Sustainable Tourism Family Activities in Dublin
Are you becoming more conscious about your impact on the environment? Trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle more than ever? If you have children at school, they may be part of ‘Green Schools Ireland’ looking at ways to reduce their use of plastic, energy, and water.
With all this happening at home and school, it makes sense that your family want to support sustainable tourism when you are planning your holidays and weekends. We wanted to help you find some great options through The Green Irish Road Trip.
What is the Green Irish Road Trip?
The Green Irish Road Trip 2022 is a campaign we ran to find a lucky family and send them on a 10-day road trip of a lifetime to Clayton Hotels in Galway, Sligo, and Dublin.
We chose the Morrison family to join us on this amazing adventure. Gordon and Amy are both enthusiastic about the environment, Amy is an environmental artist and Gordon rescues seals in his spare time. They have two sons, Seth who loves the water and Lughaí who loves art and animals.
Over the holiday the Morrisons took part in great sustainable family activities around Ireland, from a bee farm to a fairy pig walk and loads of exciting activities in between!
Travelling the sustainable way in the Kia EV6
As part of the campaign, the Morrisons had the opportunity to borrow a brand new, Kia EV6. It is Kia’s flagship family all electric vehicle. The Morrison’s loved the sleek SUV from the start. The EV6 was a smooth, quiet drive-in luxurious comfort that everyone looked forward to returning to. It also had the boot space for all the luggage a family of four need on a 10-day holiday. The range was best of all, at over 500km, the Morrison’s only had to charge the car twice during their holiday, impressive considering they crossed the country!
Sustainable tourism activities in Dublin
The last stop of the Green Irish Road Trip was the Clayton Hotel Leopardstown. Located only 30min Luas trip from the centre of Dublin city, Leopardstown is a wonderful location for your family to explore the capital and the stunning scenery of nearby county Wicklow.
CP Adventure
The Morrisons kept up the active pace with a visit to CP Adventures. There were so many activities on offer it was difficult to choose! The whole family loved the zip line and Amy in particular loved trying her hand at archery. They are just some of the activities on offer. If you bring your family, you could also try their climbing tower, bungee, trampoline, abseiling or kayaking to name a few. No matter what you enjoy doing, you are sure to find something everyone will enjoy!
What is CP Adventure doing to be more sustainable?
CP Adventures limit their impact on the environment by adapting Reduce, Re-use & Recycle wherever possible.
Family Ticket: €108
Olly’s Farm Experience
Next stop was Olly’s Bee Farm in the beautiful Dublin Mountains, the Morrisons had a unique opportunity to see how a bee farm is operated. They also learned that Olly got involved in beekeeping almost by accident. Asked to help out someone having trouble with their hives, he ended up with more and more. To the point, he now has over 200 hives located all over Dublin. Most are in the Dublin mountains, but some are much closer to the city centre, like the hives on the roof of the Powerscourt Centre just off Grafton Street and Teelings Whiskey in the Liberties. The Morrisons learned lots about bees, how essential they are in maintaining our environment and how the Queen dictates where the bees collect pollen.
What is Olly’s Farm Experience doing to be more sustainable?
Olly’s Farm plant hundreds of native trees and shrubs. Running our farm organically, introducing lots of bird and bat boxes as well as placing beehives all over South Dublin and North Wicklow that all help with pollinating our crops and flowers.
Family Ticket: €120
Discover Olly’s Bee Farm Experience
City Kayaking
The penultimate activity on the Morrison’s sustainable Irish road trip was a scenic kayak down the river Liffey in the heart of Dublin’s city centre. Our lucky family jumped on the Luas right outside the Clayton Hotel Leopardstown and were slap bang in the centre of the city in 30minutes. Seth and Gordon loved how sturdy the Kayak felt. Lughaí, seated between them in a three birth kayak loved relaxing and enjoying the wonderful views! It truly was a unique way to see Dublin and her famous bridges from a very different angle.
What City Kayaking do to be more sustainable?
City Kayaking limit their impact on the environment by adapting Reduce, Re-use & Recycle wherever possible.
Family Ticket: €146
Greenan Maze
The Morrison’s final stop on the Green Irish Road trip took them across the Dublin mountains to the Greenan Maze in north Wicklow. The journey was no problem for their Kia EV6. The Greenan Maze is so much more than the maze, there’s a nature walk, fairy walk and a host of farm animals to meet. But the maze is the highlight for most visitors including the Morrisons. Seth and Lughaí loved racing each other to the centre. When it comes to sustainability the Greenan’s are on top of it. Sadly, the original maze was damaged by a virus a number of years ago but the Greenan’s took the opportunity to replant it with 1,500 native broadleaf beech trees.
What Greenan Maze do to be more sustainable?
Greenan Maze believe in encouraging visitors to find a love of nature. In an ideal world if we all love nature and our (local and global) environment maybe then we would all try to limit our impact on our place and our planet. At the farm, the Greenan’s try to limit their impact with a number of specific measures and by following certain over-arching principles. We are part of Leave No Trace and we participate in The All Ireland Pollinator Plan and We are the Ark.
Family Ticket: €30
Discover Greenan Maze
Want to make amazing memories like these in the Capital? Book your family break in the Clayton Hotel Leopardstown today!
What are Clayton Hotels doing to be more sustainable?
We are also working hard to reduce our impact on the environment. Clayton hotels are members of Green Tourism who specialise in helping hotels become more sustainable. Over 80% of Clayton hotels received a Gold Award following recent audits. So you can book your family break in Ireland with Clayton Hotels knowing we are striving to reduce our impact on the environment.
