Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
Chapter 2: What are some budget-friendly travel tips?
Now, if you're looking for travel inspiration on a budget, my next guest has some suggestions that could cost you less than 500 euro. Barbara McCarthy is here, columnist with the Irish Independent. Hello, Barbara. Hello. You go on these micro trips. What's a micro trip?
Basically, you're home before anything in the fridge has gone off. Oh, I love it. So ideally, I'm a parent, so I like to do adventurous things and you have to do them in a short space of time. So I dropped my daughter to my mum. Ideally, you go somewhere for a night, wake up then, then you have a full day. So this is not a weekend.
No, weekends away are drinks and friends and liquid lunches and potentially taxis. Disaster.
So you can't do that on a budget. And also, if you're flying, it's going to be more expensive to go with the weekend. So you're trying to avoid that. Yes, always do that. So is a micro trip two nights away?
Yeah, I mean, you know, yes. I mean, we won't split hairs. Two nights is an idea. One full day is what you want.
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Chapter 3: What is a micro trip and how can it save money?
With a full day. And you can do a lot in a day. And if you plan ahead, like, for example, I love skiing. And I actually learned the first time I ever went skiing, I went for a day. And I just put skis on and a jumpsuit from the 1980s from my friend's mother and off we went.
And did you know how to ski?
No, that was 30 years ago.
Chapter 4: How can parents enjoy adventurous short trips?
He didn't even have a helmet on. It was kamikaze. So anyway, so but I do like I love skiing. So if you if you if you can't afford to go skiing, which is really expensive now. So you book the flights to Munich, you know, in August when you know, then you get a train from Munich to Bad Gastein. That's where I was. Buy it in increments. Do you know what I mean?
Buy your ski passes in whatever it is, November or, you know, and then get the ski higher after and get the train so that by the time you get there. all you need is really the day. Do you know what I mean?
I know, then it feels like it's free.
Yeah, it does, doesn't it? It's a free holiday, but it's kind of been over time.
So a lot of the success of these little micro trips comes down to planning well in advance. So you're doing nothing last minute, Barbara, are you?
No, but I always leave some time for kind of wonder and adventure and randomness as well. So, you know, I like we went, we used to go to the Grand Prix in Monaco and you can go there. You might be broke, but there's an abundance of wealth in Monte Carlo.
Well, this is the one that caused all the controversy this morning because I came in and I was talking to Anton Savage about what was coming up on the program. And I said, you can go to Monte Carlo for less than 500. He said, you can't. You can't. That's what he said. You can't. So tell him and everybody else how you do it.
Well, he's a man, so he's probably going to have dinner. So that's a no. People who eat steaks and dinners, men like to sit down and have a meal. No big dinners. No big dinners. You fly to... We used to go to Genoa via Stance. It was a big kind of, you know, expedition. I did hire a car at the beginning, you know, but you don't have to do that. So...
You get a train to Monton and stay in a hotel there and then no taxis or any kind of hoopers or anything like that. They are like extremely expensive.
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Chapter 5: What is the best way to plan a micro trip?
And I went from Leek Slip. I'm like, look at this magical, mystical Leek Slip. This is amazing. It's like David Attenborough, you know what I mean? Like in honour of his birthday. But we were walking to Arthur Guinness' final resting place. And I had my little nitro surge and a can of Guinness. And from my little nutribullet, the thing, it's exactly the size of the pint of Guinness.
So we drank that. Fantastic day.
You were on holidays.
On holidays yesterday, walking along the canal. And, you know, it's also good for, you know, if you go with older people, you know, my mum, for example, I could bring her there. It's all flat, walking along the canal. What's it called? The Village of Lions is there?
Yes, the Village of Lions. Yeah. And you went kayaking in Donegal on another one of your micro trips. I like the sound of this.
Okay, so I go out there with a chap called Ian Miller, who is an expert of the outdoors, especially sea stack climbing. So you go out on kayaks and you climb these kind of rock faces that come out of the sea.
You're a real adventurer, aren't you?
Yes, I'm very adventurous.
You climb things and you swim in places. So he has a company called Unique Ascent. Unique Ascent, yes. So he guides you on this journey. Climbing trip?
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Chapter 6: How can you travel to Monte Carlo on a budget?
So we went out to, I've done, I've gone up to Storrell with him. I've done rock climbing with him in Donegal. He's specifically, he's in Donegal. So we went out to, now the weather was fantastic. It was like 30 degrees. Like when would you ever get that? Yeah, that makes a huge difference, doesn't it? And we were on this island. I was like, this is like literally the famous vibe.
And then we went into this cave. which is underneath a, it's like there's a lake underneath a lake. So you kind of scramble down. I was like, I can't get my head around this. And then we went in the underneath lake on a paddle boat that he also had that he kind of inflated. And then we were like, at the very back of it, you go through this little thing and you're sitting in absolute darkness.
So you could be there for a hundred years and you would never, your eyes would never adjust. And you're sitting there, you're like, okay, this is as far from normality as I could possibly be. As you can get. Nobody knows where I am.
So what did you do there? A night and a day or two nights?
Yeah, two nights. Two nights.
And what did that cost?
Oh, God. You drive up to Donegal. It's a long stretch. And then I stayed in a place, I think it was like 50 for the night or something. 60 or something. Yeah. Yeah.
So a couple of hundred for the trip?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
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