get there the cost of living in Spain, Portugal and Turkey is cheaper than at home.
Here are 10 special offers to get you thinking…
Montenegro may be a miniature republic — covering an area of just 13,000km² — but its mix of sandy and pebbled coastline, mountain scenery and sunny weather make a big impression. Concorde Travel has special offers in the three-star Slovenska Plaza in Budva from €449pp based on four people sharing a one-bed apartment. The resort is laid out around a couple of pools, fronts directly onto the beach and is a 20 minute walk from Budva — there’s an open-air cinema in high season, too. Departures are on Jul 11 from Ireland West (Knock), and Jul 18 and 25 from Dublin, and the price includes 15kg of checked luggage. Expect a three-hour flight.
* Details: 01-7759300; concordetravel.ie
Waterparks rank high on many family holiday wishlists, with kids especially thrilled to splash their way through a day on slides, chutes, flumes and lazy rivers. With this in mind, Thomas Cook has several canny specials this August — including the Tsokkos Marlita Beach Hotel in Cyprus (with its Anastasia waterpark) from €2,349, or the Aparthotel Holiday Palace in Benalmadena (with its 120-jet fountain and pirate ship) from €2,403. Both depart late August, include two adults and two children, and the price of entry to the waterparks is factored into the packages — saving up to €125 per day. The Benalmadena offer is all-inclusive, too.
* Details: 01-5140328; thomascook.ie.
Haven Holidays specialise in affordable seaside holidays, and you’ll find dozens of their caravan parks around the coast in Scotland, Wales and England. Hafen y Mor is a good, close example. A five-star park on the Welsh Llyn Peninsula, it boasts an indoor pool complex, abseiling wall, mountain bike hire, boating lake and adventure golf, and is located near to Snowdonia Mountains and the new All Wales Coast Path, but also to lively resorts like Abersoch and Llandudno. From Jul 6-19, Irish Ferries has three-night breaks with return car ferry travel and accommodation in a two-bed caravan for up to six people starting from €670. Seven nights costs from €1,104.
* Details: haven.com; irishferries.com.
Like surfing? Find it hard to get to the ocean often enough to improve your technique? You and millions, baby. But there is a solution — in the shape of a surfing holiday. The Eco-lodges in Ericeira are a family-friendly way to do it, too. Surf Holidays has seven nights in a lodge sleeping five for €1,120, and you can tack on five surf lessons at €98 for adults and €72 for kids. Lessons last two hours and include the board and wetsuit. Ericeira is 35 minutes from Lisbon, to which Aer Lingus flies from Cork and Dublin, and the cost of living is surfer-friendly too. A beer costs €1, a coffee 50 cent, and you can bag a three course meal with wine for two from €25.
* Details: 01-4822828; surfholidays.com (flights extra).
Package holiday destinations come and go (Bulgaria, anyone?) but Ireland’s love affair with Spain and the Canary Islands continues. Lanzarote, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria all offer good beaches, excellent watersports, temperatures that are hot without being uncomfortable, and enough landscape to justify car hire for a few days. They’re well-priced too, despite the four-hour flight. Falcon Holidays has seven nights at the Los Girasoles Bungalows at Playa del Ingles in Gran Canaria from €1,799 for two adults and two children sharing, based on a Jun 30 departure. Budget Travel, meanwhile, has seven nights at Las Marismas in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, from €507pp (ie, €2,028 in total) based on a Jul 21 departure.
* Details: falconholidays.ie; budgettravel.ie.
Disney Pixar’s Brave is set to be a smash-hit this summer. With Scotland’s folklore, scenery, heritage and castles all featuring heavily in the movie, why not take your own little princes and princesses to visit the locations? It’ll certainly cost a lot less than Disneyland Paris. Explore forests in Perthshire, go horse-riding, rub shoulders with royalty at the Braemar Highland Gathering (Sept 1), or visit the spectacular Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven; a cliff-top fortress whose location inspired Brave’s family castle. Aer Lingus flies from Dublin to Aberdeen, and Huntly Castle Caravan Park has holiday homes from £524/€650 per week.
* Details: visitscotland.com/brave; huntlycastle.co.uk.
Turkey has been making headway into the Irish package holiday scene for several years now, with its Aegean beaches, hot climate and low cost of living firmly putting it up to the Med. Wings Abroad is a Turkey specialist, and it has seven nights at the Lemon Tree Apartments in Bitez from €1,807 for a family of two adults and two children in July or August. The one-bed apartments are a five minute stroll from Gümbet beach, and a mini-bus connection from Bodrum. Seven nights at the slightly fancier Summer Garden Apartments in Bitez — the complex is located amidst a tangerine grove, and there are two large pools with splash pools and fun chutes — costs €1,936.
* Details: 01-8719444; wingsabroad.ie.
Brittany Ferries is offering savings of up to €210 on sailings from Cork in July. Fares based on a standard car plus four passengers sharing an inside, four-berth cabin are advertised from €96pp one-way or €232pp return, from Ringaskiddy to Roscoff. From Rosslare, Irish Ferries has lead-in rates starting from €626 return for a car and four-berth cabin (it’s offering a free return trip to the UK on your return, for a car and two passengers, too). Celtic Link sails to Cherbourg on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays with the 1,000-capacity Celtic Horizon. It bills itself as the no-frills ferry option, and prices are coming in at €568 for return trips, without a cabin.
Details: celticlinkferries.com; brittanyferries.ie; irishferries.com.
So you’ve won the Lotto? Or you’ve woken up, Rip Van Winkle-like, having bypassed the recession entirely. Here’s one way to spend your money: an eight-night Disney cruise departing New York for the Bahamas on Jul 19. It costs €8,298 for two adults and two children, including return flights, a night in the Big Apple, full-board on the ship, non-stop kids’ clubs, Broadway-style shows, an ocean-view cabin and a day in Disney’s own private island, Castaway Cay. Another royal opportunity sees the M/Y Grace tour the Galapagos on a 19-day trip this October. The yacht was once owned by Princess Grace, and Nuevo Mundo has tickets from €5,695pp plus taxes…
* Details: 021-4700568; thebigapple.ie; nuevomundo.ie.
It’s hard to believe Spain’s Costa del Sol was once a strip of tiny fishing villages. Today, tower blocks fan from Malaga to Marbella, and it can be head-wrecking trying to pick one resort over the next. Fuengirola is probably the most family-friendly, however, with a long beach sweeping past its mix of high-rise apartments, lively town centre, chirpy tourist train and surprisingly good zoo. Departing Jul 1 from Dublin, Joe Walsh Tours has seven nights at the Fuengirola Beach apartments from €1,780. Departing Jul 19 or 23 from Cork, Clickandgo.com has a week at Myramar Fuengirola from €1,729. Both prices are based on two adults and two kids.
* Details: joewalshtours.ie; clickandgo.com.
NB: All prices correct going to press, but remain subject to availability. Flights and accommodation are included except where stated otherwise.
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