There’s a particular kind of traveller who arrives in Ireland expecting a postcard and leaves having had something closer to a family reunion with people they only met four days earlier. I don’t entirely understand the mechanics of this, but I’ve watched it happen to enough people, including myself, to trust it as a genuine phenomenon rather than tourist-brochure sentiment.

Having pieced together a proper coast-to-coast itinerary of the country – Dublin down through Donegal, along the wild Atlantic edge, into Kerry and Kilkenny before finishing back where you started – a few experiences kept surfacing as the things you genuinely cannot skip. Here are seven of them, including the one I suspect you actually clicked on this article for: where to get a proper pint alongside a proper session.

1. Stand beneath the Giant’s Causeway and try not to feel small

Around 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, formed by volcanic activity somewhere between 50 and 60 million years ago, rising directly out of the sea on the Antrim coast. Photographs of it are common enough that you’ll think you know what to expect. You don’t. There’s something about standing on genuinely ancient, geometrically improbable rock with the Atlantic throwing itself against it that photographs simply fail to transmit.

2. Walk the edge of the Slieve League Cliffs

Everyone has heard of the Cliffs of Moher, considerably fewer have heard of Slieve League in Donegal Main Image), and that’s rather the point. Among the tallest sea cliffs in Europe, they offer the kind of sweeping, vertiginous coastal view that the more famous cliffs further south get most of the credit for, with a fraction of the crowds.

3. Learn the darker chapters at the National Famine Museum

Not every good travel experience needs to be a pint and a jig. Strokestown Park House, an Irish heritage-listed estate, houses the National Famine Museum, and spending an hour there confronting the full weight of the Great Irish Famine – the scale of loss, the resulting global diaspora that shaped so much of Irish identity abroad – adds a gravity to the rest of the trip that’s worth sitting with, rather than rushing past.

4. Drive the Ring of Kerry properly, without rushing it

The Ring of Kerry has a reputation for a reason: rugged coastline, green hills tumbling into the Atlantic, and enough scenic pull-offs to turn what should be a two-hour drive into a very happy half-day. Pair it with a pony and trap ride through Killarney itself for the kind of unhurried, old-fashioned sightseeing that suits this country perfectly.

5. Kiss the Blarney Stone (or just admire the battlements)

Whatever you make of the legend, Blarney Castle’s ancient battlements are worth the visit regardless of whether you fancy leaning backwards over a considerable drop to kiss a piece of Carboniferous limestone. If the queue puts you off, the Rock of Cashel nearby is arguably the more genuinely awe-inspiring medieval site of the two.

6. Spend a morning with Ireland’s thoroughbreds

The Irish National Stud and Gardens, the only stud farm in the country open to the public, is a genuinely lovely detour even if you’ve never had a passing interest in horse racing. Seeing foals, mares and retired stallions up close, followed by a wander through the tranquil Japanese Gardens on the property, is a gentler, more contemplative morning than most itineraries allow for.

7. Get yourself a pint of Guinness beside a proper trad session

And here’s the one you came for.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. The wrong way is wandering into the first pub in Temple Bar blasting “Galway Girl” through a speaker and calling it culture. The right way takes a little more intention, but not much.

In Dublin, skip straight past the tourist traps and head for The Cobblestone in Smithfield – a slightly rough-around-the-edges pub with an enormous musical reputation, run by a family who’ve been playing trad for five generations and hosting sessions most nights of the week. If you’d rather stay closer to Temple Bar without the “Country Roads” singalong, The Palace Bar and Devitt’s near St Stephen’s Green are both known among Dubliners themselves as the genuine article, with Devitt’s Sunday afternoon session a particular local favourite.

Down in Killarney, where your itinerary will likely have you anyway for the Ring of Kerry, seek out Tatler Jack or Murphy’s, both regularly cited by locals over the more heavily marketed music venues in town.

If your route takes you anywhere near the Cliffs of Moher, make the short detour to Doolin in County Clare, widely regarded as one of the true homes of Irish traditional music. McDermott’s, in the same family for four generations, hosts musicians every night of the week, and there’s genuinely not a bad pub in the entire village.

And in Kilkenny, where you’ll likely finish up before heading back towards Dublin, Ryan’s Bar and Tynan’s Bridge House Bar both come warmly recommended by those who know the city well.

The trick, wherever you end up, is the same one an Irish local once gave me without a hint of irony: follow the music. If you hear a fiddle or a bodhrán drifting out of a doorway as you’re walking past, that’s the pub. Go in, order a pint, and don’t be in any hurry to leave.

The Crisp Verdict

Ireland rewards travellers who slow down rather than tick boxes – which makes it exactly the kind of destination worth doing properly rather than rushing. Between the cliffs, the castles, the famine museum’s quiet gravity and a good session with a full pint in hand, this is a country that gives you rather more than you came looking for.

Ready to plan your own Irish adventure? Contact the team at Travel at 60, who can arrange your flights, accommodation and tours across Ireland. And if you have time on your hands and want a ready-made tour try this Emerald Ireland with Magnificent Europe tour – it takes in all the hot spots.