Hello to you all, My family (myself, DH, and kids- ages 9 and 12) have had a change of travel destinations for Memorial Day weekend + a few extra days. We were heading to Alaska but have changed to Ireland. What is the best book and map to purchase that will give us some ideas about our trip?

We will be flying into Shannon. Is it an easy drive to Dublin from Shannon?

Thanks for any input you may have to pass along.

I really think your best bet is to go to Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc. and look through several guide books. There are a lot of good ones out there. I bought several for our recent trip. For me, much of the fun of any trip is reading up ahead of time. And I like to have different types of guides (some strictly for lodging and restaurant info, some that focus on history, culture, etc.).

In terms of "usefulness", I'd say my three favorites for this trip were probably Fodor's Ireland 2006, Frommer's Ireland from $80 A Day and the Footprints Ireland guide. But the best one for you depends on what you want from a guide.

We took the Michelin (sorry, I think I'm misspelling that) Atlas for Great Britain and Ireland.

Choose any book except for Rick Steves. His Ireland book skips over a lot of Ireland.

I agree with Irish Eyes--anything but Steves--none of my favorite parts of Ireland are in the Steves book.

Thanks for your input. I have looked online (Amazon.com) to order a few books. Glad to hear ahead of time about Rick Steve's book and that he leaves alot out. I will be sure to pass it by. I think I will take a trip to my local book store today and check out Fodors Ireland 2006.

The Lonely Planet Ireland guidebook is excellent. A detailed map is essential for driving in Ireland. For one all-purpose map, get the Michelin Ireland map. It's available from amazon.com.

Frankly, I hope Rick Steves continues to leave out a lot of Ireland. The places he leaves out tend to be much less crowded!

CAPH52 - I like the way you think. Steve's book is decent for a typical tourist loop, but not for getting out and really experiencing many of my favorite areas.

I find Lonely Planet Fodor's and Frommer's for $90 a Day to be my favorites.

Of course for those who prefer more pictures to text, Fodor's Exploring, Fodor's See It and the Eyewitness/DK guides are very good (I'd probably rank them in the reverse order of how I listed them).

Thanks for your responses. I just returned from the book store. I bought Fodors 2006 Ireland. I plan to also purchase the Michelin map for our travels... glad to hear that is is good.

CAPH52,

Well...Rick Steves says to avoid Bunratty Castle & Folk Park and Killarney but I don't see any reduction in tourists there. He can be a bit goofy at times. I do appreciate his recommendations for mostly crummy B&Bs as it gives more availability at the better ones.

Hey now, I don't think Rick Steves' book is THAT bad. I definitely wouldn't use it as my solo guide book, but I do like the walking/driving tours that he included. I'm a big history buff, though, so I didn't like that he doesn't talk much about Irish history. How can you travel and not get at least some of the story! I suppose he figures you can read that somewhere else (which you can) but I think good guide books include it all. I recommend going to a bookstore or library and just look through them all. See what suits you best. I'm personally a Lonely Planet gal. (Sorry, Fodor's) I have 3 guide books (including a Fodors) that I plan on cutting out the places I want to visit and making my own 'mega guide book'. The next time I go I'll want the new versions, anyway, and this saves space. Have fun!

My favorite for Ireland is the Footprints guide. I've used the Michelin Green Guide and the Lonely Planet guide. I didn't like the Green Guide much (I don't travel alphabetically!) but Lonely Planet was almost as good as Footprints.

I also printed out key posts from the fodors talk website.

When we travelled to Paris and Italy a couple of years ago I swore by Rick Steves...you have to be smart enough to stay away from the really touristy places, but he had tips (Europe Through the Back Door especially) that were really helpful. So...went right out and bought his guide when we decided on our August trip to Ireland, and I agree with the other postings here. He just leaves out entire section of the country, most notably (for us) Sligo and Donegal, a must-see for us.

We spent a couple of hours at Borders one Sunday recently and ended up with Frommers Ireland on $90 a day. I'm really enjoying it and find it a great cross-reference to see what's listed there that I've also heard recommended here and on other lists.

Good luck!

Try Irelandyes.com. Michele Erdwig sells a book on that site that is updated yearly and is quite good. She also has a travel forum to answer questions. She's visited over forty times so she knows her stuff,

Another one is Ireland Guide which I have found in Barnes and Noble. It's published by Bord Failte and includes rainy day tips for all of the areas.

The Michelin Guide is nice for pretty pictures but is arranged in iritating alphabetical order as opposed to by region. It's nice to get and idea of places that you want to se. The DK book line also has lots of nice pictures. Those kinds of books are good to help plan, but you don't need to take them with you.

Dublin to Shannon will be about 4.5-5 hours including getting lost in Limerick if you decide to drive through it. I would avoid Limerick. Don't try to do that on your first day.

Bill

I agree with Bill about IrelandYes. The only thing I've ever liked about any of Rick Steve's books, is the driving tour of Dingle. Now, that was good.

ttt for newbies.