The Best Places to Visit in Ireland: Where Leprechauns Would Vacation if They Had Passports

The Absolute Best Places to Visit in Ireland (According to People Who Aren’t Selling Shamrock Souvenirs)

When compiling the definitive list of the best places to visit in Ireland, one must first acknowledge that the country has mastered the art of making every stone wall, grassy knoll, and ruined church feel like the star attraction of a tourism brochure. But beneath the “top ten” lists that circulate in every guidebook lies a more nuanced Ireland waiting for travelers willing to look beyond the obvious.

Dublin: More Than Just Guinness (But Let’s Not Downplay the Importance of Guinness)

Dublin manages to be simultaneously overrated and underrated, depending entirely on what you’re looking for. At Trinity College, the Book of Kells awaits—a 1,200-year-old illuminated manuscript that costs $18 to view behind glass for approximately 45 seconds. Trying to decipher its ancient calligraphy is like attempting to read a doctor’s prescription written during an earthquake. Still, standing before something created by human hands in the 9th century delivers a humbling perspective on our ephemeral Instagram stories.

The notorious Temple Bar district has devolved into what locals call “the place where Americans go to meet other Americans,” but slipping just a few streets away reveals pubs where Dubliners actually drink. The Palace Bar and The Long Hall offer authenticity without the inflated “I’m in Temple Bar!” pricing structure. Meanwhile, Dublin Castle presents an architectural mullet: business in the front with its Georgian façade, party in the back where medieval structures peek through.

For a surprisingly moving experience, visit EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum ($20), where Ireland has created an entire attraction celebrating everyone who left—possibly the most Irish concept ever. “Look how great all these people were! None of them stayed here!” For accommodations, consider the spectrum: Generator Hostel ($30/night) for budget travelers willing to trade privacy for pub crawl companions; The Wilder Townhouse ($180/night) for mid-range comfort in a Victorian gem; or The Merrion ($450+/night) where you’ll sleep amid an art collection valued higher than most American mortgages.

The Wild Atlantic Way: Nature on Steroids

The western coastline of Ireland is what happens when Mother Nature decides to show off. The Cliffs of Moher stand 702 feet tall—roughly the height of a 70-story building—with nothing between you and the next solid ground except 3,000 miles of temperamental Atlantic Ocean. The $10 entry fee to the visitor center is well worth avoiding the unofficial “free” parking spots where locals regularly extract hapless tourists from mud with tractors (for a negotiable fee).

Further south lies Skellig Michael, a remote island where 6th-century monks built stone huts on a precarious rock in the middle of the ocean, presumably to win history’s most extreme game of hide-and-seek. More recently, it served as Luke Skywalker’s hideout in Star Wars, which means this ancient hermitage has been around 1,000 years longer than the franchise that made it Insta-famous. Boat trips start around $100, but rough seas frequently cancel journeys, so build flexibility into your plans.

Connemara National Park offers free entry to its 2,000 hectares of bogland, mountains, and grasslands that look like what the moon would wear if it decided to try on a green sweater. The Ring of Kerry delivers photogenic vistas around every bend, but drive it counterclockwise to avoid being trapped behind tour buses moving at geological speeds. The Dingle Peninsula offers a less crowded alternative, though locals still mourn the 2020 disappearance of Fungie, the dolphin who welcomed visitors for 37 years before ghosting the entire town like a Tinder date who suddenly realizes he’s made a terrible mistake.

Ireland’s Ancient East: Where History Gets Real

While the west coast flaunts its dramatic landscapes, eastern Ireland quietly houses some of the oldest human-made structures on earth. Newgrange passage tomb predates the Egyptian pyramids by about 500 years, making its 5,200-year-old existence a humbling reminder of human ingenuity. The $25 entry fee includes transportation from the visitor center, but reservations are essential unless waiting lists are your preferred vacation activity. During winter solstice, sunlight penetrates the precisely aligned entrance to illuminate the inner chamber—a prehistoric feat of engineering that makes modern “smart homes” seem rather unambitious.

The Rock of Cashel looms over the surrounding plains like a medieval theme park without the costumed teenagers or artificially inflated turkey leg prices. Once the seat of Irish kings, its atmospheric ruins offer more authentic medieval vibes in one afternoon than an entire season of Game of Thrones. In Kilkenny, the castle and medieval mile present an easily walkable concentration of historic sites, with restaurants like Ristorante Rinuccini nestled into ancient buildings where the pasta is fresh and the walls are older than the United States Constitution.

Glendalough’s monastic site nestles between mountains in a glacier-carved valley where 6th-century monks apparently looked at the stunning landscape and thought, “Yes, this will help us focus on abstinence and prayer.” For photographers, the early morning light casting shadows across the round tower and cemetery creates images worthy of framing, not just relegating to the “vacation photos” folder that nobody ever opens again. Stay at Butler House in Kilkenny ($150/night), former servants’ quarters for the castle that now outshine their masters in comfort and style.

Charming Towns That Will Ruin American Suburbs For You Forever

Among the best places to visit in Ireland, its small towns deliver outsized personality. Galway vibrates with street performers, students, and traditional music spilling from pubs like The Crane Bar. Its food scene punches well above its weight class, with Ard Bia at Nimmos serving locally-sourced cuisine in a riverside stone building that’s equal parts rustic and refined. The proximity to Connemara means you can breakfast in a bustling city and lunch in splendid isolation, all within a 30-minute drive.

