GO IRELAND: Holidaying in your own home is all the rage in the US - and it's catching on here, too, writes Michael Kelly, who asks some of its fans what they gained from staying put
WE WILL BE holidaying at home this year, and I'll tell you why. Last year our annual vacation started with an interminable five-hour car journey from Waterford to Dublin Airport, the highlight of which was the two unforgettable hours we spent crawling along the M50 from the Red Cow roundabout.
We were stressed because we were late. We got more stressed shuffling from one queue to the next at the overcrowded airport. Then I got stressed on the flight, because I hate flying. It took us two days to calm down, and as the holiday progressed we started to tense up again at the thought of the return journey.
We're not alone in finding the idea of foreign travel rather trying. This summer's hottest travel trend in the US (and raising its head here in Ireland, too) is the "staycation", or stay-at-home vacation. In its purest form it entails staying in your own house and visiting local tourist attractions. Thankfully, the Urban Dictionary's definition - "a vacation spent close to home" - allows you the leeway of going away, just not very far.
Motives for staycationing are broad and varied: the slump making us want to tighten our belts; the price of oil making long journeys prohibitively expensive; the hassle of foreign travel; concerns about the environmental impact of flights; even a patriotic desire to spend our holiday money locally.
Or it may be that we are starting to realise that, in our rush to explore foreign countries, we have neglected our own.
Fáilte Ireland can take some of the credit for this. It has challenged perceptions that there is nothing to do in Ireland and, with its latest ad campaign, highlighted the hassle of air travel.
Its director of regional development, John Colcannon, says staycations are an increasingly important part of Irish tourism.
"The home holiday market is now worth €1.4 billion, and is far and away the largest tourism segment we have. Since the year 2000 the number of Irish people holidaying at home has increased by 135 per cent.
"If we can get people to spend their money here," he says, "they are not spending their money abroad, and that's a good thing. I think there is a big change in attitude among Irish people about rediscovering their own locality. They are starting to see Ireland as a really happening, buzzy destination with lots to do. The big drivers are value for money and, above all, convenience. I have three kids myself and have had the experience of practically peeling them off the roof of the airport - not fun."
So could the staycation be the perfect stress-free holiday? Can you really get a holiday buzz close to home? Is there enough to do? Are you too close to home for comfort? Too accessible? Too contactable? And what about the weather? We asked three staycationers how they found it.
Colm Cosgrove
The key to a successful staycation, according to the 28-year-old, is to treat it like any other holiday, planning activities and events as if you were going away. Cosgrave, who works for Pfizer in Cork, decided to base his annual holiday this year around the family home in his native Tipperary.
His primary reason for holidaying in Ireland was the challenges of foreign travel. "You look at all the hassle they had with the new terminal in Heathrow and the problems they had in Dublin Airport with the radar. That sort of stuff just ruins your holiday. I got badly delayed a few years ago on a flight back from New York, and it took the gloss off the whole trip. I remember thinking that I never wanted to go through that again."
Cosgrave crammed the two weeks with activities. He went to the races and took in a local walking festival. He played golf and went scuba-diving, mountain-climbing, kayaking and cycling. He even found time for a moonlit walk in Slievenamuck in aid of the Marie Keating Foundation.
"The advice was really useful because it meant I didn't waste any time and once I got to the location I could just get straight into the activity.
"Friends were very supportive of the idea of staying home - their attitude was that once I enjoyed it, it didn't matter whether I went backpacking in Australia or scuba-diving in Ireland."
The holiday, he says, was a revelation, even though the weather, not surprisingly, refused to play ball.
"The weather wasn't great, but it didn't stop me doing what I wanted to do. There's so much more to Ireland than people realise. I was kayaking up near the Swiss Cottage in Cahir and I was thinking that there aren't many locations in the world as beautiful as that. There are unbelievable things to see and do in this country and it's right on our doorstep. Why would you go away?"
How did he feel after his two weeks off? "I have no regrets at all. I met up with people I haven't seen in ages at home. If I had gone away I wouldn't have seen them again until Christmas probably. I feel healthier and rejuvenated. If I was on a sun holiday it would have been two weeks on beaches and in bars and I would be feeling wrecked after it."
