Tourists urged to experience Clare

CLARE has outdone a number of other counties to make it into an internationally compiled list of the top 25 experiences in Ireland.

County Clare received plaudits in a new Lonely Planet Travel Guide publication called Ireland’s Top 25 Experiences. In this latest publication the county is commended for its traditional Irish music and its villages.
“These positive recommendations in this influential guide will be a tremendous boost for tourism in County Clare and will help promote the county to an international audience. They mirror messages that Shannon Development, as the Shannon Region tourism agency, is promoting in our various tourism marketing campaigns and at national and international tourism trade shows,” says Pat Daly, tourism division manager, Shannon Development.
The guide lists, in no particular order the publishers emphasise, the country’s top 25 recommended tourist experiences.
Referring to traditional Irish music, the guide singles out Clare saying, “Let your inevitable love affair with Europe’s most vibrant folk music begin by sitting in on a traditional seisiún (music session); you won’t be asked to play but you won’t be able to stop your feet from tapping or your hands from clapping. They occur all over the country but are best enjoyed in the traditional heartland of County Clare.”
The Willie Clancy Irish Music Festival was singled out for praise in the guide’s best festivals listing saying, “You’ll hear some of the best traditional music in the world at this annual festival on the Clare coast.”
The Clare coastline also gets praise. “The coast of County Clare alternates long beaches with soaring cliffs but the real appeal lies inland, in the myriad tiny villages where traditional Irish culture persists, oblivious to the demands of tourism. Everyone might have heard of Doolin but they really need to hear about places like Kilfenora, Ennistymon, Corofin…”
Indeed, Ennis, Bunratty, Killaloe and Ballina, Kilrush, Miltown Malbay, Lahinch, The Burren and Ballyvaughan also get a mention.
This is the second Lonely Planet publication to praise County Clare tourism. Earlier this year, cycling routes in the county were voted in the world top 10 of the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2010 Guide.
The Lonely Planet’s guide put Clare cycling centre stage ranking them with nine other top cycle routes around the world, including the US, Canada, France, New Zealand and the UK.
“This is a testament to the amount of work that has gone into the development of the tourism cycling product in County Clare in recent times. Under the Shannon Development-led €2 million Shannon Region Trails Programme, a number of new tourism cycling routes and tracks were developed in recent times. These works were undertaken in partnership with Clare County Council and with financial support from Fáilte Ireland, the Irish Tourist Board. Among these include the new Doolin cycling hub, which incorporates four new looped walks in the North Clare area. These will also form part of a new Shannon Region cycling network being established by Shannon Development and linked to the national cycling network. These routes are available for download from www.shannonregiontrails.ie” says Siobhán King, Shannon Development’s County Clare tourism officer.
While Clare faired well in Ireland on the Lonely Planet list, it failed to make it onto the Trip Advisor Best Destinations of 2010 list.