Sit back and relax in Mayo

Getting away from it all


If relaxation is top of your agenda when on holiday, all roads must definitely lead to Mayo, says Joan Geraghty

A haven for chill-out zones, leisurely activities and stunning coastal and mountainous scenery,  everything you need to just switch off and unwind awaits you in this beautiful part of the west of Ireland.
Relaxing is all about taking time out to appreciate the beauty of life around – in people, places and things to do. With a population now in excess of 120,000, Mayo is amply catered for in terms of infrastructure and public amenities, including gorgeous coffee shops, excellent cinemas and top-class hotels in all of the larger towns.
As the county town, Castlebar continues to flourish and grow with new retail outlets coming on-stream all the time. This one-time market town is now well established as the shopping capital of Mayo – and lovers of retail therapy can rest assured that a day spent in Castlebar can easily turn in to a week enjoying the sights and great social life there too.
Ballina was already famous with fishermen the world over, before Jack Charlton made it doubly so with his love for the game-sport, but this north Mayo town, leading to lovely Belmullet and Erris, also offers a niche shopping product. Pubs, hotels and good food are equally very important to the people of Ballina who go to a lot of trouble ensuring top standards of relaxation for one and all.
Directly on the coast, beautiful Westport remains a number one tourist attraction, filled with top-class restaurants, hotels and possibly the highest number of spas in any one town in Ireland (eight at the last count!). Recognised on the world stage as a top-class holiday destination, Westport is also the proud winner of multiple national and international tidy towns awards and is additionally noted for its select architecture and famous pilgrimage mountain, Croagh Patrick.
Achill Island retains a firm hold on the imagination of all who have the good fortune to visit, with access easily facilitated by the road bridge at Achill Sound, a little further on from picturesque Mulranny and Newport. Poets, artists and writers flock to this magical part of the world, a true holiday mecca with gorgeous beaches and crystal clear sea water. Fresh fish, great Guinness and the best of hospitality await all in traditional Achill – simply the best place in the world to be when the weather is good!
Many other large and not so large towns and villages in Mayo – Ballyhaunis, Knock, Swinford, among others – also attract their fair share of visitors every year. Most just love the feeling of space surrounding the entire county. Every couple of miles there is sure to be an excellent local pub, offering food, drink and good music, while in between, rich scenery of lush green fields, mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, sea and sand all catch the eye and tempt you to explore.
There is no shortage of distractions for book-lovers and fans of culture either, with fine book-shops and libraries in all the main towns while drama and the arts feature strongly in the social calendars of most Mayo towns, including Ballinrobe and Claremorris.
Even those who like to relax by enjoying strenuous exercise are well catered for in Mayo! Of course you don’t have to work up a sweat just to feel active. Leisurely games of golf in several world-class golf courses around the county are a big draw, as are all the fabulous coastal attractions, walking trails and mountain landscapes - just waiting there to be discovered.
So no matter what kind of relaxation holiday you have in mind – whether it is simply to enjoy gorgeous surroundings and pampering facilities in choice hotels, to check out the many fascinating archaeological sites, including castles and fairy forts, or just to bear witness to some of nature’s finest riches, be sure that county Mayo can meet all your needs.

Spas
For many women looking to totally relax on a holiday away from it all, pampering treatments at a beautiful spa are the first thing to come to mind! Fortunately for men, spas have become much more unisex in recent times, so that sessions for the boys, or two-way packages for couples, are now perfectly normal.
Spa-lovers who travel to Mayo on holiday are spoilt for choice with a vast selection of excellent facilities right around the county. Beautiful Westport is known far and wide for its incredible offering of top-class spas to choose from, while all the other larger towns such as Castlebar, Ballina and Claremorris, also carry a generous complement of spa facilities.
Most of the spas are attached to the many hotels in Mayo, which also offer play facilities to keep children entertained. This makes it so much easier for tired parents to slot in their pampering treatments during their stay. While they lie back and let the spa therapists do their work, they can doubly relax knowing that their children are being well looked after and enjoying the fun, playing with their new playmates in the kids’ clubs!
Just some of the spas worth noting in Mayo include the luxurious Elemis Spa at Mount Falcon, Ballina; the spa at the Belmont Hotel, Knock; the Castlecourt Hotel Spa, Westport; Kachina Natural Spa, Castlebar; Spa Salveo, Knockranny House Hotel, Westport; Lisloughrey Lodge Spa, Cong; the Lynch Breaffy House Hotel and Life Spa, Castlebar; Hotel Westport Ocean Spirit Spa; The Carlton Atlantic Coast Hotel spa, Westport; The Ice House Hotel and Spa, Ballina; The Westport Plaza Hotel Spa and The Spa at the Westport Woods Hotel, while the spa at the new Delphi Adventure Centre is also worth checking out. There are still more to choose from – with additional new spas coming on stream in Mayo all the time.
So make sure to make some time to look around and inform yourself of the selection of treatments available at Mayo’s many spas. You can then plan the rest of your holiday around your beauty/pampering sessions!

