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Riviera trail around Europe

6th March 20246th March 2024 funtime65

We all know about the French Riviera but here we are across the Riviera trail around Europe… all for you.

We have, of course, Rivieras on this island of ours.

The Scottish Riviera (Dumfries and Galloway in the south-west, and that includes my childhood haunt of Castle Douglas, if I’m allowed back!)

The English version, south-west again, around Torbay in Devon, the Welsh one, around the Italianate Portmeirion in the north.

Hit the coast

Ireland’s on the Sunny South Coast, the Athens Riviera in Greece, Portugal’s to the west of Lisbon.

And Riviera being an Italian word obviously the Italian one between France and Tuscany.

Of course if you want to you can blag it yourself, better though leaving it to experts which is where Riviera Travel come in.

Fresh to our schedule is RT’s European 2025 programme.

With seven new tours for Irish guests, departing from April to October 2025.

And a lower maximum group size of 36 people on its Classic tours.

Tours go on sale on March 13, with a pre-sale open today, March 6.

Forza Italia

Sicily – eight days, with a guided tour of Greek ruins in the Valley of the Temples, and visits to Taormina and Mount Etna. Prices from €1929pp.

Florence & Tuscany – eight days, with sightseeing tours of Florence and Siena, reserved timed visit to the Uffizi art gallery, visits to Lucca and Pisa, and tour of the Tuscan countryside. Prices from €1839pp

Classical Italy – eight days, with guided tours of Rome, Siena and Florence, and a guided walking tour of Arezzo. Prices from €1819pp.

* Krakow – four days, with a guided walking tour of Krakow, and Wawel Royal Castle District, and optional tours of Auschwitz-Birkenau and salt mines. Prices from €839pp.

Further afield

Classic Greece – eight days, with walking tours of the Parthenon and the Acropolis Museum, as well as Olympia, Delphi, and visits to Athens and Nafplion. Prices from €2129pp.

Austrian Tyrol & Innsbruck – eight days, with a sightseeing tour of Innsbruck, the Achensee Cog Railway, and a choice of a guided walking tour of Bolzano or visit to see Oetzi at the Museum of Archaeology. Prices from €2109pp.

Dubrovnik & the Dalmatian Coast – eight days, with a guided tour of Dubrovnik, a visit to Krka National Park, a tour of Split, and a visit to Trogir and the Dalmatian Coast. Prices from €1979pp.

And ones we prepared before

A series of existing tours are also on sale for 2025:

Puglia, Lecce & Vieste – Undiscovered Italy

Lake Como, St Moritz & the Bernina Express

Classical Spain

Pompeii, Capri & the Bay of Naples

Lake Maggiore, Orta & the Matterhorn

Lake Garda, Venice & Verona

Spain’s Basque Country, La Rioja & Burgos

Deal us in

Guests who book by 30 April can save €100 on all 2025 Classic tours of six nights or longer.

All departures include return flights and transfers, accommodation, tours and visits, select meals and an expert tour manager throughout.

Countries, Ireland, Sport

Rugby Men of Munster

4th May 20234th May 2023 funtime65

Now you know those historic moments where everybody says they were there, well add to them the Rugby Men of Munster.

The Irish province who defeated Graeme Mourie’s all-conquering All Blacks team of 1978 which beat England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

But not the 15 rugby men of Munster losing 15-0 on a fevered afternoon in Thomond Park, Limerick.

All of which propelled that stadium and Munster rugby onto the international conscience.

And which they have built on in the professional era with multiple European competition successes.

Limerick Roar

The Great and Good of rugby were all there for the launch of the six-storey International Rugby Experience.

Including the Sex God himself Johnny Sexton and other Irish greats Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Keith Wood and Peter Stringer.

And from the women’s game, Joy Neville and Ciara Griffin.

The legendary AB Sean Fitzpatrick (really an Irishman in black), Francois Pienaar, and even greats from the Old Enemy were there…

Martin Johnson, Jeremy Guscott and Matt Dawson.

Tickets are priced at just €10 for children (under 18) and €15 for adults.

Gallery of Ledges

Individuals and families can discover what it takes to Become a Legend.

Others will have been following how cult hero Ross O’Carroll-Kelly has been doing it… although for him this is enemy territory.

