Tag Archives: lonely planet

A MAJOR promotional push of the Burren Ecotourism Network is being planned in the wake of the local initiative becoming the only Irish tourism project to be included in the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel picks for 2021. Naming the Burren Ecotourism Network one of ten world-wide winners in its new ‘Best in Community’ category this week Lonely Planet described it as “an impressive community collaboration of over 60 local enterprises which has transformed Ireland’s Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark into a global leader for sustainable tourism. Joining together to promote slow tourism, local engagement and a greater responsibility for a more sustainable future for all in the area. All enterprises subscribe to the Burren & Cliffs of Moher Geopark ‘Code of Sustainable Practice’. This is an online platform that measures waste output, water consumption and energy usage and encourages each business to make reductions in these areas. The Code of Practice is the only one of its kind in …

Travel bible Lonely Planet has named two routes on the island of Ireland – the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coastal Route – as two of the “world’s ultimate road trips”, in its new publication Epic Drives of the World. The Wild Atlantic Way covers the length of the west Clare coastline from Loop Head to Ballyvaughan. Welcoming the news, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “The inclusion of the Wild Atlantic Way in Lonely Planet’s new ‘Epic Drives of the World’ is wonderful news and will surely help to inspire travellers everywhere to put Ireland on their holiday wish-list. It is another well-deserved accolade for Ireland and our spectacular scenery, which provides Tourism Ireland with a great hook to continue to promote the Wild Atlantic Way and the island of Ireland around the world as a ‘must visit’ destination.”

Noirín Hegarty may be in the business of world travel as Managing Destination Editor with Lonely Planet but the well-known journalist considers her family’s holiday home in Liscannor her ‘refuge’. Her mother Carmel Vaughan and her father Sean Hegarty hail from the West and North of the county and although reared in Dublin, Noirín spent many happy holidays here as a child visiting her 60 cousins. Not only are her ancestral roots here, it was also in Clare that the seeds of her interest in journalism were planted. “My uncle Martin Vaughan still lives in Miltown Malbay. He was always involved in what was going on in the community. He knew what was happening around and that sparked my initial curiosity for journalism,” she said. “I remember when I was a child and Martin was in the civil defence and he would be out looking for bodies after a bad storm and I thought this was fascinating and that goes …