Staycations 2025: Places you will never forget
Glendalough's glacial valley in Wicklow, a must to visit, with its gracious round tower, shadowed lake, and myriad of legends.
It’s the big break in your year, the time you get away from the everyday and rediscover your energy, explore new places, find new experiences, create wonderful memories.
And, of course, capture those marvellous pictures which will remind you of happy days, and be the envy of all your friends during the darker days of next winter!
You really should know by now what calls most strongly to you, the place that somehow, instinctively, seems the right place to be. A clifftop perhaps, overlooking the sea, with a tempting track leading gently down to a golden beach stretching into the far distance? An ancient woodland where the trees whisper secrets to each other overhead, the path winds between moss-covered rocks, and you can hear the music of a little stream in the distance?
A lush laneway taking its own sweet time to wander anywhere, with masses of wild flowers crowding down on each side? A breathtaking mountainside reaching almost to the skies, with incredible views into the far distance? Perhaps somewhere that you remember being taken to as a small child, and would love to see again? Now’s your chance!
Having a good holiday is always important for our wellbeing, but if you take the time to think about it beforehand, plan properly, you can make it unforgettable. Let’s face it, we couldn’t be living in a better place for staycationing, could we?
After all, thousands of visitors from other lands make the trip here each year, sometimes from very far away, just to experience what we have on our doorstep! Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe for stunning scenery, matchless ancient sites, that amazing sense of history. In fact, it’s hard to understand why anyone chooses to go abroad when our own lovely land offers so much, so lavishly.
And happily you can find on every side splendid hotels, welcoming country houses, B&Bs, yes, even glamping pods, mobile homes, camp sites to suit your preference and your pocket! All you need to do is choose. So many options, but here are just a few ideas to turn your dream into reality.
Well, West Cork certainly deserves its international reputation for beauty and charm. That heartstoppingly beautiful coastline, with winding roads offering a new vista at every turn, enchanting small harbour towns where time seems to have stood still, a whitewashed cottage, an inviting sandy beach, an ancient stone circle or fairy fort on a windswept hillside.
Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Schull, Ballydehob, all have the outdoor way of life in their very essence and exude a holiday atmosphere that makes a friend of every stranger. Visit Crookhaven and Brow Head, where Marconi established one of the first radio transmission stations, and ships crossing from America dropped off the mail and latest newspapers in barrels, to be retrieved by local fishermen.
Drive down to the end of the beautiful Beara Peninsula and take a trip on the cable car which swings you out across a tossing stretch of rough water to Dursey Island. Or visit gracious Bantry House and its gardens fronting on to Bantry Bay, before continuing along the spectacular coast road to Glengarriff with its own unique almost-tropical atmosphere which allows rarer plants and trees to flourish. Garnish Island in the bay here is very much worth a visit to admire its Italian gardens, and you just might get a glimpse of the rare white-tailed sea eagle which occasionally favours it with a visit.
Kerry also offers so many options it’s hard to choose. The ancient woodlands and lakes of Killarney, famed in song and story. The lively delights of Dingle, Slea Head, glimpses of Skellig Michael, stunning views of the Blasket Islands. The famed Ring of Kerry with beautiful villages like Glenbeigh and Waterville, as well as Derrynane, where Daniel O’Connell’s ancestors ran profitable smuggling activities.
You can book a boat trip to either the Blaskets or Skellig Michael, although the latter now has limits on the number of visitors and you would need to plan ahead. An easier option might be to take a sea trip around Skellig when you would see its spectacular rocky heights at their best without having to climb them! The Blaskets, with their wonderful literary history, have an unforgettable atmosphere as you wander among the simple stone cottages that once housed a whole community.
Whatever you do, don’t miss the drive around Slea Head with those same Blaskets as backdrop. This was where Ryan’s Daughter was filmed, and it is often said that the location deserved its own Oscars! Allow time for that winding road out there, though!
This amazing stone landscape is truly breathtaking, hard to take in at first as you gaze across its silent and endless flat grey surface to the sea beyond. Although it looks barren, it isn’t — many rare (and protected!) plants and flowers grow in the sheltered crevices among the limestone slabs. You could spend the whole day searching for and photographing these rarities (just don’t even think of picking them). J. R. R. Tolkien loved the Burren and it is said he found the name for one of his most infamous characters from the cave here known as Poulnagollum. The beaches of Liscannor and Lahinch are a magnet for surfers, while Kilkee still retains its old-world atmosphere of a Victorian resort.
All of our west coast is supremely beautiful and the Wild Atlantic Way offers the ideal choice for exploring it all. Connemara’s spectacular beauty has inspired painters for centuries — to see the Twelve Bens as the blue dusk is falling is a lifetime experience. Visit the bridge near Cong or the railway station at Ballyglunin, where scenes from The Quiet Man were filmed. See where Alcock and Brown landed near Clifden on the very first transatlantic flight. Then there is the Yeats country of Sligo, every scene recalling one of the poet’s beautiful lines, the emotive ancient boglands of Mayo with some of our most ancient field systems only recently rediscovered.
Donegal is wildly beautiful, with the highest sea cliffs in Europe to be found at Slieve Liagh. This was originally the most Irish and the most remote part of our land, and it still retains much of that sense of another place, beyond the humdrum of everyday normal life. Its people too are warm and friendly, echoing the ancient tradition of welcoming every visitor as an honoured guest.
Make time to visit Donegal Yarns, one of the very few remaining spinning mills in Ireland, where beautiful yarns are still spun and dyed in native colours. Of course you have to go to Malin Head, the northernmost point of Ireland. Look out for Inishtrahull, that little island offshore here, once famed for its smuggling activities. The whole of the Inishowen Peninsula was known for its illicit distilling industries – it is said that the powerful liquor was preferred by drinkers of taste to anything produced more legally.
It’s hard to believe, but south of our capital city, with all its crowded roads and traffic jams, you can find a true Otherworld hidden in the sheltering mountains of Wicklow. Glendalough is a must to visit, with its gracious round tower, shadowed lake, and myriad of legends (be sure to learn about St Kevin and his less-than-chivalrous treatment of a maiden who wished to share his lonely cave cell).
Then there is Powerscourt with that dramatic waterfall, a natural spectacle that everyone should see. Children, not to mention their parents, will delight in the endless sweep of the beach at Brittas Bay, while later on, you can stop for coffee and cakes at Avoca, the picture-perfect village where Ballykissangel was filmed. Continue down the east coast from Wicklow into Wexford, checking out Arklow on the way for its history of shipbuilding and silver mining.
Ornithologists will want to head for the Slobs to look for seabirds, while the narrow winding streets of Wexford town itself are full of charm. This is where the famed Opera Festival is held each October, and aficionados come from far and wide to enjoy the atmosphere.
Waterford claims to be the oldest city in Ireland (although Corkonians will deny that, saying it’s just relying on an English king’s charter, not the original settlement). The town certainly has a splendid Viking atmosphere, with a dragon boat drawn up right on the quayside by 10th century Reginald’s Tower. Cross from Waterford back into Co Cork and there is Youghal, which can rightfully claim to be the site of one of the first Viking settlements in Ireland, although those fierce raiders soon discovered Cork Harbour and founded a bigger trading post on the marshes there.
But there are so many other beautiful places you could choose — the difficulty will be finding the one that really calls to your heart. Cruising the Shannon, for example, or walking the Grand Canal from the east coast to the west. Wandering through our very own Lake District of the Midlands, experiencing the magic of Lough Key Forest Park. Get out that atlas, or bring the map of Ireland up on your laptop, and let your eyes and heart choose the way. You will be taking the first step on not just one holiday but a future lifetime of discovery.