Visitors will move through six, awe-inspiring stages inside the state-of-the-art building.

Jock Peggie, Head of Education, Laws and Compliance at World Rugby (must be one of ours) is in charge of the interactive experience.

And being six floors there are 360-degree views of Limerick city centre from the sixth floor Legends Gallery.

As is the way with everything in Limerick, multi-millionaire JP McManus’s largesse has played a big part in the project.

The not-for-profit venture was initially funded via a €30 million investment by the JP McManus Charitable Foundation.

The International Rugby Experience tours, gift store and cafe will be open seven days a week; 9.30am to 6pm, with the last tour starting at 4.30pm.

And remember Munster men and women will tell you Real Ireland is out here.

And you can find out for yourself by flying into nearby Shannon Airport… give it a try.

Countries, Culture, Europe, Food & Wine, Ireland

Paddy’s Day Snaps Pt1 – Johnnie Fox hooley

17th March 202117th March 2021 funtime65

Sláinte… sure aren’t we all Irish today anyway, St Paddy’s Day, Ireland’s national day?

Paddy’s Day, of course, will be different this year with the streets of Ireland (and the world) empty.

But that just allows the whole world to link arms and party.

Fantastic Johnnie Fox

It’s something of a tradition to take relatives and friends up to Johnnie Fox’sin the Dublin Mountains.

At any given time but particularly on St Paddy’s Day.

This year one of Ireland’s fieriest firecrackers, Bláithnaid Ní Chofaigh will be throwing the hooley.

It will be livestreamed from Johnnie’s and also Dick Mack’s in Dingle and The Duke of York in Belfast.

And there will even be some Riverdance thrown in.

There’s also a Guinness demo on how to pour the perfect pint which I know how to do from Vegas of all places. And to drink it.

And someone has greened up for today: At the Duke of York

The party which Tourism Ireland are putting on will be on your screens from 7pm-8.30pm here in Europe and 9.30pm-11pm in North America.

Go to the Facebook page, YouTube or Ireland.com. I know what I’ll be watching.

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, Music, UK

Rainydays and Songdays – the American musical

9th November 20209th November 2020 funtime65

Give my regards to Broadway, Remember me to Herald Square, Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street, that I will soon be there.

Because it’s come to my notice that they’re making a movie out of Hamilton for release next year and we’ve been binge-watching musicals during lockdown.

I’m taking a Yankee Doodle Dandy dander through the American musical with a stop-off in London’s West End and Dublin’s Theatreland too.

Come all: Come From Away. www.broadway.com

Away, away, away, away

Come From Away: Which is all visitors coming into North America anyway.

These ones, of course, were the 38 planeloads who had to land in the small Newfoundland town of Dander after 9/11.

And found out a lot more about each other as I did when I saw it in Denver.

We all come from far away and have become friends over the years at IPW, the American Travel Fair, who bring the best of Broadway to whichever town is in town.

And here’s one from the show worth coming for…. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p8JI70eXjG8.

Peak form? Wicked. https://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/

Wicked stuff

And this one cones to you from Dublin and New York and Oz.

Which is, of course, the thing about musicals, they transform you to other lands.

Dublin was where Disney on Broadway invited us to take in Wicked.

But if you can’t get to the show this will warm your heart up… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HEnQY_66GZc

She’s all heart: The Carole King Musical. www.broadwaydirect.com

King of London City

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical: I felt the earth move when I caught the story of the greatest female songwriter of all time in London.

And that was just from my kids holding an unsanctioned party back in Greystones in Co. Wicklow in Ireland.

And our next-door neighbour texting us to tell us they had called the Gardai

Didn’t stop me throwing shapes though. It could wait until I got home before I threw my weight around!

And Carole.., What a natural woman!

All you need is…, Las Vegas. www.cirquedesoleil.com

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

The Beatles LOVE: And this being Cirque de Soleil you just know it will be an interactive experience.

With trapeze artists and dancers twirling about… Vegas, baby!

All to the background of Liverpool‘s finest, the Fab Four.

And you’ll be lucky and see a guy in the sky with diamonds (or sequins at least).

Of course, the best musical is the one about a half-Scottish New Yorker who made good and led his country to great things.

This is my pick from the various productions out there.