Kinsale functions as Ireland’s food capital, a colorful harbor town that’s like a miniature Napa Valley but with seafood instead of wine (though they have plenty of that too). Buildings painted in jellybean colors house restaurants like Fishy Fishy, where the catch arrives directly from boats visible from your table. Westport, meanwhile, was designed by the same architect behind London’s Regent Street but attracts a fraction of the visitors, leaving its elegant Georgian center pleasantly uncrowded.

Killarney serves as the gateway to its namesake national park, where jaunting cars (horse-drawn carriages) offer transportation that’s admittedly touristy but provides a genuine glimpse into 19th-century travel methods. For true cultural immersion, visit O’Connor’s Traditional Pub when local musicians gather for informal sessions that make tourism board promotional videos look staged by comparison. Cobh (pronounced “cove”) marked the final port of call for the Titanic, with a museum that contextualizes the disaster beyond Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s doomed romance. Standing at the exact spot where passengers boarded provides a poignant reminder of how history’s grand narratives comprise countless individual stories.

Northern Ireland: The Complicated Cousin

Crossing into Northern Ireland means remaining on the same island while entering a different country—one where pounds replace euros, royal insignias appear on post boxes, and history takes on additional complexity. Belfast’s Titanic Quarter houses an award-winning museum ($25) on the actual site where the ill-fated ship was built. The six-floor experience puts James Cameron’s movie into perspective while highlighting Belfast’s industrial prowess during an era when “Made in Belfast” signified world-class engineering (the iceberg notwithstanding).

The Giant’s Causeway presents 40,000 interlocking hexagonal basalt columns that science attributes to volcanic activity but folklore more colorfully explains as the handiwork of feuding giants. Both explanations seem equally plausible when standing amid these perfectly geometric stone formations that extend into the sea like nature’s own optical illusion. The National Trust charges $16.50 for visitor center access, though technically the causeway itself remains free if you’re willing to bypass the exhibits and amenities.

Game of Thrones filming locations dot the landscape, with specialized tours ($50-75) taking fans to the real-life Winterfell (Castle Ward), the King’s Road (Dark Hedges), and various Westeros landscapes that required significantly less CGI enhancement than you might expect. For deeper historical understanding, Belfast’s political history tours offer balanced perspectives on The Troubles, with some guided by former participants from both sides of the conflict. The city’s peace walls—massive barriers separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods—stand as sobering reminders of how recent these divisions were, with some sections only opening their gates during daylight hours even today.

Irish Food and Drink: Beyond Potatoes and Guinness

The traditional Irish breakfast deserves recognition as both a culinary experience and an athletic event. Featuring eggs, bacon, sausage, black and white pudding (blood sausage and its non-blood counterpart), mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, and toast, this 1,000+ calorie monument to morning excess provides enough fuel for hiking the Wicklow Mountains or, more realistically, justifying a mid-morning nap. The ritual of this breakfast transcends mere sustenance—it’s a social institution where important discussions about the day’s weather forecasts occur.

Along the west coast, seafood shines in establishments like Moran’s Oyster Cottage near Galway, a thatched-roof cottage serving oysters from their own beds since 1797. The artisanal cheese scene has exploded in recent decades, with farmhouse producers like Durrus, Coolea, and Cashel Blue creating products that make excellent souvenirs (customs regulations permitting). For whiskey enthusiasts, distillery tours offer education alongside tasting opportunities—Jameson’s standard tour ($25) provides polished entertainment while smaller producers like Teeling ($17) deliver more technical insights.

Modern Irish cuisine has evolved far beyond boiled-everything stereotypes. Chef JP McMahon’s Michelin-starred Aniar in Galway and Chapter One in Dublin showcase contemporary interpretations of Irish ingredients without requiring a second mortgage to dine. Even humble pub food has elevated its game, with places like L. Mulligan Grocer in Dublin pairing craft beers with locally-sourced dishes that make you question every mediocre “Irish pub” you’ve ever visited stateside.

Practical Travel Tips For Ireland

Understanding Irish weather requires accepting that forecasts function more as creative writing exercises than scientific predictions. The country experiences four seasons daily rather than annually, with temperatures generally hovering between 40-60°F regardless of month. July and August average 60-65°F with 16 hours of daylight, while winter temperatures rarely drop below freezing but compensate with bone-penetrating dampness. The Irish have evolved different definitions of “rain”—ranging from “soft day” (continuous gentle mist) to “lashing” (horizontal precipitation that renders umbrellas useless).

Driving on Ireland’s left-side roads presents a mental challenge comparable to trying to thread a needle while wearing oven mitts. Rural routes often narrow to single lanes bordered by unforgiving stone walls, with passing places requiring complex nonverbal negotiations with oncoming drivers. Consider renting the smallest vehicle compatible with your luggage and dignity—a compact car that feels inadequate in America transforms into an unwieldy land yacht on Irish country roads.

Public transportation works well between major cities but becomes increasingly theoretical in rural areas. Trains connect Dublin to Belfast, Cork, Galway and other cities with comfortable service, while Bus Éireann reaches smaller towns with varying frequency. Tipping culture differs significantly from America—10-12% in restaurants is considered generous rather than the bare minimum, while bartenders typically receive rounded-up change rather than dollar-per-drink gratuities.

For mobile connectivity, purchasing a local SIM card (Three Ireland offers 30-day prepaid options starting around $25 for 20GB) provides more reliable service than international roaming, particularly in rural areas where coverage resembles Swiss cheese. Money-saving passes like the Heritage Card ($45) and Dublin Pass ($85) quickly pay for themselves if you’re visiting multiple attractions, covering entry to dozens of sites nationwide without additional ticket purchases.