Just because aircraft might be grounded this summer, you don't have to be. SANDRA O'CONNELLhas 10 plane-free options for a great vacation
Life’s a beach near Calais
If the ash cloud stops you from flying, the only way to get off the island, bar swimming, is by ferry. PO, Stena Line and Irish Ferries can get a car plus driver from Dublin to Liverpool or Holyhead from €69 or €79. Less than four hours’ driving later you could be in Folkestone, departure point of the Eurotunnel shuttle trains. From here it’s a short hop to Calais – fares start at £55 (€65) one way – and the chic coastal resort of Le Touquet. A popular spot for holidaying Parisians, it has good sandy beaches and lots of family-friendly sporting activities, including a good water park. Book your accommodation with Eurotunnel and you can get up to 70 per cent off, with hotel rooms in Le Touquet starting at €28pps per night.
- 01-4073434, poirishsea.com; 01-2047777, stenaline.ie; 0818-300400, irishferries.com; 00-33-3-21002061, eurotunnel.com
Fly overland with Eurostar
Alternatively, make your way to London and board the Eurostar at St Pancras International. The high-speed train will have you in Paris just over two hours later, and from there the world – or at least the European part of it – is your lobster. Its extensive rail hub can get you to all the main European cities you could care to visit. Or stay in France and, for return fares starting at €64, connect with TGVs to Avignon, Marseilles, Nîmes or Montpellier, to almost guarantee you get your sunshine quota this summer.
- Return fares from London to Aix-en- Provence start at £119 (€140); eurostar.com. James Villas has a three-bedroom farmhouse-style villa with pool on the outskirts – ask for Verlaque – for €2,989 for a week
Goof off at Disney
Eurostar can also get your family direct to the one place where the sun always shines – even when it isn’t. Disneyland Resort Paris has enough going on to keep the kids entertained for a month, not to mind a measly week. What’s more, while the ticket prices are enough to make you speak like Donald Duck if you just turn up at the gate, the package deals when you stay at the resort add up to much better value. Opt for Disney’s half-board meal plan and save even more.
- Disney (disneylandparis.ie) has several promotions this summer, including 40 per cent off hotels and park tickets, with under-sevens staying – and playing – for free
Hang 10 in Biarritz
Brittany Ferries’s Pont-Aven set a new standard in ferries when it was launched on the Cork-Roscoff route, a few years ago. With its pool, restaurants and cinema, it’s like a mini cruise ship. It’s also the fastest ship from Ireland to France. You arrive in Roscoff early in the morning, ready to head down France’s western spine, from where your holiday options multiply. If you’re really up for a long drive, don’t stop until you get to Biarritz, 600km away near the Spanish border, and famous for its surfing.
- Brittany Ferries's Cork-Roscoff sailing costs €1,584 for a family of five going out on July 3rd and returning on July 16th, including car and two two-berth cabins each way (brittanyferries.ie). A week in a six-berth mobile home at Camping Le Ruisseau des Pyrénées (00-33-5-59419450, camping-le-ruisseau.fr), a four-star site near the beach at Bidart, starts at €690 in July
Catch the sun on Île de Ré
If you’re less keen on a mammoth drive, cut the journey in half by stopping at Île de Ré, the chic resort beloved of the French, near La Rochelle. Flat as a pancake, the island is criss-crossed by paths and trails, making it great for cycling. But it’s more famous for its sunshine, getting as many hours, on average, as the country’s Mediterranean coast.
- Two adults and three children can take a car on Irish Ferries (irishferries.com) from Rosslare to Roscoff, with cabins – and a bonus crossing to Britain thrown in – for €1,568. French Affair (00-44-20-73818519, frenchaffair.com) has a four-bedroom house, sleeping six, close to the beach at La Couarde-sur-Mer for €1,357 for a week in July
Spain by train
Spain is the top destination for Irish holidaymakers, and not even a lack of flights is likely to stop us getting there. Thankfully, there are alternative options if you make your way to Britain. Once you get from London to Paris on Eurostar, for example, you can take the Elipsos Trenhotel to Madrid or Barcelona, with connections for just about anywhere Ryanair or Aer Lingus might have brought you, including Alicante, Malaga and Valencia. Or bring the car to Britain and travel from Plymouth or Portsmouth to Santander aboard Pont-Aven.
- Fares for the sleeper train from Paris to Barcelona (elipsos.com or renfe.es) start at £66 (€77) per person each way in a four-berth sleeper. Fares from Britain to Spain with Brittany Ferries (brittanyferries.ie) start at £112 (€132) for a car and two passengers
Cruise control from Dublin
If you can't fly and you won't drive, the best option remaining might be a cruise. Strictly for grown-ups, this one: the Garden Coast Cruise, on Spirit of Adventure, leaves Dublin on Sunday, June 13th. Gardening experts will be aboard to give lectures and accompany you to some of the most beautiful gardens in Ireland and Britain, up as far as the Orkney Islands. And in case you are worried about continued volcanic activity, disembarkation is in Dover and you travel home by coach, so no worries there either.
- The 10-night cruise, including all meals, excursions and transfers, starts at £1,716 (€2,010) for a twin inside cabin. Contact John Galligan Travel (01-2076555, jgt.ie)
Costa Cornwall
The country’s newest ferry operator, Fastnet Line, is offering family discounts on its sailings between Cork and Swansea this summer. Book by next Thursday to sail in June and pay only for the driver and the car – one extra grown-up and up to three children go free. From there it’s a manageable 160km to Cornwall, 80 per cent of which is surrounded by water, resulting in no less than 700km of coastline and 300 beaches. Make like the Famous Five and book your accommodation on a working farm through Cornish Farm Holidays – with, no doubt, smugglers’ tunnels to explore and mysteries to solve, like who ate all the pasties.
- Fastnet (021-4378892, fastnetline.com) has fares from €99 each way on weekdays, plus a cabin (from €49 each way) or Pullman seat (from €17 each way). Cornish Farm Holidays (00-44-845-6028843, cornishfarm holidays.co.uk) has seven nights at Pulla Cottage, a traditional two-bedroom house between Truro and Falmouth, with four beds and a cot, for £405 (€480) for the week starting June 5th
Cruise the Med
Take a cruise this summer and you may never fly again. Certainly, you’ll probably never find a more relaxed way to cover more ground. Royal Caribbean International’s Mediterranean Treasures tour departs Southampton on July 31st for a 14-day epic taking in Gibraltar, Cannes, Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Lisbon and Vigo, with inside cabins available from Iglu Cruise for £1,799 (€2,100), including all the food you can eat. Beat that, Ryanair. The same ship can get you to the Canaries on September 1st for a 10-night cruise from Southampton that takes in Madeira, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Vigo along the way. Prices here start at €1,577.
- Iglu Cruise is on 00-44-20-85446620, iglucruises.com, or book direct with Royal Caribbean on 1800-555604 or by visiting royalcaribbean.ie
Camp it up
Or bring your holiday home with you, snail fashion. Get a good deal on a camper van and you can save a fortune on car hire and accommodation, with facilities in some vehicles so good they’ll give your own home a run for its money. What’s more, if you’re picking up a camper van abroad, you only have to pay foot-passenger rates on the ferry over, which saves money, too. Two- to six-berth vehicles are available, many with bells and whistles ranging from GPS to satellite TV, but expect them to book out fast this year the longer the volcano rumbles on.
- Worldwide Motorhome Hire has a five-berth camper bookable online, to be picked up at a choice of French locations, for €2,840 for 14 days from July 10th. worldwide- motorhome-hire.com