Wild Atlantic Way tops world’s best road trips list

IT’S proved a hit with both visiting tourists and staycationers and now the Wild Atlantic Way has topped a list of the planet’s best ‘offbeat coastal road trips’.

Travel bible Lonely Planet praised the 2,500km route – which stretches from west Cork to northern Donegal – as the best place in the world to ‘lose yourself in spectacular scenery, glowing sunsets and glistening surf’.

And it said the west of Ireland coast is more than a match for routes like California’s Big Sur and Australia’s Great Ocean Road.

The Wild Atlantic Way was ranked the best of five spectacular roads less travelled, beating the Gaspesie Tour in Quebec in Canada, Norway’s fjords and islands, the Pan-American Highway i n southern Peru and Croatia’s Adriatic coast. Impressed travel writers assured drivers they would be surrounded by ‘rugged hills, glorious beaches, ancient heritage sites and worldrenowned surf’, as they toured the western seaboard.

Among the major attractions name-checked were Co. Donegal’s Slieve League cliffs, the ‘unique karst scenery’ of the Burren in Co. Clare and the ‘epic landscapes’ of the Ring Of Kerry.

Surfing enthusiasts were recommended to check out Mullaghmore Head in Co. Sligo and the Aileen’s waves, near Co. Clare’s Cliffs of Moher.

Westport, Galway, Doolin and Dingle were all singled out for their traditional pubs and live traditional music sessions, while tourists were urged to make time to visit rocky Co. Kerry outpost, Skellig Michael.

Drivers were assured they would be impressed by the local cuisine and urged to sample smoked salmon, farmhouse cheeses and fresh oysters along the way.

In recent months another travel publication, Condé Nast Traveler ranked the sweeping views of the Atlantic at the Cliffs of Moher as the best ‘cliff view’ on the planet.

The Co. Clare landmark – one of the highlights of the Wild Atlantic Way – topped Condé Nast’s chart of ‘The Nine Gorgeous Cliff Views That Rival The Grand Canyon’.

Earlier this month, the Causeway coastal route in Co. Antrim was voted the world’s second most beautiful coastline, also by Condé Nast’s Traveler.