5 Of The Best Museums And Exhibits To Visit In Dublin

After winter made a couple of extra encores in Britain this year, summer has finally arrived. It's time to book some friends and pack your bags for a weekend of unbridled joy, with live music, dress-ups and fairground rides, plus performance poets, world food and pop-up hot-tubs – the UK’s music festivals are worth planning a holiday around. 

Medallia’s and Kantar’s partnership with Virgin Atlantic has been awarded the “Best Use of Customer Insight” accolade.

Halifax is a harbor town. A narrow neck opens up to the protected waters of Bedford Basin, making it ideal as a naval and shipping port. Before Europeans arrived, this body of water was a sanctuary and home to Indigenous Mi’kmaq for millennia.

Photographer Martin Parr’s 1999 film Think of England captures the nostalgic appeal of Weymouth: roast dinners at seafront B&Bs, pensioners with cones of Mr Whippy, the carousel whirling to the familiar tune of the funfair organ. “It’s not a resort that needs a lot of razzmatazz,” says the man sitting in front of a “Sorry, No Vacancies” sign.

The Albion hotel, which can lay claim to some of the best sea views on the island, has been welcoming guests to Freshwater Bay since Victorian times. It is about to reopen under new ownership after a multimillion-pound refurbishment. The new-look Albion will have 40 rooms, 36 of them sea-facing, including two suites, seven dog-friendly rooms and two accessible rooms. Some have roll-top baths and balconies or terraces. The Rock is its new 100-seater restaurant, which sources more than 90% of ingredients from the island, including garlic, tomatoes, fish, lobster and meat. A free shuttle bus drops off and picks up guests from local bars and restaurants. The hotel is about a 10-minute drive from Yarmouth ferry port.Opens in June, taking bookings for 19 June, doubles from £99 B&B (two‑night minimum), albionhotel.co.uk

Dog-friendly year-round but with an on-leads rule between 1 April and 31 August to protect ground-nesting birds, Holkham beach is a brilliant family destination. The walk down to the golden sand is enchanting – along boardwalks and through pine forest – and there’s a cafe serving homemade sandwiches and cakes. Lots of great local walks too. Stay pet-friendly Sueda Cottage, with its own walled garden, is a minute’s walk from the harbour and pub. From £89a night (sleeps 4, plus two dogs)

Pegasus Airlines continues to expand its international network with direct flights connecting Ankara Esenboğa Airport and Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland.

In Part 1 of this wellness and travel report, I look at the new holistic and scientific spaces that have opened up in London.

Wild Canvas, one of the recent wave of pop-up campsites with a festival vibe, has a host of new additions for its fifth outing this summer. The campsite makes the most of its riverside setting on the Turvey House Estate near Bedford. It has a new wellness area, the Nest, with direct river access (BYO paddleboard!) plus a yoga yurt, a mobile sauna, a treatment tent for massages and free early-morning activities from meditation to boot camp.

In the serene countryside of County Kildare, Ireland, amidst rolling hills and ancient castles, lies a hidden gem that attracts visitors from around the globe — the Museum of Style Icons (MOSI) at Newbridge Silverware, Ireland’s premier silverware producer. This cultural treasure trove, founded by CEO William Doyle and his wife Monica, offers a captivating journey through the realms of fashion, film, and popular culture from Hollywood’s good old days.

I have to admit that on trips to Thailand and China I was not adventurous when it came to lunch and dinner. I must have set a record for ordering vegetable pad Thai in Thailand. But with May now officially Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we should take advantage of restaurants offering these tasty cuisines in the Times Square area.

Belfast did not have the best of starts to 2024. Never mind the mass public sector strikes, the not-unrelated fact of Northern Ireland being without a functioning government (the government returned, the strikes were settled, or suspended … for now), at the end of January, one of the city’s most respected – revered – publicans, Pedro Donald, who over the years had brought us the John Hewitt, La Boca, the Sunflower and the American Bar, announced that he was leaving for Amsterdam. There may not be bombs and bullets any more, he said, but Belfast was “a dump and derelict”. Indeed, apart from a few good years between the Good Friday agreement and the financial crash, the city was in many ways no further on than when he started in the trade in 1984.