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Original poster

We have just finished a staycation in Clare/Galway. Anyone else done theirs?

13 replies

LittleOgres · 09/07/2020 22:45

Were supposed to be in Spain for 2 weeks but y’know...
We booked last minute, via airb&b a house in Clare, Kinvarra. Then a night in Jury’s Galway, by the Spanish arch.
House was gorgeous right in village. Kinvarra beautiful, very friendly people. Weather nice when we arrived, lashed rain for two days, then dried up morning we left. Hmm
One pub only open, serving good pub food. But the having to buy food and 1.45 min restriction is seriously annoying.
Another more restaurant type pub was open too, went there one night. Excellent food, but zero atmosphere.
Numerous gorgeous cosy, atmospheric pubs closed. Sad
Most shops closed. Went to Ballyvaughan and hardly anything open at all!
Could drive to any tourist attraction and park by the front door practically. No one around.
In Galway city today. Again, atmosphere lacking. So many shops closed. No pubs open. In fact Jury’s where we are staying has no food or drink available. If we had known this we wouldn’t have bothered!
Obviously safety takes precedence over holidays. Staff need to be kept safe. But I feel the half in half out of the minute is nearly worse. I don’t know how businesses will survive with no tourists. It’s all very sad.
Anyone else had a staycation already, what was it like?

OP posts:
Popjam · 09/07/2020 23:10

We've booked to go self catering soon...so not much of a holiday really, not sure how many restaurants will even be open. We have 1 excursion booked, hopefully the weather will improve.

I wouldn't spend loads though as it's far from a normal holiday and even being out and about is not exactly relaxing at the moment.

Loyaultemelie · 10/07/2020 09:46

We are heading to Ballyvaughan for a couple of days then down to Youghal but we cancelled hotels elsewhere and went for apartments or glamping and will be self catering and just trying to find places out of the way for the kids to let off steam so what you describe sounds ideal. Other friends are going down today to just outside Tralee and hoping to eat out a bit and do some tourist things so not sure how they will get on

bellinisurge · 10/07/2020 16:16

Lovely. But to quote Dara O'Briain it's not a staycation unless you sleep in your own house every night

HiGunny · 17/07/2020 13:44

We were in Kerry for a week last week and had a great time. We booked a self catering house in a resort so had access to their pool, restaurant, kids club etc. We had to book a time slot for the pool and you were allowed an hour in it. No showers allowed there. It actually was great as the pool was much less busy than normal.

Outside of the resort we went to the beach lots, visited a couple of museums, went sightseeing in the car and hopped out at any interesting ruins etc.

We went out for dinner a few times and the restaurants were very busy.

We normally self cater on holidays anyway and wouldn't be going to pubs as our kids are small so it wasn't too different from our usual holidays! Just a little less spontaneity I suppose.

Popjam · 17/07/2020 16:56

Had a lovely few days away, there are so many fabulous places to see in Ireland.

We did self catering, including a BBQ and takeaway, but there was a few of us to share the cooking and it was grand. It's normally more relaxing than eating out with kids at the best of times, and definitely nowadays.

Mitsouko67 · 21/07/2020 19:26

Just back from the North West. A lot of places were closed but we managed some nice meals out all the same. We were mainly doing outdoor activities with the kids so we got on OK. Weather rotten alas but we got out in it anyway.

We enjoyed ourselves as our focus was on the outdoors but it might not suit everyone.

DH was disappointed by lack of pints!

honeyrider · 21/07/2020 20:20

Just back this evening from a 2 night break in Dun Laoghaire, we stayed in the Royal Marine Hotel, it was fabulous and the food was excellent. We'll definitely go back there again, we stayed in the Presidential Suite which was fab.

There was hand sanitizer everywhere, most staff work masks, a lot of preventative measures in place so we felt safe. We were handed a list of measures that the hotel have implemented.

SparkyBlue · 23/07/2020 20:00

@honeyrider we are off to the royal marine soon so good to know you enjoyed it. Is the pool open?

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 23/07/2020 20:09

We went to Clare on the first day that we were allowed out of our country. We usually go out for dinner to the local pub every night, but we only went once out of the five nights that we were there. We had to book but it was well spaced out and they read out the menu to us rather than having us handle menus. We brought food with us an only had to go to the local shop for milk and butter (that I had forgotten to pack). We had a reasonably good time, well the DC had a great time and I did a lot of sorting stuff out as it was the first time anyone in the family had been down since last summer. We had to get a plumber out and he didn't really socially distance, I was being a complete neurotic Dubliner and kept backing off to a 2m distance. Grin

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 23/07/2020 20:10

'County' not 'country' - I haven't left the country for years.

huuskymam · 23/07/2020 20:13

We had a kids free weekend in Galway. Loved it, even with the restrictions. We're looking to book a week in an airbnb, looking at donegal. I'm from Dublin, but much prefer the west coast.

DrMadelineMaxwell · 23/07/2020 20:29

Were on our holiday now. Ilfracombe instead of the planned and cancelled italy. We are in a static so self.contained, but it is on a camp site and there are plenty of caravans and campers.here.
Pool and clubhouse closed but we rarely use the clubhouse.
Weve been out for dinner, which you still can't do at home inside yet (Wales) and it was quiet and easy.
The camp site has various food caterers coming nightly so we've had a mix of self catering and takeaways.
We've had a nice day out at s local.zoo and the coastal path via the town Is not too busy.
We've avoided the cramped souvenir.shops but don't need them anyway.
It's been lovely to be away and do different things to what we could have been doing at home.

honeyrider · 24/07/2020 00:50

@honeyrider we are off to the royal marine soon so good to know you enjoyed it. Is the pool open?

The pool and spa are open but you need to book slots, we didn't bother as we chose to go into Dublin one day. You must try Teddy's ice cream on the pier, it's delicious. Our suite was fabulous.

You need to book a time for dinner but not breakfast.

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