Has a midterm ever snuck up so stealthily? Even the kids can't believe they're off again on Friday. They're still getting mince pies in their lunch boxes. SANDRA O'CONNELLhas some suggestions for where to go and what to do
1 Ski sensationsThis month's midterm break, which starts on February 15th, is peak skiing season, yet there's still plenty of availability – and surprisingly good value, too.
St Johann, at the foot of the Kitzbüheler Horn, is one of Austria’s most popular resorts. With long cruising runs and some testing mogul slopes, there’s something for every level – and a lively nightlife if you’re interested in a different kind of piste. A week’s BB at the family-run Pension Schneiderguetl costs €599 per person with Topflight, departing next Saturday.
Cheaper still is a week’s self-catering at Val d’Isère, in France, staying at the Jardins de la Balme apartments, for €499 per person, with Crystal Ski. Just be warned: it’s the French midterm, too, so be prepared to queue.
topflight.ie, crystalski.ie
2 Sunshine funFor winter sun and the chance to get some heat in your bones, you can't beat the Canaries. It's the sun equivalent of snow-sure.
Gohop.ie has a package to the white beaches of Corralejo, the bustling resort town in the north of Fuerteventura. The three-star Oasis Duna apartments have tropical gardens, a huge pool area, tennis courts and restaurants, and are 200m from the town’s impressive new water park. It’s also currently 23 degrees over there. A week’s self catering, departing next Saturday, costs €599 per person sharing, including flights.
Alternatively, if you’re prepared to lower the temperatures but ratchet up the luxury, Tunisia offers great midterm value plus the cheery prospect of blue skies. Seven nights’ BB at the four-star Palm Marina Hotel in Port el Kantaoui, with indoor and outdoor pools as well as the nearby beach, costs €419 with Sunway.
gohop.ie, sunway.ie
3 CitybreaksWith €1 buying you about $1.40, there's great value stateside, especially as the downturn has seen New York's notoriously pricey hotel rates plummet. Then there are all those kid-friendly Big Apple sights such as FAO Schwarz, Central Park Zoo and the American Museum of Natural History, forever now indebted to Ben Stiller.
Tour America has a week’s holiday for a family of four, staying on the Upper West Side, at Hotel Beacon on Broadway. The room-only package costs €3,458, flying from Dublin to Newark with Continental Airlines on St Valentine’s Day.
Or stay closer to home and catch the tail end of Venice’s famous carnival, which finishes on February 16th. Earlier this week return flights with Aer Lingus cost €1,026 for a family of four; the Concordia, the only hotel on St Mark’s Square, is quoting €780 for a room sleeping four, staying on Monday and Tuesday nights. Tickets for masque events start at €50 per person, including costumes.
touramerica.ie, aerlingus.com, hotelconcordia.com.
4 Action adventuresBusy kids are happy kids, and the best way to keep them occupied, and you rested, could be the midterm pony camp at Castle Leslie, in Co Monaghan. Organised for seven- to 10-year-olds and 11- to 15-year-olds, and running from 10am to 4pm, it includes lessons, ride-outs and pony-club-type games. Not to mention oodles of patting and plaiting. The three-day camp costs €175 per child, including lunch and snacks. The hotel is also offering parents a three-night self-catering stay in its Old Stable Mews, which sleep five, for €425.
Alternatively, if you fancy getting active yourself, a family of four can stay in a two-bedroom suite at Delphi Mountain Resort, in Co Galway, for €299 per night, including an outdoor- pursuit session for each member by day. These range from surfing and kayaking to abseiling and archery. Not quite as scary as it sounds – the resort has a spa and restaurant, too.
castleleslie.com, delphi mountainresort.com
5 Disney discountsDisneyland Paris is offering savings of up to 30 per cent on breaks taken this February. Prices for a three-night stay at its Sequoia Lodge hotel, plus four days' park entrance, start at €88 per adult per night. Kids stay and play for free on selected dates. Earlier this week seats were still available on Ryanair's flights to Paris during midterm, ranging from €26 to €100.
