High Road, Low Road has returned to RTÉ One with a fabulous line-up of familiar Irish faces.
The travel show sees two well known Irish faces take on a holiday they'll never forget - but for very different reasons. While one will experience a luxurious five-star stay, the other will be sent off the beaten track.
This week saw First Dates Maitre D' Mateo Saine and bartender Neil Kenna travel to historical Bratislava.
"My first thought was like, wow, amazing. Absolutely. 100%. Very lucky is what I thought, to get an opportunity like that", Kenna told RTE Lifestyle after his trip, though soon the reality of the gig set in.
"I thought it was going to be like the [low road] was like you'd be living off a fiver for the day and stuff like that. But then I actually watched an episode, it wasn't like that at all."
Thankfully for Kenna, he scored the high road golden ticket, leaving his suave co-star to experience Bratislava on a budget.
Always well turned out on First Dates, it's no surprise that Kenna knows luxury and style, and expects a certain amount of it when he travels.
"When I go to travel, it's all about, like, I always like to live like a king", he said. "When you go away, you should have enough money to spend so you can actually splurge.
"I would probably be more into the eating and the drinking side of things. And just travel around and just eat loads and just drink loads, basically. And then there's more relaxing and stuff like that. I enjoy a city break, but I hate when you're kind of running around places to get stuff to do.
"You have so much to do and you're under pressure all the time and then there's always these queues and stuff like that as well. It's never how it is, how you picture in your head."
Thankfully there was very little literal running around while in Bratislava, and the co-stars had as much fun as they do in the First Dates restaurant, if not more so.
"We had great craic. We get on pretty well as we bounce off each other. Obviously this is a completely different environment because we're doing the First Dates thing, so this is more like getting to know each other another level when you go away on a holiday.
"At that point, we had so much fun. Obviously it's much better, I believe, when we're together, rather than doing things separately, because we just bounce off each other and we have good craic and we just rip on each other for the whole thing, which is always fun.
Still, Kenna said, "It was just great to stick it to him and leave him alone. He was annoyed then, you know what I mean? So it was actually hilarious.
"His reaction to getting the low was actually much more enjoyable than I even imagined."
As for the luxury travel experience, it started straight out the gate when a "1970s car" pulled up to collect Kenna, with champagne in the back seat. "Mateo had to travel by a bus to get to his place and stuff like that. I think I drank a bottle of champagne* just driving around in the car", he laughed.
Kenna also hopped on a speedboat for a whistle stop tour of the city via the historic Danube River, learning about Bratislava's rich history and life during World War II. Taking the city by air, he also flew a plane, though this he almost buckled at.
"I've got a big fear of heights", he said, but added that it was "something I would never do or even think about doing, which was good."
As for his final thoughts on Bratislava, he had only glowing reviews.
"Probably something that I would have never went to myself", he said. "It's greatly priced nice and cheap in some places, if you know where to go. And the city is gorgeous itself.
"I got to see it all from a height, rather than be immersed in the culture, which was the big difference, where he was obviously in all of that, doing those activities, that it's more cultural, whereas I was just living the high free life, which is like. It's very different."
You can watch Neil's episode of High Road, Low Road on RTÉ Player now.
