Turn your kids’ princess or knight obsession into a family trip to a real castle. And while most of the world’s great castles, especially those you can actually spend a night in, are in Europe, the Ashford Castle, in the village of Cong in Ireland, is an easy place to start. Built as a defensive fortress ...

Growing up on opposite coasts, my husband and I had parallel fantasies of leaving our suburban childhoods behind for the “civilized” life: We would be rich and European, ideally with a manor thrown in. These (now slightly embarrassing) imaginings may be in check, but the pull of a life right out of the pages of The ...