12 getaways of Christmas
Manchester United play Newcastle on St Stephen’s Day in Manchester, and Celtic Horizons Tours has a package including two nights at Bewley’s Hotel, with match tickets, from €249pps. Flights are extra.
Details: 01-6292000; celtichorizontours.com.
The new Mayan museum has just opened in Cancun. Just in time, too... the Mayan calendar famously (or allegedly, if you prefer) predicts that the world will end on Dec 21, 2012. Sunway has seven nights in a three-star resort from €1,594pp based on a Dec 21 departure. Details: 01-2311888; sunway.ie.
Here’s an idea. Forget about denial this Christmas, and holiday on the Nile instead. With apologies for the pun, GoHop.ie has a seven-night itinerary starting with a two-night break in Cairo, including escorted tours of the pyramids and the Egypt Museum on Tahir Square. From there, a five-star cruise travels from Luxor to Aswan on a full-board basis, with stops ranging from Edfu to Elephantine Island. Gohop.ie has the trip from €1,340pps, with flights extra at approximately €460pp, based on a Dec 22 departure.
Details: 01-2412389; gohop.ie.
Want to escape Christmas, and make a saving of 45%? Log onto lastminute.com, whose ‘Top Secret Hotels’ offer provides a discount for all seasons... provided you don’t mind the hotel itself being a complete mystery. The idea is simple. You choose a date and place using the site’s search tool, and once you’ve booked, lastminute.com mails you the hotel details. Going to press, a dummy booking from Dec 24 to 26 bagged me the option of a five-star hotel in Alicante at €132.92 for two people. Flights are extra.
Details: lastminute.com.
Dynamic package company Clickandgo.com has several departures to Spain’s Costa del Sol over Christmas week. A seven night stay in the four-star Sol Don Pedro Hotel in Torremolinos departs Dec 19 from €599pp, for example — or you could bag the two-star Buensol Apartments in the same resort from €389pp on the same date. Prices include flights with Aer Lingus.
Details: 01-6371699; clickandgo.com.
Why not take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to India’s Rathambore National Park, where you could see one of these majestic cats in the wild? Explore has a six-day trip aiming to observe the endangered Bengal Tiger, with three days in the park supplemented by time in New and Old Delhi. The trip costs €680pp, including several meals and accommodation, but excluding flights.
Details: +44-1252-379598; explore.co.uk.
The Irish Landmark Trust, which restores heritage properties as holiday rentals, at the time of going to press, had the 15th century Clonmantagh Castle and farm in Co Kilkenny from €660 for three days (sleeping 10). Also available were the Galley Head Lightkeeper’s Houses in West Cork (each sleeping four), and the 19th century Salterbridge Gate Lodge in Cappoquin, Co Waterford (sleeping two... cosy).
Details: 01-6704733; irishlandmark.com.
Christmas on Fisherman’s Beach... now there’s a thought. Thomas Cook’s long-haul division, Far & Away, is shopping Cuba’s four-star Playa Pesquero resort as a dream destination, with a seven-night trip departing Manchester on Dec 19 from €1,699pp. Situated on the island’s north-east coast, the resort boasts top-notch swimming, fishing and diving, and meals and drinks are included in the price. Prices plummet to €1,199pp for 14 nights, based on a Jan 9 departure. Oh yes, and you can gently baste yourself in 28 degree temperatures. Details: 01-5140316; thomascook.ie.
Ebookers.ie has just launched an interactive beach map: 1) Choose your departure airport. 2) Set your dates for travel. 3) Use the sliders to reflect your price range and desired flight time. A dummy booking from Cork on Dec 20 returned just one result: seven days at the 4-star Icaria Hotel in Barcelona (with indirect flights) from €770pp. From Dublin, the options ranged from seven days at the four-star Flora Grand Hotel in Dubai from €1,042pp, to a three-star in Miami from €1,022pp.
Details: experience.ebookers.ie/ beach-map
Spanish Parador Hotels, a network of state-owned hotels, many of which are in restored heritage buildings, release most of their specials around the festive season. Departing Sunday, Dec 23, Map Travel has four nights in Malaga from €494pp, in Cadiz from €539pp, and in El Saler from €586pp. Paradors range from three to five-star. Flights are extra.
Details: 01-8783111; maptravel.ie.
Departing Dec 22, Sunway has seven nights at the three-star Intouriste Aparthotel in Agadir from €537pp, the four-star Amadil Beach Hotel from €817pp, and the five-star Atlantic Palace resort from €987pp.
Details: 01-2311888; sunway.ie.
Departing Dec 20, a luxury transfer will whisk you from Faro Airport to spend seven nights at the four-star Vila Gale Cerro Alagoa in Albufeira, on a half-board basis. There are escorted tours of Silves and Monchique, the historical towns of Lagos and Sagres, and the quaint shopping streets of Loulé. Plus there’s Christmas dinner on Dec 24 too. The trip costs €749pp. Details: 01-6371600; thetraveldepartment.ie.
This Blue Book bolthole styles its live-in package as “The Ultimate Christmas”, and with three days and nights priced at €945pp, guests won’t find luxury lacking. Meals, lashings of mulled wine, a visit from Santa and a Jazz Brunch on St Stephen’s Day are all included.
Details: 021-4845900; hayfieldmanor.ie.
Guests at Adare’s Dunraven Arms Hotel will be greeted by warm Christmas tipples and homemade treats on Dec 24, before proceeding to enjoy a smorgasbord of festive meals, choir performances, Santa on horseback and more over three days. From €625pp.
Details: 061-605900; dunravenhotel.com.
You can enjoy a five-star Christmas in Dublin’s Merrion, Westin and Shelbourne hotels this year, to name but three. At the latter, a two-night stay includes a five-course lunch or dinner in the Saddle Room, stockings for the kids, and a meet with Santa in the Lord Mayor’s Lounge, from €345pp. Children under 16 incur a supplement of €170 per child (under fives go free).
Details: 01-6634500; theshelbourne.com.
The Corcoran family’s four-star is a dab hand at Christmas by now. Log fires, festive dinners, entertainment evenings, a Buck’s Fizz brunch, classic movies, Santa visits and late breakfasts all feature on a two-night package starting from €350pps. Details: 098-51166; westportplazahotel.ie.
It’s an old-school Christmas at Killarney’s 19th century railway hotel. The Malton’s residential packages include Santa visits, carols, homemade puddings and pies, Christmas dinner and afternoon teas, plus a ‘Farewell Dinner Dance’ from €525pp for two nights.
Details: 064-6638000; themalton.com.
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