People used to laugh about going on holiday to Northern Ireland. When I was young, I'm sure there was a bad joke about it - up there with the one about the Jew wandering around being asked by everyone whether he was a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew. It was always a terribly friendly place - apart from the whole terrorist violence thing, of course - but I'm sure visitors to Belfast or Derry or Enniskillen during the 80s and early 90s would have detected a note of incredulity amid the warm Ulster welcome. We're glad you're here - but why on earth are you here?

The thing is, though, it was always a brilliant place to visit, and now people seem to be noticing. The Lonely Planet has named Northern Ireland one of its "hot destinations" - forgive me if I still laugh a little - for the coming year, with Belfast as one of the top 10 cities on the rise. The landscape of Northern Ireland is "astonishingly beautiful, the people are warm and genuine, and yet it is still undiscovered, which makes it the perfect destination," said Maureen Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet. Who just happens to have grown up in Northern Ireland.

Bias aside, though, she's right. I go on holiday to the north of Ireland all the time, and not only to see my mother. I spent a week there last month and I'd go back tomorrow if I could. I was in Derry - one of Europe's finest walled cities, with a stunning setting between the Sperrin mountains and the Donegal hills, on top of one of which, visible from everywhere in the city, is Grianan Fort, the hilltop fortress of the Northern High Kings of Ireland dating from perhaps 2000 BC. You haven't seen beaches, by the way, until you've been to Donegal.

Then I spent a few days along the north Antrim coast, the fifth greatest view in the world according to a survey published last week. One might quibble somewhat with the ranking - the view from Grianan Fort is miles better for a start - but it's certainly an utterly lovely place with countless amazing beaches and headlands and blustery little coves and pubs and the Giant's Causeway.

And then I went to Belfast, which I have always said is one of the best cities in Britain and bang on about all the time to anyone who will listen. It has a truly lovely setting that could rival Edinburgh's, interesting historical stuff all over the place (personal favourite: the Giant's Ring, a massive 200m neolithic henge just off one of Belfast's main dual carriageways) and seems at last to be developing into the properly vibrant cultural centre it's been threatening for years to become.

And then there're the pubs. There's a theory that the end of the Troubles may have been hastened by a quiet relaxing of the licensing laws in Northern Ireland to 1am in the early 90s. It's almost certainly unfounded, but trust me, Belfast is a great place to drink.

Elsewhere, the Mournes and the Sperrins can't quite rival Skye or the Highlands for drama, but they are stunning and unspoilt all the same. I'm told by those who like fishing that the Fermanagh lakes are unrivalled. And, of course, like everywhere in Ireland, there's ancient carved standing stuff all over the place if you look for it.

And finally, don't forget the terrorist violence thing: one of the best things you can do if you're visiting Belfast is take a city mural tour and ask someone to talk you through the history of the place. Travel isn't just about views, after all - as the Lonely Planet also notes. One of its other hot 10 destinations for 2007 is Beirut.