Gavin Cummiskey offers some compelling reasons for you to go and join your local GAA club

Winter holidays, which are embedded as the bonus for intercounty panels that have had successful championship campaigns, are now being replicated at club level, with the Leinster champions in both football and hurling, Kilmacud Crokes and James Stephens, venturing abroad in the coming weeks.

Crokes contemplated Egypt but the Stillorgan lads settled for a week in Lanzarote from January 7th to recharge the batteries ahead of their All-Ireland club semi-final against Connacht champions Salthill-Knocknacarra on February 19th, potentially taking place in Tullamore.

The Kilkenny champions from The Village are spreading their wings even farther with a skiing holiday in Austria, despite the slopes being a perilous choice for any sportsperson.

The Kilkenny senior panel, reigning Leinster and national league champions, are already back from their travels after a five-day trip to Barcelona last month, when they took in a Champions League encounter at the Nou Camp. A goal from Ronaldinho helped Barca to a 3-1 victory over Werder Bremen in front of 85,000.

It clashed with James Stephens' preparations for the Leinster club final against UCD, meaning the likes of Eoin Larkin and Peter Barry must be satisfied with just the one break.

The Galway hurlers may have been outclassed by Cork in September but they take the holiday gong with a trip to China.

"No training," laughed Conor Hayes, "Sure, there's not too many hurling pitches in China."

Not yet anyway. Those Galway boys may start an epidemic or maybe they have knowledge of ash plantations on the outer margins of Shanghai.

"Our county board secretary had been sounding out places to go immediately after Christmas so we can get back to training straight after," explained Hayes.

"A package deal to Beijing and Shanghai was on offer so that's where we're off to from December 29th to January 9th. It's a long haul but we hear they are lively destinations."

The routine for most panels is to get back in time for the January graft. Also, the Christmas period is ideal for players and their partners to get time off work or college.

"The lads are all in the gym at present, individually ticking over," added Hayes. "We were tempted to take them back and tear into it before the holiday, but most have been with their clubs for a while so we didn't want to take the edge off them after a good year."

All-Ireland football champions Tyrone are a close second in the originality stakes as they depart for Jamaica on St Stephen's Day for a well-earned fortnight break after their 10-game odyssey to the steps of the Hogan Stand.

Like Galway, they will hit the ground running on their return as county PRO Brendan Harkin explains: "The first set of trials take place this Saturday for players hoping to break into next year's panel.

"The final set takes place on January 18th when the remaining youngsters and a few senior players will play an All Star club selection. Whoever does well will be kept on for the McKenna Cup."

The innovative Galway and Tyrone destinations denied Cork a three-in-a-row for the best holiday after the Rebels set the benchmark with trips to Vietnam and New Zealand.

On December 29th John Allen, Seán Óg and co depart for South Africa - a popular destination for Kilkenny, Dublin, Westmeath, Laois and Kerry in recent times. Cape Town being the headquarters for each panel.

Dublin may head off on a weekend trip but travel vouchers are available for individuals to do their own thing.

The Kerry footballers are keeping relatively low-key with a weekend break together in New York.

The Vodafone All Star hurling trip to Singapore departs on January 18th, and there's an exhibition game between the 2004 and 2005 selections three days later at the local Polo Grounds. Exoticism has been the byword for this junket with Buenos Aires, Las Vegas, Dubai, San Diego and Hong Kong clocking up the GAA air miles.

Women's football is not so fortunate. Despite winning the All-Ireland title for the first time in their history, Cork players are organising their own fundraising campaign. They hope to go to Lanzarote for a warm-weather training camp in April.

The All-Ireland camogie champions also came from Cork this year and they too are fundraising for their trip to North Africa. The county board purchased a table at their corporate lunch.