Ireland

Ireland is a country where the landscape does most of the talking. Drive for an hour and you go from a buzzing Georgian capital to empty peninsulas, stone-walled fields and cliffs falling into the Atlantic. Then there is the culture: live music in a small-town pub, a ruined abbey on a hilltop, a monastery island off the Kerry coast. Distances are short, so you can stack a city break, a coastal road trip and a hike into one week. People here love a chat, and that warmth is what visitors remember. Pack a rain jacket, because the weather changes by the hour, and that is exactly why the green is so deep. This guide covers the Republic of Ireland.

Talking points

• The Wild Atlantic Way runs along the whole west coast and is one of the great road trips of Europe.
• Newgrange is a passage tomb older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge.
• Traditional music sessions happen in ordinary pubs, not only on stages.
• Skellig Michael, a rock monastery in the ocean, is one of Europe's most remote UNESCO sites.
• You can cross the island by car in a few hours, so big contrasts sit close together.