15 of the best things to do in Ireland

As a born and bred Dubliner, I’ve spent most of my life trying to make sense of my hometown.

The richly layered city of Dublin – full of culture, community spirit and character – has plenty of things to keep you busy and entertained, with even more beyond the capital that's worth seeing on a day out.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the world’s longest-defined coastal touring route. The Wild Atlantic Way is an internationally acclaimed waymarked road trip stretching 2,500 kilometres along the contours of Ireland’s great western seaboard, from County Cork in the south to County Donegal in the north. With 188 Discovery Points along the way, the route has guided the intrepid traveller for the past decade to previously off-grid west of Ireland locations, bringing with it nearly two million extra visitors every year, helping to shape a thriving tourism industry which supports 121,000 jobs and delivers €3 billion to the economy per year.

With spring in the air and summer to follow, New York offers one of the world’s most interesting restaurant sites: rooftop dining.

Dublin may not take up much space on the map, but don't let that fool you – this gem of a capital has no "off" switch and is brimming with history, culture and a whole lot of personality that is on display twelve months of the year. There’s an old Irish adage that says "if you don’t like the season, just wait fifteen minutes". Dublin is a city for all seasons, only those seasons will often present themselves in the one day. 

It's been five years since the series finale of HBO's "Game of Thrones," but I'm as big a fan as ever.

For big adventures this year, consider expedition cruising to discover engaging and enlivening destinations across the globe. Wilderness Travel has a curated line-up for 2024—2025, which includes tours to the world’s last frontier—Antarctica; journeys to the far north in the Arctic; exclusive once-a-year odyssey cruises to multiple locales around the planet like the coast of West Africa, northern Europe, and Asia; and dynamic river cruises on the planet’s most well-loved rivers—the Danube, Mekong, Amazon, Magdalena, and Rhine. Keep reading to plan out your next voyage.

There’s always a moment in the journey from Dublin to London – which I make every month or two, taking the land-and-sea route via Holyhead instead of flying – when I stop what I’m doing – reading or writing or chatting to the person next to me – and think: you don’t get to enjoy this from 40,000ft.

Dublin is Ireland's largest and liveliest city, with neighborhoods that have little intricacies and quirks to uncover during your visit.

For English-speakers, Romanian is easier to learn than German. And you’ll be speaking Swahili sooner than Polish.

When the United States launched the Global Entry program in the summer of 2008, the application fee was $100—and so it has remained for 16 years. But that’s going to change. On Tuesday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that the cost to apply for Global Entry will jump to $120 on October 1, 2024.

It’s dawn when we step off the train at Lelant, a village tucked into a bay near St Ives. The early morning light is still intensifying as the distinctive, repetitive shrill of a song thrush wakes this sleepy corner of west Cornwall.