If you're over 55, there's a collection of well priced holiday offers available in the Discover Ireland Golden Holidays brochure 1999/2000. It's sponsored by the Bank of Ireland, and golden years customers of that bank can enjoy a 10 per cent discount on the quoted rates.
These golden years holidays are available in December and January and, in fact, go right through until the end of June, 2000. They include a wide selection of hotels, from one to five star, as well as guesthouses and self-catering.
As one example from many, at the Hodson Bay Hotel near Athlone, during December and January, a three-night stay with full Irish breakfast each day and table d'hote dinner each evening costs just £100 per person, based on two people sharing a double or twin bedded room. The supplement for single occupancy of a double or twin room is £15 per night. The only time that this package isn't available is between December 24th and 27th and from December 31st until January 2nd.
Top range hotels in the brochure include the four star Rathmullan House in Co Donegal; the four star Corrib Great Southern in Galway; the four star Limerick Inn Hotel; the four star Knockranny House Hotel in Westport; the four star Tinakilly Country House Hotel and Restaurant in Co Wicklow and the five star Conrad International in Dublin. Most of the hotels taking part in the golden years programme are three star. Over 80 premises (hotels, guesthouses and self-catering) are included in the current brochure.
Accommodation standards are similarly good for both guesthouses and self-catering accommodation. A typical guesthouse is the three star Dun Mhuire guesthouse in Dunmanway, west Cork, where a seven-night stay in December or January costs £225 per person, including full Irish breakfast each day and table d'hote dinner each evening. At the four star Tralee Marina holiday apartments in Tralee, Co Kerry, you can have a very reasonably priced week or just a weekend during this month and next, indeed right through to next June. An apartment sleeping two people costs £70 for a two night weekend in either December or January.
So the Golden Holidays brochure offers lots of accommodation opportunities in most parts of the country, including Dublin for people living outside the capital. The counties with the most listings are Cork; Galway; Kerry; Mayo and Wexford.
The only qualification for these golden holidays breaks is age: once you are over 55, you qualify, with a further discount if you belong to the Bank of Ireland golden years scheme and you quote your golden years card number when you are making your booking. At this stage, the concept is very well established and it's an extremely popular way of enjoying the country or seaside, right through the winter, when rates are keenest.
In the brochure, Bord Failte also points out some of the range of things you can do throughout the country, including visiting all the sites of Duchas, the Heritage Service.
Figures from Bord Failte back up the extent to which over-55s enjoy holidays around Ireland. Statistics for 1998 show that 1,110,000 million domestic holiday trips or 16 per cent of the total were taken by people over 55-years-of-age.
Of the just over two million short holiday trips taken last year, 15 per cent were done by over-55s, who spent £72 million while on holiday in Ireland last year. The figures for last year also show that nearly half the over-55s stayed in hotels, with 26 per cent staying in guesthouses or bed and breakfast places. Rented accommodation or staying with friends or relatives each accounted for just 8 per cent, while 2 per cent stayed in their own holiday home.
