The south-west counties of Cork and Kerry are among the most popular for tourists and, if you are visiting Ireland for the first time, you should not go home without coming here and seeing it for yourself. Rugged, rustic and wild, this picture-postcard region of Ireland perhaps best matches what first-time visitors expect Ireland to look like. Expect narrow, winding country roads, craggy coastlines and verdant landscapes aplenty. County Kerry’s coastline boasts some of Ireland’s most idyllic islands. These include Valentia Island, where the footprints of dinosaurs from over 350 million years ago were discovered.