Two picturesque Irish towns win big at European awards

Trophy Towns

Two Irish villages are celebrating this month, having each taken home awards at the prestigious Entente Florale, the European Association for Flowers & Landscape, awards which took place last month in Slovenia. Glaslough, Co Monaghan's picturesque village, was awarded a gold medal while Abbeyleix took silver. The awards commended both towns for their cleanliness and community spirit. For the full list of winners visit entente-florale.eu.

Plum Picking

Amid the deluge of holiday rental websites, The Plum Guide has become the most buzzed about travel tool of the last year. This ingenious site scans 25 of the best vacation rental websites and selects the top 1 per cent of homes, which means you don't spend hours scrolling through mediocre boltholes, you'll simply pick from the very best. This is the kind of holiday curation the makes booking a trip away a joy. See plumguide.com.

Strand Strides

The first ever Strand Hill Food festival takes place on October 7th with more than 30 food stalls from across Ireland taking part in the event. Expect a full line up of food demonstrations from top food bloggers, local chefs and cookbook authors, a Craft Beer bar, live music with tons of free kids activities too, all in the unique setting of Sligo Airport. For more see strandhillfoodfestival.com.

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Night At The Movies

Fancy three weeks in the Algarve for €176?

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A walk for the weekend: A glorious trail on easy terrain and quiet by-roads

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Live like Princess Grace at the Shelbourne – for €7,500 a night

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Dublin
Take part in Ireland's first ever cinemathon on October 9th at the Odeon cinema in the Point Square. The 24-hour event invites movie nerds to cosy up while watching Jurassic Park, Scream and Before Sunrise all in aid of Aware. See entertainment.ie for tickets.

New York
Williamsburg's Nitehawk cinema is one of the coolest cinematic experiences you could hope for. Enjoy movie-themed food and drink while you watch the latest blockbuster, visit for a midnight showing of a classic horror, or rent the space for a private screening; nitehawkcinema.com.

Kerry
The annual Kerry film festival is a true celebration of cinema. This year's line-up is set to be the biggest yet, taking place from October 19th-22nd; kerryfilmfestival.com.

Get Appy

Cuba Travel 
This new app helps travellers navigate the former communist country, from the most popular destinations and best hotels to customised itineraries. Available on iTunes.

Rock ’n’ Rhine

River cruises have become the ultimate way to experience some of the best-loved cities in the world from a whole new perspective. This October, discover the highlights of the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel on an eight-night holiday with the Travel Department.

The four-star MS Amadeus Silver III will sail for the duration, stopping off for a city tour of Amsterdam with a canal trip, walking tours and wine tasting in the cities of Koblenz, Cochem, Rüdesheim am Rhein and Heidelberg and a city tour of Strasbourg. This trip starts from €1,449pp including one night's B&B in a hotel and seven nights' full board river cruise, return flights from Dublin, transfers and all taxes & charges, with flights departing on October 31st. Book now at traveldepartment.ie.

Travel deals with Joan Scales

• Rome – post Christmas three-day break January 11th-14th with a wine and cheese-tasting evening, €255pps including flights and hotel, travalue.ie, 046-9068600.
• Andre Rieu – in concert, in Amsterdam from January 4th-7th, for a three-night trip from Dublin or Cork will cost from €499. Price includes flights, hotel and concert tickets, steintravel.ie, 01-5175990.
• Cooking in Italy – solo friendly break in March for three nights staying in the medieval hilltop town of Trevi. Learn how to cook an authentic Italian meal. Flights, half-board accommodation and tours from €699, gti-ireland.com, 01-8434734.