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Posts Tagged ‘Magical Midlands’

Our AirBnB experience

Posted in Home, tagged , , , , , on January 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

Our neighbourhood is not a natural tourist destination, nor is it promoted as a tourist destination.  It is quite a hidden gem… almost a secret gem.  So we are delighted to receive the guests who do come our way.

our home

We have met some really lovely people… as has been said so often by guests “we came as strangers and left as friends”.  Perhaps, it is our listing, our reviews, or our location that attracts like-minded people!  We’ve had people from all parts of the world come stay, and many the lively conversation that’s been had over the kitchen table at dinner.

We often wish we could both persuade more people to come, and persuade those who do come to stay for longer.  The #MagicalMidlands has so much to offer – magnificent historical destinations; activities like cycling, hiking, fishing and walking; and, of course, beautiful scenery.

We like to think that by being hosts we are helping our community, bringing tourists to this wonderful part of Ireland, boosting the local economy just a little bit… and, of course, introducing guests to the ‘social dancing’ on Friday nights – always a big hit.

If you are planning a trip to middle Ireland, do stay a while.

We are delighted and thankful that bookings have started to come in for this year.  And, now Minister Heather Humphries, has launched a new Action Plan for Rural Ireland that promises a 12% increase in tourism for 2017…. well, we’ll see…..

As St. Patrick’s Day will give us a long weekend this year, we thought we’d do a special offer to encourage you all to come and visit the #MagicalMidlands.  As we are quite remote, we give guests the option of joining us in the kitchen for dinner.   You will see from our listing that we’re not bad cooks, so good food is guaranteed!

  • Option 1:  2 nights bed and breakfast, and dinner on both evenings at €120 per person – and a bottle of wine with dinner each evening.
  • Option 2:  2 nights bed and breakfast, and dinner on one evening at €95 per person – and a bottle of wine.

There you go folks…. 2 rooms available…. who’s coming?

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Will I ever learn?

Posted in Undiscovered Ireland, tagged , , , , , on March 22, 2015| 14 Comments »

A question I am asking myself almost daily at the moment!!!  Seriously, how often have I said on here or to myself ‘do not volunteer’.

Folks, I’ve gone and done it again.  I volunteered!!!  I volunteered to help out our local tourism organisation Mid Ireland Tourism by bringing a group of bloggers into the midlands.

You see the trouble is that tourists are attracted to Dublin (naturally)…. and now there is the big draw of the Wild Atlantic Way, so it is as if the middle of the country was just one great big black hole.

We need to remedy this.  There is so much to offer in the midlands.  It truly is magical.

Magical Midlands

Magical Midlands

How difficult can it be?  You know, just 8 bloggers, a coach, accommodation, an itinerary, lunch, dinner, a mini cruise with lunch.  Easy peasy????

Not so.

Despite the many obstacles that had to be surmounted, I am almost there.

I gave the tourism board a diverse list of bloggers – they chose who they would like to come.  I asked the bloggers, and they agreed to come.  Done.

A coach…. one phone call, sorted.

Itinerary…. many phone calls and it was sorted.  I’ve chosen some of our favourite places which I’ve written about here, and I hope will impress everyone.

Lunch and dinner on the Saturday – easily sorted.

A picnic lunch for 12 people on the Sunday????  A nightmare.  Many many phone calls.  No responses, total dis-interest.  There’s supposedly a recession out there.  Do people not want to do business?

One huge lesson learned is that there is still such ignorance about ‘blogging’ and the power of blogging.  Even more mind-blowing for me is the fact that so many businesses have no website – or a very poor one, and don’t know the first thing about using social media to promote their business.  And probably worse still, are not willing to learn about it.

Folks, social media is HUGE.  It is am immense tool for small business.  It takes time but it is free.  You need to schedule it into your day the same way you’d schedule accounts or other stuff into it.  And if people don’t know about you, how can they come to you????

Next weekend is the big WEEKEND!

I’m quietly confident that it will all come together seamlessly in the end.  Well, if it doesn’t it won’t be from lack of effort.  This coming week may be a bit frenetic, but I promise to be outwardly calm on the day 🙂

Now all I need is some good sunshine.

If you’d like to travel virtually along the journey next weekend, we’ll be using two hashtags #midireland and #magicalmidlands

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