Ireland’s top five gems
In comes authentic pub culture, taxi rides around gritty Belfast interface estates and big wave surfing.
That’s according to the influential Lonely Planet’s guide to the top 25 experiences in Ireland.
The guide publishes its new Discover Ireland booklet today, which suggests Ireland remains one of the world’s top holiday destinations, with our little island among Australia, Thailand and Italy in the initial eight countries covered by the new Discover Guides series.
Perhaps unsurprising, top of the list of “Ireland’s top 25 experiences” is a visit to the pub – where the nation’s “social heart beats, and where you’ll find out what makes this country tick”.
Dublin comes next on the list while Cork – “with lively craic and a vibrant ‘Dublin? Where?’ dynamic”, – only makes it in at number 12, behind Galway, Dingle and Glendalough.
However, Discover Ireland guide commissioning editor Clifton Wilkinson says the 25 experiences listed are not “strictly” in any order. “The authors as they are travelling around will have a look and they will talk to tourists to find out what they think is their top experiences, and that is how we come up with our top list.”
The guide comes as a welcome boost to the annual €500m Irish tourism industry.
“Obviously the economic crisis has hit Ireland incredibly badly, but for a visitor they might notice a few more closed restaurants and so on, but in general the sprit of Ireland is what it has always been: the welcome of the people, the pubs, the food the different attractions are just as good as ever and that is what we wanted to get across,” said Mr Wilkinson.
Welcoming the publication Tourism Ireland chief Niall Gibbons said it will “convey to potential holiday makers the huge variety of things to see and do here”.