Because there were no accommodation costs involved, the overall spend on the holiday was minimal. "I stayed at home in Tipp, and if I went further afield I had places to stay, so the accommodation didn't cost me anything.
"Saving money isn't the primary motivator for me, but, having said that, I don't believe in spending huge money to go on foreign holidays when our country has so much to offer."
The Powers
Staycationing is not always about thrift. For Eunice Power, who runs Powersfield Guest House in Dungarvan,
Co Waterford, and her husband, Edmond, it's about keeping money in the locality.
"I am a big fan of keeping tourism spend local - a rising tide raises all boats and all that. All the money on our holidays gets spent in our own locality."
This month the Power family will holiday for the second year running in nearby Clonea. Since the couple's three boys were born (now aged from four to nine), they have found foreign holidays, and all that goes with them, to be not worth the effort.
"All that messing getting to the airport, waiting in the airport. All the queuing and stress. It's a nightmare with three kids."
The straw that broke the camel's back was a family holiday in Wales two years ago, when they realised they could have had a better, cheaper holiday at home.
"We went on the ferry and stayed in one of those mobile-home places, and we found it absolutely miserable. We couldn't find decent things to eat, and it didn't fit with what we are about at all. We just thought, why are we doing this to ourselves?"
Power came across self-catering holiday homes in Clonea, and the family spent a week there last summer. They were so impressed by the experience that they immediately booked for a second week later in the year.
Their holiday came during last summer's prolonged biblical deluge. Were they not tempted to jet off somewhere warm?
"The weather was completely miserable, but I think it's all about frame of mind. We spent most days in the water anyway, kayaking and windsurfing, so you don't mind the rain. It's like when you are young: rain doesn't bother you."
The holiday home's TV had just two channels, and in the evenings they introduced their kids to board and card games. "It was a huge novelty for them. Our youngest is very difficult to entertain, but he had a ball. He bombed around on his tractor all day. My nine-year-old says the most exciting part of the holiday for him was that he could go to the shop by himself. If we weren't in a locality we knew, there's no way we could allow that."
Such proximity to home surely has its downsides. Were they not just a little too available? And why not just stay at home altogether and head for Clonea by day?
"I think if you are at home in your own house you don't feel you're on holidays. But holidaying close by means you don't have that hassle of worrying about forgetting something. If we need to go home to get something, we can. But, of course, we didn't. We relaxed so much. There was no routine, no stress. We were very sorry to be coming back home."
The Prestages
Marcus Prestage and his family have a litany of reasons for why they decided to staycation this year. The couple are building a house in Arklow, Co Wicklow, that Prestage says is "grossly over budget", and as a result they are being careful about their finances this summer.
On top of that the couple have two young girls (Holly, aged two, and Lara, aged four), which would make foreign travel a trying affair. Prestage is, by his own admission, no fan of flying.
"All things considered," he says, "we were quite happy to stay at home. Taking the girls to church on a Sunday is difficult enough. Taking them to see their grandparents is like a military operation. So the idea of taking them on a foreign holiday is just something we wouldn't even countenance. The amount of artillery that comes with kids would just blow your mind."
In the first week in July the family took a week in self-catering accommodation in Rosslare, Co Wexford, about an hour from their front door. This element of the holiday was particularly appealing to Prestage who commutes to Dublin every day from Arklow.
The beauty of staycationing for busy young families is not having a long journey at the start and end of the holiday - travel is something they do enough of week in, week out.
"I am on the road for three hours a day. When I come home at night one of the girls is asleep and the other is grumpy, and I'm grumpy myself. We are full-on five or six days a week, so it was just great to spend time together as a family. We also had that comfort that if it didn't work out we could always come home."
Unfortunately, the "sunny southeast" failed to live up to its name.
"It rained the whole time we were there. On the Friday evening it was almost comical it was so wet. We went to the beach one day and we almost got hypothermia. In one sense, though, because it was raining all the time, and there wasn't much we could do, we just did nothing, and it was all the more enjoyable as a result."
So how does he feel about their staycation with the benefit of hindsight?
