Don’t pack your bags: The best destination this year is… Ireland

THE food is great, the fun abundant, the scenery spectacular and the people full of pluck.

And if you feel like immediately packing your bags and fleeing to this oasis of positivity, then sit right down again — according to the Lonely Planet, we’re already here.

The 10th edition of its travel guide to Ireland describes a country that can sometimes be hard to see when your head’s bent low with the burden of financial worries and you’re fighting your way through a thick fog of recession-laden misery.