Electric Picnic is a boutique festival held every September at the 18th-century Stradbally Hall, it’s as famous for its eclectic music line-up as its food and hot tubs, teepees, gourmet grub and family campsites.

Cape Byron Headland Reserve offers walking tracks through spectacular beaches and beautiful and rare coastal vegetation. Visit the Cape Byron Lighthouse, built in 1901, above the cliff at mainland Australia's most easterly point. The view is magnificent in every direction, from the Cape Byron Marine Park and vast Pacific Ocean to the verdant hinterland. Look out for dolphins, turtles, wallabies and whales in season. At dawn, marvel at the glorious sunrise.

For many, golf is a party of the vacation, and sometimes it can be hard to combine with the rest of the family. De Tongelreep invites you to a fun and challenging 9 hole course.

County Kildare is home to the windswept Bog of Allen, and to a leisurely section of the restored Royal Canal. There’s a masterpiece of an 8th-century High Cross in Moone. Maynooth Castle anchors the leafy university town of the same name. Kildare is also home to one of Ireland’s great driving routes. Following the course of the Gordon Bennett Cup, which saw racing daredevils whizz through Kildare, Carlow and Laois in 1903, the 104-mile circuit recalls a time when Ireland’s speed limit was just 12mph. The county is a marvellous mix of old and new, of natural landscapes and precisely manicured gardens, of horseracing competitions and stylish fashion events.