"I'm not saying it was idyllic, and I'd be lying if I said I came back to work feeling totally relaxed. It was a different sort of relaxation. We didn't spend a lot of money. We ate in most of the time. We lay on in the morning and stayed up late at night. That's all we wanted, to have some fun and chill out."
5 old favourites
Brú na Bóinne
Co Meath
This Unesco World Heritage site includes the megalithic tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, plus a new visitor centre. A trip will take at least half a day. See www.heritageireland.ieor call 041-9880300.
Cliffs of Moher
Co Clare
The surfing going on beneath them has been getting all the headlines of late, but the cliffs themselves are still the star attraction - and one of Ireland's most dramatic vistas, stretching for eight kilometres and rising more than 200m from the Atlantic. The new Atlantic Edge visitor centre is well worth a visit. See www.cliffsofmoher.ie or call 065-7086141.
Giant's Causeway
Co Antrim
One of nature's wonders, and another Unesco World Heritage site, the Giant's Causeway is made up of freakishly symmetrical basalt columns formed more than 55 million years ago. A day trip to the Giant's Causeway can also include a trip to the Old Bushmills Distillery. See www.giantscausewaycentre.com or call 048-20731855.
Glendalough
Co Wicklow
Could this glacial valley, with its famous monastic settlement nestling in the Valley of the Two Lakes, be the ultimate staycation attraction? Access is free (although there is a charge for the visitor centre), and it is very accessible from Dublin, with a glorious drive through the Wicklow Mountains to get there. See www.glendalough.ie or call 0404-45600.
Ring of Kerry
Co Kerry
Breathtaking landscape and old-world charm all in a neatly packaged 175km (110m) circuit of the Iveragh Peninsula, taking in Killorglin, Cahirciveen, Waterville, Sneem, Kenmare, and Killarney and including more attractions, events and activities than you can shake a stick at. Killarney National Park also has the famous lakes of Killarney.
. . . and 5 alternatives
Go extreme
Think adventure. Go sailing, climbing, paragliding, kayaking, canoeing or windsurfing. Lean to surf in Antrim, Donegal, Clare, Kerry, Cork or Waterford. See www.isasurf.ie. Or how about zorbing, bog-snorkelling, mountain-climbing or hiking? See www.extremeireland.ie.
Festival heaven
The old excuse - "But there's nothing to do in Ireland" - no longer washes. The country is alive with festivals in the summer and autumn, so take your pick and build your staycation around it: Puck Fair, Rose of Tralee, Electric Picnic, All-Ireland Fleadh, Galway Races, Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking, Galway Oyster Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Wexford Opera, Cork Jazz. To name but a few. See www.discoverireland.ie.
Chill-out holidays
Recharge the batteries for the year ahead. Health farms, and yoga and Pilates retreats, are all the rage. Some of the best are Burren Yoga and Meditation Centre, in Kinvara (091-637680), Clare Ireland Yoga Retreat, in Co Mayo (098-25412), Ard Nahoo ecoretreat, in Leitrim (071-9134939) and Ballycullen Lodge, in Wicklow (0404-40000).
Go offshore
Despite our being an island nation, how many of us can say we have visited more than one or two of our islands? Most of us would be familiar with Aran, Achill, the Blaskets, Tory, Clare Island, the Skelligs and Cape Clear, but what about Dursey (Cork) Beginish (Kerry), Our Lady's Island (Wexford) and Inishmurray (Sligo)? See www.irelandsislands.com.
Alternative stays
Tour the Royal Canal on a traditional narrowboat (www.cruiseireland.com) or the Shannon and Erne on a cruiser (www.emeraldstar.ie). Or how about exploring the Co Mayo countryside in a horse-drawn caravan? See www.horsedrawncaravan.com or call 094-9032054.
Five tips
• Set a start and end date for your staycation.
• Plan and budget. Think of things you would like to do and plan them in advance. Set a generous budget.
• Switch off that mobile phone or BlackBerry. Do not check your e-mail.
• View your locality through a tourist's eyes. Read guidebooks.
• Do lots of activities, have fun and do not allow the weather to dictate your mood.