1 Excellent Guide!
Our family moved to Germany almost 2 years ago. Before coming here I purchased the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Germany (also highly recommended). Since then, I have tried a few other books to use during our European travels. NONE of them come close to Eyewitness books. These travel guides are easy to use. They have awesome pictures. I am one who likes to look at pictures to see what is interesting and then read the info. so the pictures are a huge help. The guide for Ireland is just as great as I had expected it to be. The guide is broken into sections and regions. We did purchase a map in addition but for over-all ease and basic facts, the DK books are tops! I will always look to the Eyewitness books first when considering travel destinations.
2 Highly Recommend - Beautiful Visuals
I have to confess up front. I love these books. I must have a dozen. I really like the Paris book, and the one for Prague, and Stockholm, and South Africa, and .... You get all the detailed material similar to other great travel books plus you get great visuals. I just bought my sister a copy of this book.
On a cold day back here in the USA (or Canada) or elsewhere, have a glass of wine and sit in a nice chair or in the garden on a warm day and read this book. For a moment you will be back in traveling. The photos are that good.
As I said, the photos and descriptions and the cutaway drawings are excellent and more than make up for any lack of small detail. But there is lots of detail here. The book includes the history of the country and many details on the art, art galleries, parks, culture, historical figures, cutaway views of historical buildings, and many other things of interest. The history is summarized at the beginning of the book with historical time lines and cross referenced to the culture and political figures. A solid effort - lots of stuff to see and absorb.
It has the other things too such as maps, accommodations, transportation, and the rest.
You will be pleasantly surprised with the depth and quality of this book and it makes a nice souvenir to refresh your memory when you get home.
Jack in Toronto
3 The only travel guide you'll need
This is an outstanding guide in a brilliant series; I only wish I'd found it before I'd wasted my money on the Rough Guides and Lonely Planet books. It's so dense with information and it's all so well-presented that it's an entertaining read even if you're just staying at home. All the practical information is there, in detail -- from general information to the little quirks and inconveniences that could mean the difference between feeling uncomfortable and feeling like you're on vacation. I'll never go anywhere again without the accompanying Eyewitness Travel Guide.
Of course, visit the tourist centers for the most up-to-date maps, phone numbers, and such. But for everything else, travel with confidence that you've got an encyclopedia of info that fits in your pocket.
4 Handy, Informative, and Necessary
Here's the drill: You're planning the trip, know you NEED a book - you head to the Travel Section of your favorite bookstore and begin the long process of paging through every one in stock. "Gee," you say. "They all seem good." Well, maybe it's just me... For our trip, we settled on 3 books just to cover the bases & ETG's Ireland was by far the best. The color coded indexing was especially helpful - each section has illustrated map w/icons resembling the major points of interest in the area, along w/major hwy's. This is followed by the down and dirty information for all the sites. The back of the book has all the practical info you need; rail, bus, taxi service, ticket info, customs, religious, etc. The indexing at the back is also helpful.
Bottom Line: This book went with us everywhere and we saw lots of other tourist toting too. It's colorful, informative, and will be a savior when planning your day trips...go for it and enjoy Ireland!
5 Excellent book, great pictures and information
We took 3 travel books and used this one primarily. We found that it matched our interests exactly. Rick Steeves book was of little use and to general. This book gets into some detail and is more informative.
The pictures and layout is excellent.
My only request would be less of a vertical format as it is hard to keep the book open with the narrow, thick pages.
6 The only guide we needed....
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.
7 Travel-tested and simply the best!
When a long-awaited trip to Ireland was finally scheduled, I went shopping for travel guides. Having never been on an airplane before, let alone out of the country, I was understandably unsure of what I would encounter on our tour. I purchased 2 guidebooks that day and took both to Ireland with me. The other one stayed in the suitcase the entire trip. This guide proved to be absolutely indispensable, not only giving us maps so we didn't get lost on the Dublin streets, but also some of the most gorgeous photographs, bested only by the actual scenery itself. I still have all of our stops bookmarked with sticky tabs. The final proof that I chose wisely --- everyone else on the tour bus had the same guide in their hands the entire trip!
