You don't have to spend hours getting to some of the country's best attractions. Sandra O'Connelltimes some outings from the city centre that leave plenty of space for tea
30 minutes
IT’S A LONG time since its Victorian resort heyday, but Bray on Sea is still a great spot for a ruddy-faced day out. Not only is it easily accessible by bus or Dart, but there’s all the bracing fresh air of the prom to enjoy and, if you’re up to it, the longer cliff walk beyond.
If the weather breaks and it rains, book online and you can get a 30 per cent discount on tickets for the Sea Life aquarium on the seafront. Fill up on fish and chips and kill time till the bus home at the amusements. Cheesy but you’d want to be stone not to enjoy it.
For a thoroughbred day out check out the National Stud, Horse Museum and Japanese Gardensall stalled side-by-side in Kildare. There's enough here to keep everyone amused for hours, from the exhibition charting the Republic's love affair with the Sport of Kings to the woodland and lakeside walks of St Fiachra's Garden, commissioned as a Millennium project dedicated to the Patron Saint of Gardeners and entered via an underground stone passage.
There is also of course Europe’s finest Japanese Gardens, now more than 100 years mature and more beautiful than ever.
- braytourism.ie
- irish-national-stud.ie
40 minutes
JUST A little further out – though longer if you stop for a cuppa in one of the chichi coffee shops in Enniskerry – will get you to Powerscourt Waterfall.
Unlike the pristine gardens and thronged retail centre of the main house, the waterfall looks pretty much like it has done since time immemorial, except for the addition of a terrific playground and climbing web. There's tea and hang-sangers at the little cafe or make like a proper tourist and bring a picnic. If you have the time, leave the demesne and walk it all off – or better still, work up a hunger first by heading up to Djouce Woods.
The Coillte forest is just a couple of miles away, with a walk that brings you up over the top of the waterfall and beyond.
As Honfleur is to Parisians, Bettystownis to Dubs – a place to escape the city in summer. But while the French enjoy the art and antique shops, the Irish go for the slots and the dodgems.
For kids especially, Bettystown is synonymous with Funtasia which, even off season, has enough amusements to keep them all amused. There are bumper cars and ride-on snails that crawl along the ceiling plus a 3D theatre that offers a simulated roller-coaster experience.
From there, take a 10-minute trip to Droghedafor Funtasia's newest incarnation. There's a play area, roller skating rink, rock climbing wall and high wires but best of all is the water park, with 200 water-gushing activities, including one slide that has you spinning round like a coin in a charity bin. €11 will get you unlimited time in the pool.
- powerscourt.ie
50 minutes
IF THE last time you went to Newgrangewas on a school tour, you're well overdue a return visit. You won't recognise the place either. Sure the passage tomb looks much as it did 5,000 years ago, but everything else has been developed out of all recognition – time was when you paid a man in a shed beside it.
There’s so much more to the experience now, however. A tour taking in the Brú na Bóinne Visitors’ Centre exhibition as well as Knowth and Dowth cost €11 per adult and takes three hours to complete. Follow it up with a meal at the visitor centre restaurant and you’ve the guts of a great day out right there.
The historic Louth village of Carlingfordis wonderfully atmospheric, peppered as it is with ancient churches and monasteries and castles, including its centrepiece, King John's.
Founded by Vikings in pursuit of herring, the village has dinky arched main street, Tholsel Street, so named for the toll you had to pay to enter in days of yore. It has its own mint, complete with machicolations, a 14th-century friary and a beautiful 17th-century C of I church, now a heritage centre.
Take a gentle walk up Slieve Foy to savour the view or sign up for an afternoon of adrenaline at Carlingford Adventure Centre.
And when you’ve done all that repair to Magee’s Seafood Bistro, on one side of the old toll gate, or to Ghan House, the gorgeous Georgian hotel, on the other.
- heritageireland.ie
- carlingford.ie
60 Minutes
FOR THOSE who hate the impending winter, about the only saving grace at this time of year is the spectacular show the trees put on. It's been a fantastic autumn in that respect and there is nowhere better for home grown leaf peepers to appreciate flaming foliage than at the Vandalin CO Wicklow.
Parnell’s former home is run by Coillte and plays host every weekend to the kind of walkers who feel naked without hiking sticks. If you’re lucky enough to be able to go midweek, you’ll have the place to yourself, with only a few forestry students for company. The berries are gone and the leaves are falling in blizzards, so don’t leave it too long, especially as the coffee shop closes at the end of October too, so no more home-made apple pie till spring either.
An hour out of Dublin and you're in the country's premier tourist attraction – Glendalough. Sure, the boardwalk around the lake is like Grafton Street at weekends, only busier. But still, who can blame them – people have been heading there for millennia and can still be sure of coming away more at peace than when they arrived. It's that kind of place.
It isn’t even hard to avoid the crowds either, just take the steps up to the Spink and Glenealo Valley Route and follow the upper boardwalk instead as it loops back down to the car park. Bring a picnic and enjoy the views out over the lakes, or hoof it round on an empty tum and head to the Wicklow Heather restaurant in Laragh for a restorative meal afterwards instead. Or go mad and do both. Anything to prolong the day.
- coillteoutdoors.ie
- wicklowmountainsnational park.ie