So any plans we had for (foreign) travel in 2021 are still on the back burner. We are hoping we will get away later in the year, we are currently looking to October, but it is going to depend on several different elements. Like last year though, we have booked a staycation kicking off in late July, however, depending on what restrictions are lifted, we may swing a night elsewhere before then, so stay tuned.

As part of our continuing staycation plans, our next stop is the island of Inishbofin, off the west coast of Connemara and you can check out all the details right here.

We’ve had plenty of nights in Dublin over the years but this is our first visit during Covid-19 and I managed to get a booking in one of the best restaurants in the country, The Greenhouse, which only re-opened two weeks previous so we’re really looking forward to it and we’re staying bang in the centre in the fancy Shelbourne Hotel and you can read all about it here.

No surprise, we’re doing the staycation thing.

After a small road trip back in March, we really had no interest in doing another for a while but it goes without saying and like a lot of people – a staycation is the sensible thing to do right now.  We packed up the car along with facemasks and hand sanitisers and hit the road…

This is our four night summer 2020 staycation and you can read it in it’s entirety by jumping over to here, or if you would like to read it one stop at a time, well you can at our starting point at Kilkea Castle and you can read about it here.  For our second night, we’re staying at Dunbrody House, home of celebrity chef, Kevin Dundon. Having read good things about Dunbrody House and the onsite cookery school we thought, why not – you can read about it here.

Our next night, we’re staying at a place we love – Ballymaloe house.  We’ve stayed a few times before and it’s always an enjoyable experience so let’s hope it hits the mark, you can read all about it here.

For our last night, we’re in the very popular town of Kinsale, Co. Cork.  As my first choice for our accommodation decided to remain closed until March 2021, I had to find somewhere else and Kinsale is always busy, so we’re staying at the Trident hotel, which was as I said not my first choice, or my next choice, or………well you get the idea.  You can check it out here.

Needless to say, our travel plans have taken a slight back seat for now.  We had been eyeing up a few days in Austria along with a trip to Slovenia and we had toyed with the idea of a short ski trip.  As the ski trip this year is not happening, I decided to publish a little beginners guide, of sorts, for anyone thinking on given skiing a go in the future – you can read about it here.

So with nothing really better to do, we decided to have a little road trip to Waterford for two nights, we stayed at the Cliff House Hotel in the village of Ardmore, which you can read about it here.  We also spent one night in Waterford Castle and if you’d like to read a bit more about it, hop over here.

It’s early day’s yet so hopefully our upcoming jaunts for May, June and July will be possible.

Three nights on the amazing Eastern & Oriental Express which you can read all about here.

This is our fantastic few days in Bangkok.

This is our amazing trip to the amazing Cook Islands.

To put it mildly this is one of these far-flung places that fall into the category of “once in a lifetime” for us mere mortals.  It’s also a long way from home and takes at least two long-haul flights to get here. We’ve got three of the islands to check out and we’re starting with the main one, Tahiti.  Then it’s on to the Island of Moorea.  Our final stop is the amazing island of Bora Bora.