Departure Lounge: Head for a real-life Italian hideaway in Maratea
Santevenere At Hotel Room A
A real-life Italian hideaway with incredible views (and fewer crowds), the little town of Maratea is home to Hotel Santavenere.
Re-opening for the season on April 24, come for a slice of the dolce vita in this charming cliffside retreat designed as an aristocratic villa overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Fresh from a refurb, and with just 34 rooms, it’s an intimate and romantic place with 19th-century Italian glamour in mind.
Maratea is an ideal place to enjoy the landscape by walking, cycling, and kayaking, and the hotel can arrange yoga, picnics, and food tours.
- B&B from €169. s antavenere.ie
Icelandair’s sale runs until March 18, so be quick. They’re currently offering discounted flights from Dublin to the land of fire and ice, along with New York, Boston, and Seattle.
Dublin-Reykjavik return fares from €149pp, with return sales fares from Dublin to Boston, Baltimore, New York, and Washington from €349 per person.
The travel period varies based on departure and arrival point.
If our recent review of Mount Congreve’s Gate Lodge didn’t whet your appetite for a new escape, we’re sure news of Ireland’s Forest Hotel will. Mount Congreve Gardens in Waterford is adding five forest eco-cabins, two lodges, and two apartments to its leafy enclave.
The self-catering lodges offer adult-only accommodation, while the new Scandi-style cabins will be family-friendly. Sitting inside Mount Congreve’s private 70-acre gardens, guests receive “the keys to the gardens” to enjoy after visiting hours. Couples cabin from €175 per night for two people sharing, family cabins from €229.
Plan a luxurious escape to the Greek isles with a four-night stay at All Senses Nautica Blue Exclusive Resort on Fanes, Rhodes.
The all-inclusive package (€285 per person) departs from Dublin Airport with Ryanair.
The five-star modern resort is right by the sea and is surrounded by pretty gardens.
If you’ve yet to experience the charms of Ile de Ré, close to la Rochelle, we highly recommend remedying that.
Perennially fashionable, yet far more low-key than the Riviera, there are 140km of cycle paths, pretty villages, quiet beaches and the elegant port town with its cobbled streets.
Book a stay in L’Hotel de Toiras, a restored 17th-century merchant’s house with 18 individually-designed guest rooms and suites. It’s impossibly elegant and chic.
- Rooms from €320, hotel-de-toiras.com