Great Escapes: Eight city breaks for under €200

This week’s best travel bargains at home and abroad


Eight cities for less than €200
Travelling in winter time is the least expensive time to visit some great European cities. Cassidy Travel has just launched a group of city break bargains: you can visit the following cities for under €200 in November and December, including flights and two or three nights' accommodation. London, Rome, Krakow, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Prague, Madrid, and Paris. See cassidytravel.ie, 0818 332500.

Find sunshine for October mid term
Take a trip to the luxury, family-friendly Martinhal resort in Cascais near Lisbon. A week will cost from €1,778 for two adults, one child under 12 and an infant half board. Fiona Faulkner food guru and author of 25 Foods Kids Hate and How To Get Them Eating 24, will give two workshops on getting your little ones eating the right kind of foods on October 24th and 26th. Flights to Lisbon extra Martinhal Cascais.

Opera: Passion, Power and Politics at the V&A
The Victoria and Albert museum headline exhibition this autumn will be Opera: Passion, Power and Politics. Running from September 30th to February 24th, 2018 the V&A will explore a vivid story of opera from late Renaissance Italy to present day. Plan your visit with afternoon tea at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel before taking in the exhibition. Afternoon tea will feature a selection of savouries and pastries inspired by great opera houses and cities, it will include tickets for the exhibition, and an MP3 player preloaded with opera favourites, from £45(€49) or £55 (€60) with a cocktail. Stay over with B&B, two tickets for the exhibition, plus a coffee table book from £408 (€443) per room, visit jumeirah.com/opera. To reserve a table for tea, call +44 20 7858 7185 or email jctdining@jumeirah.com. Aer Lingus flights to London from €29.99, aerlingus.com.

Explore St. John's, Newfoundland
Take a trip to St John's, Newfoundland and you will be surprised by the Irish accents and pubs. Many Irish settled in this fishing port which is full of charm. Take a trip with gohop.ie to St John's and soak up the maritime city. See the Quidi Vidi Brewery, visit Signal Hill the easternmost point of North America, the Cabot Tower where Marconi's first-ever transatlantic wireless signal arrived, go whale-watching, hiking and iceberg spotting, from €930pps for five nights accommodation and flights with Westjet direct from Dublin. Gohop.ie, 01- 2412305.

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Flynn Hotels autumn sale 15% off
The Flynn Hotels end-of-summer sale runs from September 1st to 8th with 15 per cent off room rates from October 1st to March 31st, 2018. Hotels in the group include the Old Ground in Ennis, the Imperial in Cork, the Newpark in Kilkenny and the Park Hotel Dungarvan. Book on flynnhotels.com.

Support the Red Army
Join Munster's rugby team as they travel to France to take on old rivals Castres in the European Rugby Champions' Cup. The team charter takes off from Shannon on October 14th and stays overnight. Prices from €460pps, with match tickets €50, see killestertravel.com, 061- 414717.

Get to the US Midwest from €129.99
Wow Air has launched fares from €129.99 to four new US Midwest destinations: Detroit, St Louis, Cleveland and Cincinnati, from Ireland via Reykjavik. Fares include taxes and charges. Flights will begin in April and May and can be booked from now at wowair.com. All routes will operate flights up to four times a week. Passengers can also avail of the WOW stopover option and explore Iceland on either leg of their transatlantic journey for an unlimited time, wowair.com