Ireland Travel Guide

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Ireland has both beauty and brains: picturesque villages and lively cities speckle its green blanket landscape, and urban centers Cork and Dublin have a cultural influence around the world.

Outdoor enthusiasts and history fans can tickle their interests with bucolic walks which pass by stone cottages or prehistoric monuments, such as the burial tombs found in the Boyne Valley. Wander though the door of any pub in the land and there may well be an impromptu fiddle and song session, or at least a sociable chat - the Irish love to talk.

Cork in the south of the country is Ireland's second largest city and Corkonians enjoy a friendly banter with Dubliners over the significance of the city. The country's dynamic capital, Dublin, has utterly transformed over the last 20 years, and the Dublin of today is a luxury destination with upmarket shops and electric nightlife.

Geography

The Republic of Ireland lies in the north Atlantic Ocean and is separated from Britain by the Irish Sea to the east. The northeastern part of the island (Northern Ireland) is part of the United Kingdom.

Ireland has a central plain surrounded by a rim of mountains and hills offering some of the most varied and unspoiled scenery in Europe – quiet sandy beaches, semi-tropical bays warmed by the Gulf Stream, and rugged cliffs make up the 5,600km (3,500 miles) of coastline.