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Taking the Kids: Staying in a Real Castle

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

Reed Hunt, 5, was skeptical. Sure he'd seen plenty of castles in Disney movies and had read stories where castles figured in the plot, but real castles? He didn't think they existed.

That's when his mom Erica decided to bring Reed and his older brother Will to Ashford Castle, which is located in western Ireland on 350 acres along the shores of Lough Corrib, Ireland's largest lakes, and the River Cong famous for its fishing. Reed could not only see a bona-fide castle dating back to 1228, but actually stay there too.

By the second day, it was Will, 11, who was most entranced, especially with the opportunity to learn the ancient sport of falconry. "I want to move here," he said.

"He's never said that about any other place we've visited," said his mom, a businesswoman from Michigan.

He's not the only one who has felt that way. When King George V (then the Prince of Wales) came to hunt in 1905, he famously stayed for two months. (That's why in the newly renovated hotel there is the Prince of Wales Bar and the George V dining room.)

Owned for over 100 years by the Guinness family, who were respected as kind employers to their tenant farmers and nature lovers, the iconic castle has been a hotel since 1939. After being acquired by family-run Red Carnation Hotels, a $75 million renovation was just completed last summer making it a destination guaranteed for the vacation memory books for all the American families who flock here.

 

"My granddaughter is a real princess so we had to stay in a castle," said Connie Abodeely, who organized this trip for her herself, husband and her daughter's family, including "princess," Alexis, 10.

"I love it," Alexis Samano said. "I never got to stay in a castle before."

And with glittering chandeliers, 800 pieces of art to consider, couches and chairs everywhere to sink into (including carefully sourced antiques) bedrooms fit for -- well a princess, complete with canopy beds -- and beautiful gardens, it's a lot better than 13-year-old Gabrielle Samano expected. "I thought it was going to be really old and gross," she explained.

Like many grandparents who opt to travel with their grandchildren, Abodeely explained she would rather leave them with wonderful memories and experiences than money. "Very expensive," she said, looking at her grandchildren. "But worth the money." (Summer rates can be $600 a night or more.) Sixty percent of the guests are American and many are multigenerational families like this one.

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