10 quick trips: the back to school runaway

Polish up your act at a spa
Not got much time? Grab a friend and book a Girlie Pamper Package at stately Carton House in Co Kildare. Stay a night and chill out with complimentary cocktails on arrival. Catch up – without any interruptions – over a three-course meal in its Linden Tree Restaurant. Then take your pick from a choice of spa treatments including a facial, a massage or a mani-pedi. Or go the whole hog and opt for its Rosemary Mint Awakening Body Wrap, perfect to get you primed for all the early morning school runs ahead. From €180 per person sharing, including breakfast. cartonhouse.com

Some Madeira m'dear?
Get the last of the summer wine, or even port, and make the most of the great-value holidays on offer now that the kids can't be expected to go with you. A week at the four-star Four Views Monumental hotel in Madeira's capital, Funchal, which has indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, a spa and lots of restaurants nearby, is a great way to explore. Walk the levadas – the island's famous irrigation channel walks – take boat trips and scuba dive. Or simply kick back and soak up enough rays to do you through the winter. It costs from €719 self-catering, ex-Dublin departing September 22nd. thomascook.ie

Be a Dublin drama queen
If there's too much kitchen sink and not enough drama in your life, rebalance the scales at the Dublin Theatre Festival.

This year's promises a bumper crop including the world premiere of Frank McGuinness's The Hanging Garden, a new production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and lots of free stuff as part of Festival+. The Westbury Hotel has a package from €360, which includes one night accommodation, a two-course dinner and two tickets to Wunderkammer around the corner at the Gaiety Theatre. The show is billed as a "cocktail of circus and burlesque, full of energy, passion and emotion". Bit like yourself so.
doylecollection.com

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Westport Food Festival

Get some rest in Kenmare
Forget Oktoberfest, think OctoberRest, a dedicated mind, body, spirit break on offer at the plush Park Hotel in Kenmare, Co Kerry. With it you get two nights' bed and breakfast with dinner on one evening plus a yoga guru to guide you through a two-day bendy, stretchy programme for your body. There are bicycles to help you relax your mind by whizzing through the National Park too. After that you can enjoy a whiskey-tasting tutorial from the in-house expert. That's the spirit part looked after. From €345 per person sharing. parkkenmare.com

Retail therapy in Norn Iron
Northerners are always banging on about how expensive things are on this side of the border, so why not find out for yourself, in the interests of research obviously. As well as shopping spots such as Belfast's Victoria Square and CastleCourt centres, don't miss the bargains at outlet centres such as Junction One and the Outlet Village, both of which are about half an hour's drive from Belfast and offer brand names at up to 70 per cent off. To really immerse yourself, stay over in the Holiday Inn Express, which is in Junction One. A two-night shopping deal including dinner, wine and discount vouchers for stores from £140 per room. hiexantrim.co.uk

Tour the Tirol
Let someone else worry about cooking the dinners, making the beds and doing the taxi runs for a change. After the summer you've had, it's high time you got to sit in the back and make demands. The best way to do that is on an escorted holiday. Check out Stay & Explore Austria, which offers a week's escape from your very own Von Trapps, staying in picturesque St Johann surrounded by Alpine peaks and valleys, with The Sound of Music on a permanent loop in your head. The break includes full-day excursions to Salzburg and Innsbruck, trips to sights such as the Swarovski Crystal Worlds and the spectacular Krimml waterfalls. From €669, departing September 5th. topflight.ie

Bag a bargain, do a deal
If all the new shoes, books and uniforms have left your bank account seriously depleted, don't despair. There are bargain breaks to be had if you sign up for some of the country's best-known "deals" websites.

Now, for example, DealRush is offering 50 per cent off stays in hotels such as the Midleton Park Hotel in Cork, which means it costs €82 per person for a two-night stay, with 10 per cent off food in its bistro and 20 per cent off treatments in its wellness centre.

The deal, which was on sale at time of writing, is subject to availability, with certain dates blocked, and it expires on November 26th. The hotel is a great spot from which to visit Cobh Heritage Centre, Fota House and Gardens, and Barryscourt Castle.

Living Social, for example, has a two-night deal for two at the Aherlow Lodge hotel, which looks out over the Galtee Mountains in Co Tipperary, from €89. You can do the maths, but that's not much more than a pair of school shoes.
dealrush.ie, livingsocial.com.

Put the fun back in food
Have you run out of recipes? Are you tired of cooking? Dreading lunch boxes? Catering for kids can take the fun out of food, so why not replenish your enthusiasm at a food festival.

As befits harvest time there are lots of options over the next few weeks. These include the Westport Food Festival (September 6th-8th), Waterford Harvest Food Festival (September 9th-15th), Clarenbridge Oyster Festival (September 13th-15th), Drogheda Food Festival (September 13th-15th), Taste of West Cork (September 6th-15th), Macroom Food Festival (September 27th-29th) and the Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival (September 26th-29th).

Two nights' bed and breakfast at the Clew Bay Hotel in Westport, including a cocktail and a three-course festival dinner, costs from €175 per person sharing.
clewbayhotel.com

Catch a cruise
The autumn will net you some of the best value in cruises, which just happens to be the perfect option when it gets too chilly for the beach.

How about a Mediterranean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas? The ship stops at Naples, Valletta, Sardinia, Palma, Valencia and Barcelona, so it's a geography and a history lesson combined. The package, which includes a night in a four-star hotel in Barcelona, full board on the ship and Aer Lingus flights, departs November 3rd and is priced from € 1,029 based on two sharing.

So all you have to do is find another frazzled Mum or Dad to go with – and there's no shortage of those.
traveldepartment.ie