I used this book for as my baseline for planning my week long trip to Ireland. The book is so well organized, it makes it easy to plot a course in Ireland and then to decide what to see while you are travelling from Point A to Point B. The beautiful photography and bird’s eye view drawings give the reader an idea where to expect the greatest highlights. There are also very detailed descriptions, explanations, and historical narritaves. The book makes most of the guided tours at historical sights unnecessary. Often there was more information in the book than there was available on site. And the extra knowledge helped us greatly in avoiding most of the “tourist traps”.(Helpful hint: Blarney castle was the biggest tourist trap/dissapointment on our trip. It that was the only castle in Ireland you saw, it would be OK. But you can find better castles along the side of just about any country road. And these castles won’t have cheezy giftshops, entrance fees, photographer fees, electricity, repairs using modern technology, or 2 hour long lines.)

Even if you are not planning a trip to Ireland, the book is still very interesting and informative just to get an idea of all the treasures that await you on the Green Isle.

I promise this book will be the “Bible” of your journey to Ireland.

The following is a true story. The only proof I have to offer is that I have absolutely nothing to gain by lying about it. . .

In september of 1996, I walked into my boss’s office and informed him that I wouldn’t be back the next day. I have a feeling that he knew I wouldn’t be coming back the next week. . Or the next month, either. As a 7-year member of a Fortune 500 management team, I had to deal with some fairly stressful situations. I needed a break. A big one.

Brian, the understanding boss, stood up, shook my hand, turned around and took this book off his shelf. “I’ve always wanted to go” And with that he, almost sadly, handed me the tome.

I went home, cancelled my paper, had my mail stopped, made arrangements for a neighbor to feed my fish and started packing.

2 kites, 1 touring bike, 1 fly rod, 1 fly vest, 3 changes of clothes and 1 plane ticket later I was sitting staring out the window of a largish plane listening to a Nun tell me about the last flight she’d taken (from Ireland) and how she got air sick. This was to be her second flight.

Now the point of this little aside – Over the next 8ish hours, the Nun and I (she didn’t get sick) read every page to one another. She had lived in Ireland for 40 some years and still hadn’t heard of all the palces and sights in this book. It’s that good. I visited small out of the way places that I figured would be overrun, only to find that they were just as had been explained in the DK book. I even took 2 walking tours with my new friend in the habit.

The book doesn’t pretend that it will have every B&B listed in it’s pages, nor should you expect it to. the “Bord Failte”, or the “Irish Board of Welcomes” puts out a comprehensive listing of all B&B’s in the country that are approved as far as having met their requirements. Anyway, pick that and a 10 punt phone card up at any news dealer in the airport even before you look for a cab.

As far as good pubs, just wait until 6:30 and hook up with the frst large group you see walking around. They’ll be glad to take you with them. The whole country is just sickeningly friendly. And they’re not looking for a tip. I had a waitress run to catch me on the street when I left a tip at my table. Had I been listening on the plane, the book explains who does and who doesn’t expect a tip, where to hail a cab, the best places for lunch, what you want to do and why.

3 months later, I returned home with a completely different attitude about the world.

Anyway, the book has well earned it’s stars as far as I’m concerned.

I can strongly recommend this book. . . And Brian? You should have gone.

My husband and I recently took our first trip out of the U.S. and decided to take a dream trip to Ireland. We started reading this guide well before we left to get an idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. The guide is fantastic. The pictures and details about each place helped us to choose many sites in a small country with so many beautiful places to go. We took this guide everywhere with us. As first time European travelers we needed to know all the basics; how to get around, what a round-about was (we don’t have those here), where to convert our money, hours that the places are open and when they close, customs of the country, etc. This book really layed it out and helped us in deciding where we wanted to go. We ended up traveling from Dublin to Connemara, to Cork, to Waterford and finally back to Dublin. We felt that we were able to pick facinating sites, covering Newgrange, which is older than the pyramids, to castles, (Blarney & Bunratty), Cathedrals in Dublin, Trinity College, shopping on Grafton Street and buying beautiful scarves and sweaters to take home at Blarney Woolen Mills. Some sites we passed as we drove across the country and decided to make part of our journey, such as Jerpoint Abbey, others we had planned, such as the Rock of Cashel. We also bought the street maps for Dublin done by DK. Our trip was fabulous and we now only choose the DK guides when we take a trip either in the states or abroad. For a beautifully done, comprehensive book, you cannot go wrong here. Take it from the first time traveler….this one had everything we needed.