Where Irish residents travel in summer and winter (2025)

TL;DR

Where Irish residents travelled abroad in 2025, from official statistics. Top destinations: July to September (summer): United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland), Spain and France; January to March (winter): United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland), Spain and France. Figures are trips as the statistics office counts them, so they are not comparable with other countries' pages.

Where Irish residents went in July to September 2025 (summer)

The ten countries Irish residents visited most in July to September 2025, with each country's share of its whole year that fell in those months.¹

Irish residents: top destinations, July to September 2025
Rank	Destination	Trips	Share of that destination's year
1	United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland)	1,373,000	29.4%
2	Spain	976,000	33.0%
3	France	451,000	44.1%
4	Portugal	324,000	37.9%
5	Italy	227,000	27.5%
6	Germany	125,000	32.1%

Countries whose busiest quarter for Irish residents falls in July to September: United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland), Spain, France, Portugal, Germany.¹

Where Irish residents went in January to March 2025 (winter)

The ten countries Irish residents visited most in January to March 2025, with each country's share of its whole year that fell in those months.¹

Irish residents: top destinations, January to March 2025
Rank	Destination	Trips	Share of that destination's year
1	United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland)	1,039,000	22.3%
2	Spain	507,000	17.1%
3	France	142,000	13.9%
4	Germany	97,000	24.9%
5	Italy	90,000	10.9%
6	Portugal	82,000	9.6%

What these figures are

Trips abroad by Irish residents, published in thousands. The CSO names only a few countries; the rest are grouped into regions, which are not ranked here. Busy months for a destination reflect when Irish residents travel, not the weather there or prices. Quarters are the nearest the source offers to summer and winter: July to September stands in for summer and January to March for winter. Each statistics office counts trips differently, so do not compare these numbers with another country's page.

For other countries' travellers, see summer and winter getaways; for the weather at the destinations, weather and climate.

Key takeaways

July to September (summer): United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland) first, with 1,373,000 trips.
January to March (winter): United Kingdom (incl. Northern Ireland) first, with 1,039,000 trips.
What we would skip: comparing these numbers with another country's; each office counts differently.

Sources

Figures from the official statistics named below; rankings and shares are ours. See how we research.

Data: Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ireland, HTQ14 Outbound Travel by Irish Residents (Household Travel Survey - Quarterly Series), statistic "Number of Trips by Irish Residents"; updated 2026-09-11. Accessed 6 October 2026. Source: Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. We ranked the destinations and worked out the shares.

Modified data: we ranked the destinations by season and worked out each destination's seasonal share, rounding once to one decimal place.