Beautiful and sparsely populated County Clare in the west of Ireland offers an alternative place to the more popular destinations of Galway, Dublin and Kerry.

I decided to visit the area because low-cost flights are now available from many locations in the UK to Shannon Airport. Once in Shannon, we opted to hire a car for our five day stay from one of several hire firms at the airport.

Home to some of the most stunning countryside in Europe, County Clare provides nature lovers with plenty of scope for walks or bicycle ride and is full of cosy pubs, welcoming restaurants and Irish hospitality. The car provided an ideal way to see the sprawling county, as there are few other ways of getting around easily.

We stayed at the very welcoming and plush Woodstock Hotel, set in parkland just outside Ennis and home to a restaurant, golf club and spa. The hotel staff we came into contact with were excellent and friendly and the hotel itself had plenty of leisure areas and a comfortable bar.

Ennis, the county capital, is a charming little riverside city, with a particularly pretty town centre, an attractive cathedral and some very good bars and restaurants. It made a perfect base for our trip to the west of Ireland and lies around half an hours drive from the airport.

The dramatic Cliffs of Moher, the highest in Europe, are a must see for anyone visiting County Clare. We were lucky to see them on a fine, sunny day and were stunned by their height and rough-hewn beauty cutting into the slate blue water below.

We wandered a good way along the cliff path admiring the view and were sorry to see that the new heritage centre they are building will not be completed for several years. We stopped for lunch by the beach in Ballyvaughan, a lively and popular seaside resort and had a wander around the brightly-painted local shops.

From the cliffs we decided to drive to the north of Clare through the Burren region. Cromwellian general Edmund Ludlow once said of the area of barren rock forms and rich flora: "It is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him." Once there, we got out the car and went for a walk through the rugged landscape admiring the strange shape the Ice Age gave to the land and the plants that manage to survive on it.

The Burren is now a national park and a Unesco natural heritage site and its name in Irish literally translates as 'barren, stony place'. Covering a region of around 375sq miles, the Burren is formed of limestone plateau that look particularly sparse and alien in certain place. In grooves among the stones, a wealth of rich plant life flourishes and the area contains brightly-coloured species from orchids to Alpine and Arctic plants.

We set an evening aside to attend one of the Medieval banquets that are held at Bunratty Castle each week, complete with food, wine and entertainment in the form of Irish song, period information and castle history. We sat at long tables in the packed castle hall and had an immensely enjoyable night with a host of other tourists in equally good spirits.

An hour's drive away, we travelled to Galway for a day and spent hours wandering around the busy streets. We checked out trips to the beautiful Aran Islands nearby, which inspired the work of WB Yeats, but were unable to fit it in.

Evening entertainment was found in the town of Doolin, famous for the quality of its pubs and traditional Irish music. We crammed into a crowded pub and sipped on creamy Guinness as talented musicians from the area entertained us with ballads and reels, played for the sheer love of it.

Travelling home, it became apparent just how spacious County Clare is and how clean the air is. For those who have been to Ireland several times and are looking for something new, or those who want to escape the obvious tourist trails, it offers a great deal and most of it comes largely served without a side of tourist Oirishness.

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