Go Ireland:The country's hotels are working harder than ever to make sure you have an 'egg-stra' special Easter this year, so check out some of the best packages around, writes SANDRA O'CONNELL
Walks in Westport
If it’s exercise rather than eggs you’re after this Easter the four-star Carlton Atlantic Coast Hotel at Westport Quay has breaks with a choice of guided walks from Croagh Patrick Walking Tours on Easter Saturday and Sunday.
Stay for three nights and you get two walks, stay for two nights and you get one, with transport to and from the hotel provided.
The deal: three nights B&B, including one dinner and two walks costs €259. The two-night/one walk option costs €179, both based on two sharing.
- carlton.ie
Fairyhouse fun
Where were some of the capital’s citizens on Easter 1916? At the races of course. And if the Merrion Hotel has its way, this year that’s where you’ll be too.
On Easter Sunday and Monday (April 24th and 25th) the hotel is offering B&B in its Garden Wing plus chilled champagne on arrival and two tickets to the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse racecourse on Easter Monday.
The deal: the Merrion Hotel's "off to the races" package costs €150pps.
- merrionhotel.com
Mellow in Mallow
If you’d prefer to go racing in the Rebel County, however, Longueville House, a 20-bedroom Georgian country house hotel just outside Mallow, is offering a similarly themed break.
Stay for three nights B&B over Easter and the hotel will thrown in tickets to the Grand Stand at Cork Racecourse in Mallow. You’ll have to be quick, though, because the hotel require seven days notice for the tickets.
It’s a good weekend to go to Mallow – even apart from the horses – because there’ll be on-street entertainment, a bucking bronco and dunk tank, craft fairs and an Easter egg hunt.
The deal: three nights B&B in a double room, including race tickets, costs €265pps.
- longuevillehouse.ie
Links in Limerick
Adare Manor has gone for a different approach to the traditional Easter egg hunt this year by throwing in some Easter treasure too.
Hopefully, you won’t have to comb all of its 840 acres of woodland to find them but, alongside the brightly coloured eggs for the kids, the grown-ups will be on the lookout for jewellery prizes from Links of London.
The deal: two nights B&B over Easter starts at €250pps, with up to two under 12s sharing for free.
- adaremanor.com
Teens go too
For those with older kids the Clew Bay Hotel in Westport is a good option, being smart enough not to limit free places to under 12s, as in most hotels, but under 15s.
This Easter it has a two-night B&B family break package that includes either a two-day family pass to Westport House and Pirate Adventure Park, a one-day family bike hire on the Great Western Greenway, or dinner for two adults and two children on the night of your choice.
Hopefully, you won’t be asking the kids to choose between tickets or dinner, but it still gives you plenty of options.
The deal: two nights B&B for two adults and two children aged up to 15 at the Clew Bay Hotel costs €259 midweek and €299 at weekends.
- clewbayhotel.com
Complimentary in Connemara
Rosleague Manor, on the shores of Ballinakill bay in Connemara, near Letterfrack and handy for Clifden, has also gone the bundling route this Easter.
It is offering a three-night B&B stay, including two five-course evening meals and complimentary tickets for a choice of activities. Options include a 90-minute cruise along Killary fjord or a day trip to beautiful Inishbofin. You’d be mad not to do both.
The deal: the three-night Easter package, including choice of excursions, at Rosleague Manor costs €295pps.
- rosleague.com
Strictly grown-ups
This time the chocolate's not for kids. At the boutique Dylan Hotel in Dublin it's less Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryand more Chocolat.
Overnight Easter guests here are met with a complimentary chocolate bonanza assiette, an indulgent little concoction including chocolate dipped strawberries, brownies and truffles, washed down with a chocolate cocktail shot.
The deal: B&B over Easter starts at €84.50pps.
- dylan.ie
Easter in Omagh
How about joining in the celebrations at the fascinating Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, Co Tyrone?
Over the Easter weekend it is running a range of countryside activities from horse-drawn ploughing to crop sowing and turf cutting. A great family day out, youngsters can try their hand at spinning, basket weaving and rope making. If nothing else they’ll learn there’s more to skill than Nintendos.
Ask any of the “housewives” in the cottages and they’ll show you how to make soda bread or churn butter. There are lambs to feed, chicks to coo over and scarecrows to dress, as well as birds of prey demonstrations.
The deal: two nights at the nearby Corick House Hotel in Clogher, Co Tyrone, including breakfast and one evening meal, from £95pps (€107) at weekends.
- corickcountryhouse.com
Golden eggs
At Castlemartyr, the luxury hotel in east Cork, it is hiding not your run-of-the-mill Cadbury job, but a special golden Easter egg.
Okay, it’s not made of gold, but it’s still well worth hunting for because, if you find it, you get your entire Easter weekend break for free.
Even if you don’t get lucky there’s still plenty to enjoy, including a basket of Easter goodies on arrival, daily kids fun with a live Easter bunny plus high tea and movies each evening, with a complimentary nine-hole golf tournament on Easter Sunday morning for the grown-ups.
The deal: Easter weekend at Castlemartyr, including two nights B&B and one evening meal, costs from €300 per room, with one child under 12 staying free.
