Some people use it as a base for exploring the southeast; others like to spoil a good walk by playing golf. But the whole point of Kelly's, which sits by the sea in Co Wexford, is that it has everything you need. It's great with small children, writes HUGH LINEHAN
AFTER OUR FAMILY stay at Kelly’s Resort Hotel the editor of Go suggested I might like to provide you with some information about sights worth seeing in that part of Co Wexford – places you might care to visit, trips I might recommend.
Sorry, no can do. From the moment we arrived to the morning we reluctantly checked out, we failed to leave the premises. All right, we were just there for a weekend, and we did take a few walks along the magnificent Rosslare Strand, but that just feels like part of the hotel itself.
Apparently, some people use Kelly’s as a base for exploring the southeast, while others like to spoil a good walk by playing golf. But the whole point of this place, as far as I’m concerned, is that everything you might want or need is right there. I’ve never wanted to take a cruise, but stepping aboard Kelly’s is probably the nearest I’ll come to that particular experience, and it’s really rather wonderful, especially if you have small children.
So here’s the deal. You park across the road, stroll over to check in – and are transported. Photographs on the walls chart the development of Kelly’s from a humble 19th-century tea room to the long, ship-shaped string of buildings now fringing the dunes of Rosslare Strand.
Hauling two small kids and the attendant paraphernalia aboard, we make for our room, a well-designed split-level affair with French windows leading out to the gardens. It’s raining, but we can’t blame Kelly’s for that. Two doors down from us is a room equipped with nappies, milk and all the other accoutrements required to keep your little emperor oiled and serviced.
It’s the end of June, just before the schools break for holidays. As custodians of a three- and a four-year-old, this is the last time until 2023 or so when our summer schedule will not be dictated by the Department of Education. Most of the guests are in the same boat: families with pre-school children, with a smattering of the older, mainly retired customers who are, presumably, more inclined to visit during term time. Each tribe glides happily past the other, and fights rarely break out.
There are weekly schedules of children’s activities, one for over-fours (from arts and crafts to shell hunts and puppet shows), another for over-eights (quad biking, kite-flying) and a range of sports activities for teenagers, from badminton to water volleyball. There’s also a schedule for adults, but I don’t really feel ready for the power walks or the Pilates.
Along with most of our fellow guests we’re here on an all-in, three-meal-per-day basis. If for some reason you need to put on a few kilos as quickly as possible, then this is the option for you: vast quantities of unpretentious but really good food coming at you from dawn until well past dusk. For families this means buffet service for breakfast and (excellent) lunch, and a buffet again for children’s dinner, at 6pm. Just in case that’s not filling you up, there’s also “Kelly’s legendary afternoon tea”, where we all stampede like buffalo for cream cakes in the middle of the afternoon.
The self-service approach is well geared to the demands of small, picky eaters, and there’s a range of healthy options that puts most so-called family- oriented establishments in Ireland to shame.
After children's dinner a mini-disco gets the dance floor shaking to such call-and-response crowd-pleasers as Can We Fix It?by Bob the Builder ("But I hate Bob the Builder," protests a small voice from the back of the crowd. I know how he feels.)
Then it’s time to gird ourselves for grown-ups’ dinner. We have booked a babysitter for the evening (one of those phone-monitoring services is available, but we prefer the idea of another human being in the room), and we head to Beaches restaurant, where we’re greeted by Bill Kelly, the fourth generation of his family to run the hotel.
This is not an undercover review – he knows I'm here on behalf of The Irish Times– but for the rest of the weekend Kelly can be seen working the floor, chatting with guests, many of them regulars whom he seems to have known for years. Like everything else here, the tone is friendly without being intrusive – and the dinner is delicious.
If you’re venturing away from the all-in deal, there’s also La Marine, a bistro at the other end of the hotel, where you can see into the impressive wine cellar that Kelly has developed over the past decade or more. (You can also buy some of his wines directly through the hotel’s website.)
The next morning we make for Aqua Club, the hotel’s excellent two-pool swimming complex, in the vain hope that splashing around for an hour or so might compensate for our calorific intake. No such luck, and anyway it’s soon time for lunch, after which we take ourselves off to the hotel’s high-style SeaSpa for more self-indulgence. And so our weekend rolls on, laid back (for us), full of fun (for the children) and just generally brilliant. Why didn’t we book for a full week?
Kelly’s is not particularly cheap – although, as with everywhere else these days, competitive rates are becoming more available, especially at off-peak times. But with its attention to detail, its understanding of the needs of families and a commitment to friendly, professional hospitality that clearly comes from generations of experience, it’s still good value. For the visitor – particularly for those of us with small children in tow – the result is uniquely pleasurable and relaxing.
Since our stay I’ve met other families who’ve had the Kelly’s treatment, all of them with nothing but good to say about the place, and all of whom have sworn they’ll be going back. So will we.
** Hugh Linehan was a guest of Kelly’s Resort Hotel (053- 9132114, www.kellys.ie) For June a two-night weekend break costs from €295 per person sharing, full board, with an extra night (dinner, bed and breakfast) for €85 per person. It is also offering golf and spa breaks, plus five nights’ full-board accommodation for the price of four.
Picture perfect
A not inconsiderable bonus of a stay at Kelly's is the chance to see one of Ireland's most impressive private art collections. The main moving force behind the collection was Bill Kelly's mother, Breda. Irish artists represented in the collection include Jack B Yeats, Tony O'Malley, William Crozier and Louis le Broquy. As the former Irish Timesart critic Brian Fallon commented on the hotel's centenary, in 1995: "This is art as it should be seen – by people of all tastes (or even no taste at all, perhaps, in some cases), who may like or dislike what they see but still are happy to eat, drink, move about or lounge about in the midst of these clustering artworks."
If you want a diversion from Kelly's
Go birdwatching at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve (North Slob, Wexford, 053-9123406). Free. Picnic area, toilets, parking.
Discover Ireland's past 9,000 years at the Irish National Heritage Park (Ferrycarrig, Co Wexford, 053-9120733, www.inhp.com). Its Celtic farm includes ancient breeds, and you can see grain being ground in its horizontal water mill. Family fun on Saturdays and Sundays, such as interacting with Vikings as they lived 1,000 years ago.
Visit JFK Trust Dunbrody (The Quay, New Ross, 051-425239, www.dunbrody. com). Its museum tells the story of the Irish diaspora, from the sixth century to the present, and the Dunbrody famine ship is worth seeing. Families €18.
Go quad-biking at Quad Attack adventure centre (Clonroche, Enniscorthy, 053-9244660, www.quad attack.ie). Booking advised.
Go horse-riding with Paddy Kent (Oldcourt Stables, Oldcourt, New Ross, 051-421621, 087-2555886 or 087-9788804).
Kate Holmquist