Lonely Planet’s influential travel guide recently listed Ireland in the top 5 countries in the world to visit in 2015. Not only did Ireland receive such a high accolade in the prestigious travel guide, this December’s issue of the Lonely Planet Traveller Magazine also listed Ireland again as “one of the world’s hottest destinations for 2015”.
The traveller magazine which also highlights the Wild Atlantic Way, was launched in 2008 and is the UK’s largest and biggest travel magazine with a circulation of over 60,000. The magazine popular with travelling enthusiasts as also been named Travel Publication of the year. The article also included the scenic now world-famous Wild Atlantic Way 2,500km route, which is certain to increase the level of tourism in taking taking a vacation in Ireland.
“Ireland’s most scenic driving route is at its untamed best along the southwest coast,” writes BBC correspondent Fergal Keane who recently set out on a road trip through the counties of Cork and Kerry.
Keane set out to explore the hype and magic of the Wild Atlantic Way, “a place of dramatic landscapes, abundant wildlife and and the warmest of local hospitality.”
Keane also calls the Beara Peninsula, the land of the mythic imagination. He also quoted the late, great poet Seamus Heaney’s The Peninsula “That rock where breakers shredded into rags, The leggy birds stilted on their own legs, Islands riding themselves out into the fog.”
Keane quotes Sheep’s Head’s Ann Curran, who has written, “You can look out into the Atlantic toward Dunmanus Bay and feel you are the only person in the world.”
Keane’s journey takes him through Kinsale; Roaringwater Bay which is situated in Church Cross, Skibbereen; the Healy Pass; the colourful Kenmare town; the famous Ring of Kerry; Skellig Michael in the Dingle Peninsula; Killarney National Park; the Iveragh Peninsula and Dingle.
This new feature in the Lonely Planet Traveller Magazine is set to be hugely influential for those planning a trip to Ireland.