The Ultimate Ireland Travel Guide
The complete companion to the whole island — north and south, coast to coast. Written for people who want to drive Ireland, not be driven around it.
Why this one
Most Ireland guides stop at the border. This one covers all 32 counties, province by province — the Republic and Northern Ireland — because the best week in Ireland usually crosses that border at least once.
It’s the 2026 edition, fully revised and fact-checked, which matters more than usual right now: entry rules changed across 2025–26, including the new UK ETA that catches out visitors whose route crosses into the North.
Nineteen parts. Here’s what’s in them
- Before you go — passports, visas and the new UK ETA, money, insurance, when to visit, packing
- Getting there & around — airports and ferries, driving, trains, buses and taxis
- Exploring Ireland — Dublin, Ireland’s Ancient East, Cork and the Southwest, the West, the Northwest and Northern Ireland — each with eat, drink and sleep picks
- All 32 counties — what each one actually does best
- Road-trip itineraries — a city break, a 7-day classic loop, a 10-day full-island drive, and Ireland on foot
- The Wild Atlantic Way, stage by stage — all 2,500 km broken into six drivable stages
- Dublin on foot — three self-guided walking tours of the capital
- Belfast & the North in depth — quarters, murals, day trips
- Tracing your Irish roots — records, resources, and citizenship by descent
- Castles & ancient ruins — five millennia of stone, and how to visit it
- Ireland on screen — the Star Wars and Game of Thrones locations you can stand on
- Food & drink — traditional dishes, whiskey, stout and the pub
- Music & the pub — sessions, instruments, etiquette, and the best music towns
- Speaking Irish — a phrasebook, Hiberno-English decoded, and what place names actually mean
- The outdoor island — golf, surf, greenway cycling, fishing, and Ireland with kids
- Where to stay — hotels, B&Bs, hostels, self-catering, castle stays, camping
- Essentials & links — a practical A–Z, emergency numbers, useful websites
Who it’s for
First-time visitors who want a trip that works rather than a list of everything that exists.
People coming home. If your family left Ireland a generation or four ago, there’s a full chapter on tracing your roots — which records exist, where to search them, and how citizenship by descent actually works.
Returning travellers who’ve done Dublin and Kerry and want the parts of the island they missed.
Start with the free 14-day itinerary — the whole island in one loop, with drive times and a printable layout. No card, no catch.