8 Great for pictures... but be prepared to buy another guide!
This guidebook is great for its pictures and detailed diagrams of major sites, neighborhoods, and buildings. The book is absolutely filled with brilliant photos that help visitors (especially first time visitors like myself) see what the sites look like. It also has photos of practical things such as roadsigns, the euro currency in all denominations, police cars, telephones, and even food. This might seem silly, but it's very helpful to know how to use their telephones and to learn which coins are which before going over there. It has a limited list of places to stay and doesn't go into detail about how to get to all the sites they cover. This is why I think this shouldn't be the only guide you buy if you're planning a trip to Ireland. It is definately one of the ones to buy, however. Another note: if you're like myself, and plan to travel light to Ireland, keep in mind that this book is rather heavy because of the thick, glossy pages - they're great for the pictures, but they'll weigh down your bag. Hope this helps!
9 The indispensible guide to Ireland.
I bought 5 tour books before I left on vacation and THIS was the book I refered to the most - it never left my bag. It is comprehensive and broad in scope - I would never have visted some of the sights I DID see in Ireland without the promptings of this author and the stunning photos, and I would have missed wonderful things. I even used a few of the dining and pub recommendations and was consistantly pleased with what I found. I used another, excellent book to locate B&B's but for touring Ireland, NOTHING surpassed this book. Also, the pictures are so wonderful that it makes a great "keepsake" after the trip. Highly Recommend.
10 Excellent overview of top attractions
This guidebook is essential for someone traveling to Ireland, particularly for the first time. Highlights include its detailed visual summary of all the major attractions, along with the practical info needed (hours/months of operation, etc) and detailed section on practical travel related topics (money, phones, modes of transport), contact info, and great area maps and overhead angled views of particularly interesting locations and buildings. The B&B and restaurant sections are also useful but need to be supplemented with the appropriate focused guides on those subjects. Color coded sections make it even easier to find what you're looking for fast. The only significant drawback is that it is heavy for its size due to the glossy, full color pages. These comments also apply to all the other Eyewitness Guides that I've seen.
11 Falling Short
I thought I had my trip to Ireland all planned out, including all the right guides to get me around without any problems. I purchased this guide along with the detailed version of Dublin and reviewed the books before I left. I was surprised to find just how many holes there were with the maps. It repeatedly seemed like what I was trying to find wasn't listed in the book or it wasn't on the map. The maps, I was really dissapointed to find, only cover small sections of the towns. I would not recommend them to people who are using them as a source for directions. It had a plenty ideas for the kinds of places you would want to see in Ireland, but I found there was much more out there compared to what actually made it into the book. I recomend it as a guide for the big tourist spots and to give an idea about what to expect, but I wouldn't use it for details.
12 Eyewitness Travel Guide to Ireland
This was a really handy little book. I visited Ireland for the first time this year. I went by myself and booked B&B's as I went. Even though I had a couple of other books on Ireland with me, this little guide was extremely useful. It's packed full of information about out-of-way places as well as the usual spots. I liked it a lot.
13 Nice photos.
Really a great guide to help you sort out what type of attractions you want to explore since it included so many nice photos of the various attractions. I agree with other reviewers that you certainly need a detailed road map to travel across Ireland, but this book was used to plot out our travel plans from start to finish. The survival section was a nice primer to read before the trip, since it discussed what to expect in terms of basic needs. Really a great guide.
14 What I did over summer vacation. . .
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.
15 A well-rounded guide
Not your typical guide book, this one is a pleasure to read from cover to cover. A very nice layout and beautiful photographs.
16 The best for our trip
Before visiting Ireland in March, 2000, we bought 5 or 6 tour books. While a couple of the others were helpful, and contained information not in this one, THIS was the main book. Very helpful, lots of graphics, helpful history. If you only get one book before you go, this has to be it.
