Before they planned their West Cork journey, Baz took to Instagram to ask his followers for their top tips on the best things to see and do in West Cork and they planned their family trip accordingly, making Kinsale their very first stop!

The group started their trip to Kinsale with a refuel at Sunday’s where they enjoyed some yummy ice creams and coffees before booking into their accomodation, The Blue Haven Hotel. Baz says he always stay at Blue Haven when he’s in Kinsale, that it’s “easily one of my favourite hotels in Ireland”. He loves the boutiquey vibes, the great customer service and the good food, over his stories on Instagram he gushed  about the hotel saying “I just love it”. As he showed the gorgeous room he and his family were staying in it’s easy to see why. Everything is so well thought out from beautiful furnishing and comfortable furniture to the special touches like freshly made cookies, a selection of chocolates from Koko Kinsale and a bottle of house wine. Baz raved about The Blue Haven saying he had the best sleep there and that it’s “so lush”.

For lunch they decided to dine at Jim Edwards where outdoor dining has been taken to new levels with their restaurant opening up onto the main square in the heart of the town on Short Quay. The adults enjoyed tasty fresh pints of stout and then the whole family feasted on the restaurant’s delicious modern Irish cuisine, Baz posted some snaps of the mouth-watering Monkfish to tease our taste buds.

For their first day of activity, the family got creative and went to Kinsale Pottery, where the whole gang took part in a half day course with owner Adrian Wistreich, they learned some new skills while making memories and pottery pieces that they’ll cherish forever. Baz took to Instagram to post videos of the fun times the family had, he and Tanja even got to recreate THAT famous scene from the film Ghost. At the end of their time at Kinsale Pottery, Baz said he was delighted they got to do it as a family, that it was really good craic, that Adrian was brilliant and that he’d highly recommend it.

For dinner, the party of 6 went to the award-winning Hamlets’ Street Food and Gastro Garden, where they enjoyed delicious fish and chips, burgers, steak sandwiches and pizza whilst watching the soccer. After their meal they even made some room for some sweet things in Hamlets’ recently added dessert truck and the adults indulged even further with Hamlets’ signature cocktails.

On their second day in Kinsale, Baz and his clan went out on the water with Sovereign Sailing where they set off on a 40 ft yacht named “Kyachtic’, which Baz said suited the family perfectly. Barry of Sovereign Sailing took the crew out of Kinsale past Charles Fort and out into open Atlantic waters past the Bulman Bouy. All the gang were getting involved in sailing the boat, pulling the ropes and learning how to helm the 40ft sailing yacht. They sailed over towards Bullens Bay and the Old Head and then back across to the Sovereign Islands to see the seals that reside there. By the end of their journey the whole family were asking Baz to buy a boat so they could sail more together.

The family carried on the Wild Atlantic way after their time in Kinsale and explored more of the stunning West Cork scenery, recapping on the trip Baz took to Instagram to say “as a dad this whole holiday, I’m blown away”.