Fionn Davenport

Having used the Lonely Planet guide to Ireland fifteen years ago, when I spent a memorable three months hiking all over the country, I immediately thought of them again when looking for a Dublin guide for my recent trip. I had only a few days to spend in Ireland's capital city, after my time taking a language course up in Donegal, so I was looking for something to give the highlights. By and large I was pleased with Fionn Davenport's guide, which contained descriptions and directions for a show more number of places of interest to me, as well as a fold-out map, covering the city center, that was very handy.

That said, there were some omissions that puzzled me. There was no mention of Bewley's Cafe in the food section, which struck me as extremely odd, given the fact that the Grafton street cafe is something of a landmark - and also a really cool place to visit, for a meal! - and would definitely be of interest to tourists. Even more troubling, to this linguistic enthusiast and student of Irish, was the fact that the list of bookstores (book-shopping being an important part of any trip) contained nary a mention of An Siopa Leabhar, Dublin's only Irish-language bookshop. Now I understand that not every tourist will know Irish, but something so unique to Ireland really deserved a mention. Certainly, I recall that it got one in the Dublin section of the general Ireland guide I used, years ago - so why not in a Dublin-specific guide? Very puzzling.

Of course, I do understand that no guide can mention everything. But it did sometimes seem as if the amenities listed here were a little... bland, a little less than unique. Take the restaurants. I tried out two of the more upscale eateries recommended in the guide, and came away somewhat less than impressed. They were of good quality, but nothing spectacular - I had a more memorable food experience in the restaurant I picked out at random, my first night in town - nothing I couldn't get at home. And when I'm traveling, I generally want something I can't get at home. Still, overall I found the guide helpful, even if I thought it left out some jewels, and was just a tad too focused on the conventional, for my taste. show less

A good guide book should be small and thin enough to be easily stored in the map pocket of a waterproof, or put handily in the same travelling-light backpack that contains your map, your first aid-kit, your GPS, your emergency flares, your phrase book and the emergency one hundred dollar bribe that could, quite literally, save your arse in some more backwards countries, but should be large and thick enough to stop a spearpoint, arrow or rebel bullet from actually entering your flesh when show more being shot or pointed at in sunnier climes.

In a perfect world, it would also repel magic, but that is a pretty tall ask.

The Lonely Planet guide to Ireland is, however, something of an enchanted book. It manages to fit one hell of a lot into 764 pages and still manages to go into the sort of detail and make the sort of comment about places that conveys something of the nature of Ireland itself, an informal easygoing charm and ready delight.

The maps, in particular, were very well thought out and useful. It was by looking at the map of County Cork that we realised that the Drombeg Stone Circle was not far off our route for that day from Cork to Glengarriff. ‘Not far off’ meant, of course, a twisty turny roundabouty route from the main road to the stone circle itself, but it was well worth the trip and an unforgettable place to visit, with the circle sitting in the arms of the hills looking out onto the Atlantic and, upon the stones, the small offerings of coins and flowers that people had made. If we had not had the guide book, we would not have known to look for it. And if we had not had the guide book, we would not have found the place, as the sat nav was no help along the back lanes (a farm track ending in a small car park) we instead relied on the directions in the guide book and arrived there no problem. Not bad.

It was also based on the warmth of the review of McCarthy’s Bar in Castletown that we visited that particular McCarthy’s Bar out of so many. It was a spectacular drive through stunning scenery but the Bar itself was everything that one could wish for; a grocery store at the front, a bar at the back and, it has to be said, hands down the best Guinness in Ireland, and that includes the one we sampled at the Guinness brewery.

But if you think that they take their drink seriously out there (and they do), that’s nothing compared to how seriously they take their food (or indeed a combination of the two, County Cork was, after all, where I encountered women breastfeeding their babies in a bar. Twice. One while having a conversation with me. Not that I’m complaining, I think you should start the kids young, it’s just that you have to stop yourself from commenting ‘ah, draught rather than bottle eh?’) and the guide reflects that too. One excellent steer in Cork was the English Market where the guide suggested picking up the makings of a picnic. This we did, but the market itself is an astonishing place to visit, featuring a fish counter sixty feet long with a lobster tank at one end and a portable mussel bed at the other.