17 Comprehensive Ireland
In their Irish Travel Guide, titled simply "Ireland" Dorling Kindersley Travel Guides have you travelling vicariously through Ireland via the pages of this amazingly comprehensive guide! With their myriad of colour photographs, they pack more into three hundred odd pages than most others would battle to fit into six hundred! From every angle - history, folklore, travel and general information this little book is really quite fantastic. I can't wait to get there! It would be useful to have just a TINY bit more information on places to stay.
18 Essential for plannig your Irish adventure.
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.
19 A MUST HAVE TRAVEL GUIDE!
I have never written a book review here at Amazon.Com although I have purchased many books.But I just couldn't resist praising this particular one because it is so 'perfect'.It is well- organized, fact-filled and loaded with illustrations and photos. I might even stay home and just read the book!
20 The Only Book You Need to Bring from Home
The Eyewitness Guides are the best! There're easy to read, have very good reviews of the sights and are easy to pack. Buy it before you go so you can spend some time getting familiar with the places you're going to see. When you arrive in Ireland buy a guide to B&Bs and a map at the tourist information center. That's all you'll you need for a great trip!
21 If you can only buy one Ireland travel book, This is it.
I have enjoyed many hours of daydreaming while looking at the beatiful pictures. I liked the coverage of flora and fauna, usefull information, national history, seasonal festivals, and city strees maps. It helped me decide how to spend my time in Ireland, to figure out what was a must see and how to fit it all in. A beautiful and usefull book!
22 Excellent for visiting sites of interest
I have been to Ireland now several times leading groups of university students, and I always recommend this book to them. Not only does it have a wealth of information, but the drawings and diagrams of the sites that they visit are of immeasurable help in appreciating and understanding the places that we do visit. Since we travel quite rapidly on this course, this is invaluable as a planner and as a reference. And at first, I only bought it for myself!!
23 A good guide, but falls short
On the plus side, the Eyewitness guide is easy to read and gives you a more accurate idea of what to expect at the various attractions across Ireland, and has a decent section on Northern Ireland, which is often noticeably lacking in many other guides. However, it is VERY limited in terms of its listings of lodgings, restaurants and pubs. I bought the guide while living in my husband's native Northern Ireland on the recommendation of a friend, but found I had to continually refer to other guide books to find hotels, B&B and restaurants that normal people (those of us with incomes under $100,000/year) can afford. Also, the listing of hotels, etc., at the back of the book is rather frustrating, as you have to flip back and forth many times to determine if there's an accommodation, etc. near where you want to travel. Basically, it's a good companion guide, but not very effective on its own.
24 the best travel guide to ireland
I was born and educated in Ireland and travel back to the old sod every couple of years. I have studied just about every travel guide to Ireland since I am more a tourist than a native; after 30 years in the good old U.S. The eyewitness guide is by far the best
25 Buy it you'll like it.
This is the one travel guide to take with you. I am going to Ireland this coming Nov.and wanted a guide on where we will be going and what we will be doing and seeing. Took a look at a number of guides and was not happy with them. Most of them are too much "talk", Found the "Eyewitness Travel Guides from Dorling Kindersley, The Multimedia CD publisher. The book is great, as is their other Travel Guides. The 3D maps and cutaway illustrations are worth the price alone. I am going to buy there other guides as well. I live in NJ just accross from NYC and learned a few thing about the Big Apple I did not know. In short Buy it you'll like it.
26 It is a delightful book to look at and to read.
I am getting ready to take a trip and wanted to buy a good travel guide to Ireland. I looked at a number of guide books and they were all talk and little else. I picked up the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide about Ireland from Dorling Kindersley, the same people who do the CDs. It was the best guide book of the bunch. The photos, maps illustrations and narrative are all first class. I looked as some of their other guide books, such as New York, London and Paris, all first class. I plan to buy them all. I live across the river from NYC, and lived in New York state for over 35 years. I learned a number of things from the NYC book. Get them, you will be hard pressed to find better travel guides
