With increasing prosperity in Ireland, holidaymakers are opting for the more comfortable options - and forking out thousands of euro to get what they want, writes Rosita Boland.

It's a term that could shortly be arriving at a pub-quiz near you: flashpacking. However, you wouldn't get any marks for guessing that it refers to someone who can fill a suitcase at top speed. It's the latest buzz word in the travel lexicon, and means roughly the opposite of backpacking: people travelling for extended periods, but doing it in moneyed style, staying in flash places such as posh hotels, rather than hostels or simple Asian guesthouses.

The Australia Travel Centre has been around for 25 years, handling international travel, and it has an office in Dublin. "Recently we have noticed that more people are going off for three months now, not a year," reports Yvonne Doyle, travel consultant. "They want to see the things backpackers see, but in more comfort."

Doyle thinks there are a few reasons for the new travel trend. "The employment situation in Australia is not as good as it was some years ago. People used to go there on a one-year working visa and then travel around afterwards. What we're finding now is that people are saving up beforehand, then going off for up to three months, just travelling, and they definitely have more money to spend."

They've also noticed an increase in teachers and nurses travelling in this way. "And lots of older people, those in their late 50s, 60s, who are realising they can go long haul for a few weeks, rather than travel only in Europe. They're becoming more adventurous as air travel gets cheaper. They would have been put off by the long flights before, but now it's so easy to break the journey along the way. And it's comfort all the way for them."

They find that the Australian market is enduringly popular, with all ages. Another offshoot of a generation on working-visa holidays, some of whom stayed and settled, are older family members going out to visit. "We're getting lots of parents who have kids out in Australia and they want to combine a visit to see them with a couple of weeks holidays. They are people who would never have travelled that far before."

At Trailfinders, Borneo and the Galapagos are currently attracting a lot of interest. "Australia is still our main long-haul destination, but we've had more inquiries about Borneo and the Galapagos lately than any other destinations," says Nicky Davis.

"But we find a lot of people are now travelling for three months on average, rather than a year. It's not just backpackers out there any more. Lots of people are telling us they're on a career break, or taking time off between jobs." They're finding the traditional round-the-world route through Australia, the Pacific and Los Angeles is now diversifying.

"People have more money and they're also going on add-on trips to Peru, Chile, and Africa. Africa is huge; everyone wants to go to Africa. And because they also have an option to pre-book accommodation through us, we can see the sort of hotels they are choosing and they definitely are spending more money. The new trend is to build in a safari in South Africa, and that starts at €290 a head per day, and can go up to anything."

At London-based Kumuka, they specialise in offering truck-based tours of Africa from two to eight weeks, with their most popular route being Nairobi to Zanzibar. Reservations manager Charlie Bridger has noticed a change in what customers now want from a long haul trip.

"A lot of them don't want to be camping, and free camping in Africa would always have been part of the Kumuka experience," she says. "People don't want to go more than one day without a hot shower, and that tends to restrict your itinerary. People want more comforts now when travelling, and it's a trend we've noticed in feedback at the end of trips in the last two years.

"The thing they want most is a hot shower every day, regardless of where in the wilderness they are." Bridger is philosopical. "You have to give people what they want, but - in my opinion - it sanitises the travel experience," she says.