There’s nothing like living abroad that will make you appreciate your home. New York is as fast-paced as it gets and when things feel a little too much I sometimes imagine myself living in a cottage in Ireland without WIFI and laptops. Like the cottage from The Holiday, such a calm and cozy home. Now we all know I wouldn’t last three days in that situation for real, but when I had plans to go home to Ireland for a few days I decided to be a tourist in my own country and plan a visit to a place that looks just like where my imaginary cottage would be. The Wild Atlantic Way in Donegal.
The Shandon Hotel were so incredibly kind to offer me a stay in their junior suite with treats in our room and a lovely dinner. They went above and beyond to make our stay special and it was honestly just what I needed. The only bad thing was having to leave! The Shandon is a newly renovated Hotel & Spa overlooking the breathtakingly beautiful Sheephaven Bay. Every room in the hotel has a spectacular view of the sea and has an impressive lobby, bar, swimming pool, thermal spa, relaxation room and outdoor Canadian hot-tub all overlooking the beautiful bay, hills & countryside.
The Room
Our room had the most amazing views and included so many extras. You can really tell they have thought about all the little details. The fur blankets on the beds were the nicest touch and I was so sad to leave them behind, I need to have one!
The Spa
The hotel has a leisure centre open to all hotel guests within the building, but they also have a more luxurious spa and thermal suite in a separate building on the hotel grounds. Here you can choose from a wide selection of beauty treatments and massages by highly professional and all-around lovely staff. They also have different packages and offer prosecco and cocktails to complete the experience. I had a much-needed back massage before spending some time in the relaxation room. A divine room where you can go after your treatments to lie down and look out the large window at the breathtaking views. We then went down to the thermal suite where we enjoyed the sauna, foot spas, thermal pool and the outdoor hot tub. The whole experience was just perfect!
The Food
After the most relaxing day, we went back to our lovely room and got ready for dinner. We had a reservation in the main dining restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious meal including gorgeous soup and Guinness bread, a perfect steak and, I even managed to squeeze in a scoop of ice cream. The servers in the restaurant were great and very friendly. We finished our perfect day off in the hotel bar trying some cocktails, which were just as yummy as everything else. This hotel has high standards!
If you are looking for a weekend getaway in Ireland to totally relax and unwind I cannot recommend the Shandon Hotel & Spa enough. I honestly loved everything about the place and left feeling so rejuvenated. It was exactly what I was looking for, a total escape from my life in the big apple.
You can visit the Shandon Hotel Website HERE and see a full list of their spa treatments HERE.
A big thank you to all the people at the Shandon Hotel & Spa for a wonderful stay!
A blog post covering the rest of my time home in Ireland and the new places in Dublin I am loving will be posted soon.
Thanks for reading,
Sophie x
