IF you're thinking of booking holidays for the coming months and feeling a little strapped for cash, feel free to look closer to home.
It's always a nice confidence boost when someone compliments your home country as only us Irish know how truly beautiful our homeland is. It's a place tourists flock to see - whether they're from America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand - it doesn't matter, you'll always see their faces light up when they talk of visiting Ireland.
Putting the proof in the pudding, travel guidebook publisher Lonely Planet have named two Irish hotspots, Belfast & the Causeway Coast as the two top regions to visit in the world.
The Giant's Causeway in Co. Antrim (Picture: Tourism Ireland)The latest travel guide released by Lonely Planet, called Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2018 praises the beautiful city of Belfast as being "…full of hip neighbourhoods that burst with bars, restaurants and venues to suit all tastes" while according to them, the area we know as the old docklands "are now the vibrant Titanic Quarter, home to fancy apartments and a sensational museum."
Not sparing the region of the Causeway Coast any praise, Lonely Planet has deemed the Bushmills hotspot a coastline "whose timeless beauty and high-grade distractions – golf, whiskey and some of the world’s most famous rocks – are more popular now than ever."
The other regions of the world that made the list were as follows:
- Belfast and the Causeway Coast, Northern Ireland
- Alaska, USA
- Julian Alps, Slovenia
- Languedoc-Roussillon, France
- Kii Peninsula, Japan
- Aeolian Islands, Italy
- Southern USA
- Lahaul & Spiti, India
- Bahia, Brazil
- Los Haitises National Park, Dominican Republic.
Want a cheap and cheerful trip for the family? Look no further than Belfast and the Giant's Causeway.
