If the long rainy days and grey skies in recent weeks have tempted you to look up holiday destinations, you're probably not alone.
Travel inquiries have been translating into actual bookings, particularly this month, according to Travel Counsellors Ireland.
"The first two weeks in February are way up in sales," said the Managing Director Cathy Burke. "Sales were up 13% on the same 16 days last year."
The data doesn’t definitively say people are booking because of the rain, or because of the end of January pay packet, but it does show strong sales.
"It's not necessarily people saying, 'get me out of here, I want to go next week'. Everybody's just so miserable looking out the window, you can't even go for a walk," said Ms Burke.
"All they want is sunshine and something to look forward to, so I do believe the weather's having a big impact," she added.
Despite the Travel Counsellors January data showing trips to the US were down 10% year on year, although late bookings are up, it still made it into the top three destinations this month.
Since the start of February, the top summer sellers are cruises, with ocean cruising continuing to grow, Spain including the Canary islands and the US, specifically Orlando in Florida, Nevada, Nashville and California.
While the top winter destination bookings are UAE, Vietnam and Japan.
What are the travel trends for 2026?
Cruises are booming and have emerged as one of the strongest growth areas for 2026.
Demand is being driven by strong value for money, all-inclusive benefits and a wide range of early-booking offers, particularly for families and solo travellers.
In January, ocean cruise bookings with Travel Counsellors were up 20% year-on-year and river cruising up 60%.
While an ocean cruise liner carries an average of around 3,000 passengers, river cruising is much more intimate, usually with fewer than 200 people.
"It's very relaxed, meandering slowly along the river, in small low boats to fit under bridges. When you dock up at a town, you're literally in the town and you can go on bicycle tours," explained Ms Burke.
"It’s very different to the ocean cruises, but like the ocean cruises, you can get anything from three, four, five-star boats and food, it's making sure that you have the right ship for you."
Trips to Norway are up 50%, supported by increased flight capacity and strong demand for cruises through the country’s dramatic fjords as Travel Counsellors say Irish clients are embracing the slower pace of river travel.
Another trend this year is 'coolcations’ something that Ms Burke refers to as "a slow burn trend."
It refers to people avoiding the south European heat during July and August.
The rise in popularity in destinations like Denmark and Norway is also down to increased direct flights and diverse activities.
"It might depend on whether you like climbing, or you want to go to Legoland, or experience the Hurtigruten explorer cruise ships that visit little coves and towns in Norway, there’s a lot more choice," said Ms Burke.
People are also booking earlier, travelling in the shoulder season to avoid school closures all over Europe in July and August which push prices up when everyone is on holiday at the same time.
"Our data is showing that for bookings, we've got more people traveling in June by this point than we do in August," said Ms Burke.
The other trend she noted is that people booking long haul, particularly the US, are deciding later.
"They might be booking now for the USA for April or May," she said. "The USA is very good value at the moment, but I think Irish people are very politically aware."
Has geopolitical uncertainty had an impact on travel?
According to an Aer Lingus survey in January, long haul travel continues to feature strongly in Irish travel plans.
It found one in three respondents (34%) are planning a trip to the US, Canada or Mexico in 2026, with a further 22% considering it.
Despite this interest, only 10% who answered the survey said they have already booked so far, highlighting a significant window for early year planning and booking.
When travel company Tour America was doing was doing its strategy for 2026, it expected to take a hit in the US, so they put together a strategy to focus on cruises and its luxury brand, the Travel Suite.
However, the travel company’s founder Mary McKenna said she is surprised that negative press on immigration and tariffs has done little to deter Irish holiday makers.
"There's a lot of interest when stuff comes up on ESTA (US visa waiver programme) or when US President Donald Trump announces something on social media," said Ms McKenna.
"But just as it stands right now, there's no changes on restrictions or requirements on ESTA that have changed from before, and the social media changes that he brought in haven't come into effect yet," she said.
"I have not heard of one person yet that has had any issue going through customs and immigration here in Dublin or Shannon."
Travel figures from Ireland to the US remained stable last year with around 490,00 visitors to America, a marginal decrease of around 4,000 visitors.
There are now 23 direct flights to the US, and while Tour America found numbers down for some destinations including New York (down 5%) and Las Vegas (down 7%), while they were up for others such as Nashville and Florida.
Ms McKenna believes one of the key drivers of visitor numbers is the value for money for Irish tourists against a weakened dollar.
She said people and families are going ahead with holidays as planned, they’re now seeing what’s happened and there's a great rate of exchange.
"If you look at the same time last year, we were on parity with the US dollar, so €1 would get you $1.
"Last week it went up to $1.20, this week it's $1.18, it's still much better value, they're getting cheaper hotels and better bargains when they get to the States.
"That's a big shift in currency first of all, and the second thing is what I'm seeing and hearing is the Americans aren't travelling to Europe, that means those airlines now have empty seats coming from the States and they've dropped all their prices so there are really good deals now."
News headlines can have an impact on bookings but Ms McKenna describes it as a temporary dip and they usually come back up.
She said the when the story of Irish man Seamus Culleton broke about being detained by ICE they saw a change in booking patterns.
"We did see a dip in calls, we track it and can see when it does have an impact. But then there are people who could have been looking to travel and that might affect new bookings that were going to happen in those two weeks, then it dies down again and bookings come back."
Another instance where Tour America thought it would be on shaky ground was after the September 11 attacks in New York.
"I thought my business was gone after September 11 and I had three months of no bookings whatsoever.
"That ended up being my best year ever because the deals that came out were just phenomenal.
"Irish people do look for value and they're going to get value right now, which they mightn't have got last year or the year before."
As a business owner she said these deals are important to Irish tourists.
But she added they are also important to the US Convention and Visitors Bureaus, the US Tourism Industry which is desperately trying to get Europe back and they're coming up with great creative plans.
