Dublin

Please Note! This copy is from a content partner of ExplorEarth and is due to be updated soon.

Dublin is making a comeback. The decade-long "Celtic Tiger" boom (1995-2007) was quickly followed by recession, but recovery has finally taken a precarious hold. For visitors, this newer and wiser Dublin has become one of Western Europe's most popular and delightful urban destinations.

You'll find it a colossally entertaining city, all the more astonishing considering its intimate size. It is ironic and telling that James Joyce chose Dublin as the setting for his famous Ulysses, Dubliners, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, because it was a "centre of paralysis" where nothing much ever changed. This only proves that even the greats get it wrong sometimes.

If Joyce were to return to his once-genteel hometown today (disappointed with the city's provincial outlook, he left it in 1902 at the age of 20), he would barely recognise it. But he might be stirred by the songs of Hozier, fired up by the sultry acting of Michael Fassbender and moved by the award-winning novels of Colum McCann.

Ireland's capital is packed with elegant shops and hotels, theatres, galleries, cafes and creative, independent restaurants. Temple Bar, the city's erstwhile down-at-the-heels neighbourhood, is now crammed with cafés and trendy hotels and suffused with a nonstop, international party atmosphere. For something quieter, there is the simple sophistication found at open-air restaurants in the tiny Italian Quarter (named Quartier Bloom), where it's also possible to take a tango lesson. 

Now that the economy has finally turned a corner, Dublin citizens can cast a cool eye over the last 20 crazy years. Some argue that the boomtown transformation of their heretofore-tranquil city has permanently affected its spirit and character. Has the tattered old lady on the Liffey become a little less unique and a little more like everywhere else?

Oh ye of little faith: the rare ole gem that is Dublin is far from buried. The Georgian elegance of Merrion Square, the Norman drama of Christ Church Cathedral and the foamy pint at an atmospheric pub are still on hand to gratify. Most of all, there are the locals: the nod and grin when you catch their eye on the street, the eagerness to hear half your life story before they tell you all of theirs, and their paradoxically dark but warm sense of humour.