The Cloona Health Centre
Not all spas in Mayo are attached to hotels and indeed there are some excellent day spas, health spas and destination spas for visitors to enjoy. Cloona Health Centre in Westport is just one excellent example of a designer health spa, which is famous the world over for its week-long and day-duration residential de-stress and de-tox programmes.
Bodywork treatments are also available at Cloona on an appointment basis where director, Dhara Kelly, heads up the health motivation programme.
Typical days consist of breakfast, yoga, lunch, a guided walk, a sauna, a massage, evening meal and lots of wheat-grass!
“It’s really all about re-energising and getting more in touch with your body, its responses and then reacting to them. There is so much stuff that clouds the inner communication systems and leads to stagnation, sluggishness and lethargy. People can benefit from upgrading their energy signature so that they are a bit more aware of what feels good and make choices that are good for them,” explains Dhara.
In case this sounds too complicated, Dhara recommends people consider the effect a typical three-course Irish meal has on the body, leaving people in recovery mode and needing to sit down for the rest of the day. “Obviously, that is not a good choice for the body. On our programme we cut out all artificial or mood stimulants so no tea, coffee, chocolate or comfort food or stress eating. The energy is therefore more real and people get to know their body and its limitations better. It’s a question of clearing out the stuff that alters our perception of ourselves at an energetic level.”
The eight-week programme gives people a chance to consolidate the practise of making healthy changes to their lifestyle. It isn’t all about diet either as bodywork and learning how to be more in the present get equal attention.
“It’s the opposite of a pampering spa here, where everything is frilly, fluffy and centred on people’s comfort zones. Here, we bring them away from comfort zones. It’s a gently rolling along schedule of activity – not high pressure, but busy. We all need to create time now and then for therapeutic purposes. It’s not always easy to clear away the slosh and take the time off but doing so is a valuable message to the neurological system to chill out for a while.
For further information check out www.cloona.ie.

Caravans and Camping
It may not be everybody’s idea of heaven but camping in the great outdoors is truly one of the best ways to relax – when the weather is good that is!
Fortunately, Mayo can claim some sunny days in the year (well, most years at least!), and on days such as these, having the open air and a lovely camping ground to while away the time in, can be akin to paradise.
The middle of July is always a busy time at Mayo’s camp sites when the mass exodus from the North of Ireland takes place. Westport House Caravan and Camping is particularly popular with both national and international visitors, who can also capitalise on the excellent 200-acre adventure and fun-park activities there for all the family.
Ballina in north Mayo and beautiful Achill Island overlooking the Atlantic Ocean also boast terrific camp sites. So whenever the sun hovers over Mayo in the weather forecast charts – start thinking about packing that tent!

People-watching over coffee
People-watching is probably the most popular activity with holiday-goers and where better to check out the competition than from the local coffee shop!
Coffee shops or cafes are a dime a dozen in Mayo now with more and more people taking time out from busy schedules to simply sit and unwind over gourmet food and drink treats.
Best of all, cafés in Ireland are now as sophisticated as on the Continent and customers can choose from a whole raft of tea and coffee varieties. cappuccinos, moccacinos, espressos, mint tea, you name it, can all be had now as easily in Bangor Erris as in the county town of Castlebar.
So if you want to keep an eye on what’s going on while getting a feel for real day-to-day life in county Mayo, check out some of the many gorgeous cafés around. Just a few definitely worth a look include the Stuffed Sandwich cafés in Castlebar and Westport; O’Brien’s Sandwich Bar, Cafe Rua and The Upper Crust in Castlebar; O’Cee’s, Scotts and Curry’s Cottage in Westport and many others throughout the rest of the county.