With only the vague idea that we wanted to go from Cork to Dublin, it was reading the guide that drew us out to the wild west Atlantic shore, and it was the guide that convinced us to go North to Dublin via the Killarney National Park – which turned out to be one of the high points of the holiday.

But it was the detail that impressed me. Ireland has a lot, and I mean a lot, of small towns, and according to the guide they all have at least one thing to see and at least one good place to eat and drink and they are listed here. Indeed, it was like having a friendly local letting you in on the secret of where to go to get the best of Ireland. show less

I got this book through the Amazon Vine program. I was excited to get it because we have been planning a trip to Ireland. Overall this looks like a useful book.

This book starts out with 25 top sites in Ireland and a couple itineraries. Then it goes through different sections of the country. All in all it is a very complete guidebook and gives a good general overview of Ireland. I enjoyed the "Best Of" sections, the highlights written by local people who live in Ireland, and the suggested show more itineraries. I thought the book was missing a large fold-out map of the country; I also thought that the way things were organized by city was a bit confusing...I would have preferred them to be organized by highlight/site to see. But, it works okay this way too.

Each country section starts out with the top sites in that area and give short itineraries to see those specific areas. Following that there are a couple pages on "the best of" in the region (best walks, best eats, etc.) Then it goes through the area by county and city. For each city you are given the standard guidebook info on places to sleep, eat, and transportation. There are maps of the featured cities in each region and maps of each region. The parts of the country covered are:

Dublin
Eastern Ireland
Kilkenny and the Southeast
Southwest Ireland
Galway and the West
Northwest Ireland
Northern Ireland

One thing that is different from other guide books in this book is that the first one or two highlights for each region are actually done by an expert in that area from Ireland. For example in Northern Ireland the first highlight is "The Coastal Causeway Route". There is a two page spread on this highlight and it is done by Jason Powell of Causeway Coasts and Glens Tourism. The the next highlight "The Bogside, Derry" is another two page spread written by Tom Kelly, Kevin Hasson, and William Kelly who are all Bogside Artists. It is kind of neat to hear about these highlights from a local person's perspective.

After we go through all the sections of the country there are two more main sections to the book. The first is Ireland in Focus which features very brief sections on: family travel, food and drink, history, Irish symbols, literature, national psyche, sports, the Irish people, the pub, and traditional music. The second section is the Directory and Transport section: this feature is exactly what it sounds like...more detailed info on transportation and on getting around the country in general.

Overall a great general guidebook to Ireland. It is missing a large map and the organization by city can get a bit cumbersome if you are more interested in just seeing specific attractions. The best of sections and highlight sections are what really shine in this book. The pictures are very nice too. If you are interested in a really specific section of Ireland you should probably get a guide book specializing in that section; this is a great book for a full country overview. show less

This is a travel guide that should be able to fulfill all your needs for information on what to do, how to do, where to go, etc... when you are in Spain. The authors did a magnificent job putting together this magnificent travel guide.

I lived one year in Madrid and had an opportunity to travel all over Spain during that year and I can tell you that the descriptions and itineraries suggested by these authors are simple the best. The book starts with 28 top experiences followed by a Welcome to show more Spain section with very important information on currency, information sites, beaches, cathedrals, art galleries, nightlife, food, wine, hiking and a "month by month" top events. Then you are presented with some suggested itineraries that varies from a month trip to a two to three weeks trip. So far, they presented a high level perspective on what you need to plan your trip. After that they start entering into deep details on every place, like what to do, where to go and they even give you an idea on how much it should cost you to do the proposed attraction. The presentation is split into big cities and regions. Color photos are beautiful and at the end of the book there is a full map of the city of Barcelona, including full subway station map.

This is an outstanding result for a combined effort from eight different authors and it was published by Lonely Planet in April 2011. I recommend this book for those who are serious about planing their trips and also for those who want to remember details on previous travels, while wishing they can return to Spain some day in the future.

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this book for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own. show less