A Dublin travel guide is among new guidebook titles from Lonely Planet in their pocket-sized and purse-sized Encounter series: sights, shopping, hotels and restaurants

Dublin often seems like a pocket-sized city, a big village where everyone seems to know everyone, but can its charms be captured in a pocket-sized guidebook in the Lonely Planet Encounter series? The answer is – yes it can.

The Encounter series is an attractive but small (about 6" x 4") guidebook series, which fit easily into pocket or purse. The Dublin title runs to 184 pages and, like the others in the series, is written by people who live or have lived in the city. The publishers hope this will provide a more in-depth look at a place, and make for a better guidebook.

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Meet the Dubliners

One of the special features of Lonely Planet's Encounter series is that you get to meet some of the people who live there. Spread throughout the Dublin travel guide are profiles of some Dubliners, with their own recommendations on where to eat, where to party, even which cinemas they'd recommend. Broadcaster Orla Barry recommends the Screen as being the best of the city-centre cinemas, while style journalist Eoin Lyons has some good shopping tips.

Chef and DJ Billy Scurry says his favourite restaurant is L'Gueuleton, and designer Leigh Tucker says her favourite Dublin boutique is Smock, on the edge of Temple Bar. Artist James Hanley explains what the National Gallery has meant to him ever since he was a small boy, and how proud he was when in 2003 he finally saw one of his own paintings hanging there. This is the kind of magazine-like touch which you don't see in many guidebooks, and which gives the Encounter series a personal feel.

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Dublin Travel Guide: The Maps

Attached to the inside back cover of the Encounter guidebooks is a fold-out set of maps. On one side of the Dublin map is a plan of the city centre, which doesn't quite stretch out to the western extremes where you'll find Kilmainham Goal and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, but gives good coverage of most of the main sights. It's also a very clear and easy-to-read map, using a light lavender colour for the built-up areas, which makes the black text stand out well.

On the reverse side of the map is a street index, detailed maps of Phoenix Park and Trinity College, a map of Greater Dublin and a plan of the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) and commuter rail networks. It really is a very impressive and packed set of maps. Full marks there.

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Dublin Travel Guide: The Authors

Fionn Davenport was born in Dublin, and says that he has left the city many times, but always to return. Oda O'Carroll is from the midwest of Ireland but moved to Dublin to study Communications when she was 17 and has lived there more or less ever since. She's worked as a TV researcher and a screenwriter, and has also worked on several other Lonely Planet guidebooks, to Dublin, Ireland, Britain, France, Corsica and the Caribbean.

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Dublin Travel Guide: The Verdict

Lonely Planet's Encounter series is an excellent addition to the travel guidebook shelves, and anyone who knows Dublin at all will see that the authors have captured the spirit of that lovely, lively city. With great colour photos on almost every page and a clean and clear layout, this Dublin travel guide should definitely be checked out by anyone planning a trip to Ireland's capital.

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The Encounter Dublin Travel Guide from Lonely Planet costs $11.99 in the USA and £6.99 in the UK. See the Lonely Planet website.

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