As a born and bred Dubliner, I’ve spent most of my life trying to make sense of my hometown.
27.03.2024 - 11:43 / lonelyplanet.com
A lifetime of living in Ireland has given me some insight into the vagaries of my home country, beginning with the number one rule: never assume anything. This is a country that delights in confounding even your most comfortable expectations about pretty much everything, from the weather to the quality of the wifi.
Here are 10 tips that I’m pretty comfortable giving anyone who plans a visit, whether for the first time or the fifth. I’ve got some practical tips around VAT refunds and the most efficient ways to get around, but then there’s a bunch of suggestions on how to crack the mightiest nut of all – the Irish themselves. Because be in no doubt, while Ireland has gorgeous landscapes, a rich history and the best pubs in the world, your visit will only be truly memorable if you get to know the people – friendly and welcoming but often contradictory and inscrutable.
Ireland is small, but there’s an awful lot to it. Luckily, distances in Ireland aren’t huge so you can get most anywhere in a few hours, but the list of where to go can get very long, very quickly.
It’ll take you a couple of days to even begin to make a dent in Dublin, but once you go beyond the capital you’ll need at least five days to make a lightening stop tour of the major highlights of the west: Galway and Connemara, Clare (where you’ll find the Cliffs of Moher and the most authentic traditional music in the country), Kerry (you’ll need a whole day just for the Ring of Kerry and another for the Dingle Peninsula) and Cork, only it’s time to go home so you can only make enough time for Cork City.
Clearly the only solution is to plan for a month; at the end of it, you’ll be wanting to stay a year.
The Irish aren’t big on formal wear and only pull it out for very specific occasions (a wedding, a ball, the opening of a parliamentary session). Which means you can wear pretty much whatever you want: smart casual is the most you'll need for fancy dinners, the theatre or the concert hall.
Irish summers are warm but rarely hot, so you'll want something extra when the temperatures cool, especially in the evening. Ultimately the ever-changeable weather will determine your outfits, but a light waterproof jacket should never be beyond reach for the almost-inevitable rain. If you’re planning on doing a lot of walking – in cities or on hills – a good pair of walking shoes, preferably waterproof, will do the trick.
Add these top beaches around Ireland to your travel itinerary.
Céad míle fáilte – literally, 100,000 welcomes. The famous Irish greeting suggests a country that is big on displays of affection, but nothing could be further from the truth. A firm handshake – with eye contact – is the appropriate greeting when meeting men, women and older
As a born and bred Dubliner, I’ve spent most of my life trying to make sense of my hometown.
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.
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.
If your sights are set on a trip to Europe, be travel ready with these helpful tips from ALG Vacations.
It’s not the longest flight ever available, but it’s long enough.
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.
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.
Tour operators have announced that during “Summer 2024” passengers departing from Katowice Airport may travel on holiday via 58 routes to 19 countries. Most destinations will be available to Greece.
Even if your budget is tight and your pockets are light, there are ways to experience everything Dublin has to offer. You may have to bypass high-end restaurants and opulent castles but you won't miss out on a diet of international street food, live music sessions and sociable hostels.
Visitors to Dublin, one of Europe’s most expensive cities, can be in for some sticker shock. Yet the Irish capital offers up a surprising selection of free attractions that reveal its innate personality.