Or splash the cash on a seven-night package for two adults and two children to Walt Disney World in Florida with American Holidays. Stay at the Ramada Gateway Hotel in Kissimmee, just over a kilometre from the park entrance and an easy drive from SeaWorld, Universal Studios and Gatorland. Flying out via Newark next Saturday and back on February 20th, the package costs €3,015.
abbeytravel.ie, ryanair.com, americanholidays.com.
6 Villas abroadFor total luxury, check out the Rocksure Collection. Each of its properties comes with a housekeeper who will cook for you. As such it marries the conveniences of a hotel with the privacy and freedom of a villa. The company has midterm availability in Quinta das Oliveiras, its property in Portugal's Algarve. The new four-bedroom villa can accommodate up to 10 people (so maybe two families), has its own pool and garden and offers 180-degree views of the coast. It's not cheap, at €2,086 per person based on 10 sharing, but if you're going to catch the first glimpse of summer sun anywhere in Europe, it's here.
rocksurerentals.com
7 Cottages at homeFar more affordable and just as much fun, Wexford is wonderful at any time of year. A week at Grangecove Holiday Homes, a development of 16 houses in the seaside village of Rosslare Strand, costs €290, including a €30 online-booking discount. The three-bedroom houses, which sleep five, are in walking distance of shops and restaurants. Particularly good for families with younger children, Grangecove has a playground, and each house has its own enclosed garden. With the Irish National Heritage Park, the John F Kennedy Arboretum and kilometres of deserted beaches nearby, you'll be able to run the legs off them.
selfcatering-ireland.com
8 Carry on campingThe thought of staying on a campsite in winter (okay, spring) will strike terror into the hearts of even seasoned campers, but the value on offer at Vilanova Park, on Spain's Costa Dorada, could change all that. A week in a heated two-bedroom mobile home, from next Friday, costs €256 with Keycamp. The site is about half an hour's drive from Barcelona, and, with average temperatures of 13 degrees, should feel balmy compared with here. Even if it doesn't, there's an indoor pool, badminton, basketball and cycling to keep youngsters busy, a petting zoo for toddlers and spa treatments for the grown-ups. Return flights for a family of four, departing the same day and returning a week later, were costing €1,026 with Ryanair earlier this week.
keycamp.ie, ryanair.com
9 Hotel hospitalityIrish hotels have some great prices right now, and many are throwing in extras, too.
Lisloughrey Lodge, a country-house hotel in Cong, Co Mayo, has a two-night package in a duplex suite, including a family dinner and a guided boat trip to Inchagoill island, for €400. And just so the kids don’t go into total shock at all that fresh air, there’s a dedicated Wii room, with all sorts of games and handsets to help them recover. The deal is available from February 15th to 19th.
Alternatively, Waterford Castle is offering three nights for the price of two, at €249 for one of its three-bedroom lodges, each of which sleeps six. Or stay for seven nights over the midterm break for €400 and have custom-made picnic baskets prepared for you by the hotel’s kitchens.
Over in Tullamore, the Bridge House Hotel is selling three-day family breaks for €159 per grown-up, with kids staying for free. The price includes breakfast each morning and dinner for two on two evenings in its Mezzanine Restaurant (which has a kids’ menu). The hotel also has a pool and a spa – and a high-tech golf simulator for them to break, too.
lisloughrey.ie, waterford castle.com, bridgehouse.com
10 Capital valueIn Dublin, as in most cities, visitors usually have to pay through the nose for a good location. Thankfully, however, it's not always the case. For one of the best addresses in the capital, it's hard to beat Stauntons on the Green, a guest house that, as its name suggests, overlooks St Stephen's Green. With former residents such as Henry Grattan and Gerard Manley Hopkins, there's plenty of history here to bore the kids rigid with. Of much more interest to them is a surprisingly countrified site that backs on to the Iveagh Gardens, one of Dublin's least-known but most beautiful green gems. Plus it's close to Grafton Street. From a parental perspective, however, it's all about the value: family rooms, which sleep up to six people, cost from €159 per night, including full Irish breakfast.
thecastlehotelgroup.com
