Ireland is an hour from most of Britain and feels a long way from it. The island is small enough to cross in an afternoon, yet the light, the coast and the conversation change every few miles. Fáilte Ireland splits it into four regions, and they are a useful way to plan a first trip.
Four regions, one small island
- Wild Atlantic Way — 2,500 km of coast from the Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal down to Kinsale in Cork. Clare has the Cliffs of Moher and the bare limestone of the Burren; Galway gives you Connemara, the city's music and the ferry to the Aran Islands; Mayo has Achill and the traffic-free Great Western Greenway; Kerry the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula and boats to the Skelligs; Donegal the sea cliffs of Sliabh Liag.
- Ireland's Ancient East — the twelve counties south and east of the Shannon, from Louth down to Cork. The Boyne Valley holds Brú na Bóinne, passage tombs older than the pyramids, and Trim Castle; Wicklow has Glendalough and Powerscourt; Kilkenny its medieval mile and castle; Waterford and Wexford their Viking roots and the Waterford Greenway.
- Dublin — Georgian squares, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, national museums that charge nothing, and the DART out to Howth and Dalkey when the city gets loud. Most visitors land here; few should stay the whole week.
- Ireland's Hidden Heartlands — the Shannon and its lakes, where the pace drops: cruising or kayaking on Lough Derg and Lough Ree, Athlone and Carrick-on-Shannon as bases, Cavan's lakes, and the Royal Canal Greenway for flat cycling.
North of the border, Northern Ireland adds the Giant's Causeway, the Causeway Coastal Route, Titanic Belfast and the walls of Derry. It is part of the UK and uses sterling; there are no checks on the road between the two.
City guides: Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and Killarney and the Ring of Kerry; north of the border, Belfast.
When to go
May to September brings the long days — close to 17 hours of light in June — and the kindest weather, with June to August the warmest and busiest. Met Éireann's records put February to June as the least rainy months and October and November as the wettest, and the one rule that never changes is that the weather does: carry a waterproof in every month. Late October has become a season of its own, because Ireland claims Halloween as a Celtic invention and marks it with fire festivals such as the Púca Festival in Trim and Athboy; St Patrick's Day on 17 March is the other fixed point in the calendar.
Getting there and around
Dublin Airport is 10 km north of the city. Transport for Ireland buses run to the centre around the clock, and a Leap Visitor Card (€8 for 24 hours, €18 for 72 hours, €24 for a week) covers Dublin Bus, the Luas tram and the DART, including the TFI airport routes. Citylink coaches run from the airport straight to Galway and Limerick. Irish Rail reaches Cork and Galway from Dublin in about two and a half hours, Killarney in around three and a half with a change at Mallow; Bus Éireann and the rural Local Link network fill in the towns, and the TFI journey planner covers all of it. For the west coast and the islands a hire car still unlocks the most — drive on the left, speeds are in km/h, and the lanes are narrow — and GoCar car-sharing works by the hour in the cities. Ferries serve the Aran Islands year-round and the Skelligs in season.
Food and pubs
The pub is the living room: music sessions, counter service and kitchens that close earlier than you expect, so eat before nine. Seafood is the west's great strength — Galway Bay oysters in September, chowder everywhere — and Cork's English Market is the best place to see what the island grows. Whiskey has returned as a craft, with distillery tours from Dublin to Dingle.
Festivals worth planning around
St Patrick's Festival in Dublin (mid-March), Galway International Arts Festival (July), the Galway Oyster Festival (September), the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival (October bank-holiday weekend) and the Halloween week — Longford's Dead of Night and the Púca Festival — are the big fixed dates; the events section below tracks what is on.
For UK travellers
Ireland is in the Common Travel Area, so there is no visa and no stay limit for British citizens. You are not legally required to show a passport to enter, but most airlines and ferry companies ask for one, so travel with it. The Republic uses the euro; cards work almost everywhere.