- dromolandcollection.ie
Farms for foodies
Alternatively, stay in nearby Ballymaloe House in Shanagarry, Co Cork this Easter and explore a 400-acre farm which has everything from peacocks to piglets. Enjoy a traditional piece of Simnel cake with your afternoon tea by the fire.
There is egg painting and bunny hunting and a sing-song in the drawingroom and, being Ballymaloe, you know the food will be good.
The deal: a three-night Easter package including dinner and B&B costs from €450pp, from April 22nd to 27th.
- ballymaloe.ie
Four nights of fun
Staying in the same neck of the woods, there are free Easter eggs for kids at Garryvoe Hotel, a four-star property overlooking Ballycotton Bay in east Cork.
If the weather doesn’t play ball in relation to the five miles of Blue Flag sandy beach on your doorstep, console the kids with the indoor splash pools.
The deal: four nights B&B plus dinner on two evenings costs €274 per adult based on two adults and two children under 12, with a supplement of €50 for each additional child.
- garryvoehotel.com
Easter mummies
If part of your plans this Easter include bringing the kids to Dublin for the Tutankhamun exhibition at the RDS, then check out the Herbert Park Hotel too.
Not only is it close to the exhibition entrance but, for a business hotel, it offers good value family packages.
A big part of the appeal here is the location, close, but not too close, to the city centre, and handy for a gander at the new Aviva Stadium.
The deal: for a couple with two kids under 12, the B&B rate at Herbert Park Hotel is €209 per night, including parking.
- herbertparkhotel.ie
Movie magic
Another school holiday, another kids' blockbuster. This Easter it's the suitably bunnyish HOPand the Aghadoe Heights in Killarney has built an Easter holiday break around it for kids to enjoy. What parents will enjoy is that kids stay for free.
The itinerary includes breakfast, a supervised HOP-inspired kids' tea with Easter egg painting, and dinner for their parents. From 5pm to 9pm it's kids' movie time, with hot dogs and popcorn.
Next day it's back out for an Easter egg hunt followed by a private screening of HOPat Killarney Cineplex, in an event that includes competitions for movie merchandising and goodie bags.
The deal: Aghadoe Heights' two-night Easter weekend package costs €295 per adult sharing.
- aghadoeheights.com
Speed Easter
It’s not all about families of course. Singles might like to check in to the D4 Berkeley Hotel on Easter Sunday evening for Singlelista – a salsa speed dating singles party in aid of the Hope Foundation.
The event begins with a wine reception followed by a speed dating event, salsa lessons and then a late DJ session so you can put your moves into action.
The clever ones will book into the hotel for the night, not because they’re hoping to get lucky, but because after all that they’ll be far too exhausted to drive home.
The deal: an overnight stay at the D4 Berkeley, including admission to Singlelista and breakfast next morning, costs €110 for a single ticket or €160 if you bring a mate.
- singlelista.ie
Late Easter, early summer
With Easter falling so late and running right up until the May bank holiday, a longer break now could make a very cost-effective alternative to a summer holiday.
If the last couple of years are anything to go by, the best of the weather comes round about now.
To really keep costs to a minimum, opt for self-catering. Trident Holiday Homes has properties in 60 locations around Ireland so there’s no shortage of options.
For an early seaside holiday check out Seacliff Holiday Homes in Dunmore East, Co Waterford, a good family location. For a tranquil riverside setting with the nightlife that you get from proximity to great pubs and restaurants, check out Grove Lodge in Killorglin, Co Kerry.
The deal: Trident Holiday Homes' 10-night special from Good Friday to the May bank holiday starts from €549.
- tridentholidayhomes.ie
Family fun
Mount Juliet in Kilkenny has been working on its activity menu with a view to making it more appealing to families.
On top of the horse-riding and golfing for which it is well-known, it has a fully equipped games room with everything from air hockey to Xbox. This year families can also enjoy a new range of off-site activities including surfing in Tramore, go-karting, and kayaking on the River Nore.
It’s introduced a “junior spa class” too, but hopefully the kids will be off having way too much fun outdoors to ask about it.
The deal: a week's self-catering over the Easter break, staying in one of its Rose Garden Lodges, costs €1,250 for a family of four. For €300 more, you can avail of breakfast at the hotel on top.
- mountjuliet.ie
Workshop chocs
There comes a time when even kids can discriminate between good chocolate and great chocolate. Those who have reached this particular age of reason are in for a particularly tasty treat at the Brehon Hotel when award winning French chocolatier (eggs-pert, n’est pas?) Benoit Lorge hosts a chocolate egg workshop on Easter Saturday.
Lorge has his own chocolatiers in Bonane, Co Kerry and the workshop, which is open to kids and parents staying at the hotel, is free. And for the totally cocoa-loco, there’s a chocolate afternoon tea and an Easter egg hunt too.
Don’t forget to check out the annual Tir na nOg Easter fest for kids in Tralee while you’re down there.
The deal: two nights at the Brehon this Easter weekend costs €189 per adult sharing and €75 per child, including breakfast and dinner on the night of your choice.
- thebrehon.com
