An insider's guide to the best places to shop in Dublin, including the top spots for Irish crafts, antiques and Waterford glass. By Neil Hegarty, Telegraph Travel's Dublin expert. Avoca has established a powerful brand over the last ten years or so, specialising in high-quality Irish crafts and food. Its lines of throws and blankets are now very well known, and justly so I think – the colours and patterns are delightful. The store has also developed its own clothing lines. Although the flagship Avoca store on Suffolk Street in Dublin city centre can seem dauntingly cluttered, it’s worth exploring for the range of fine goods in stock here. Avoca also does a wonderful line in good, fresh food and excellent baking: an agreeable café downstairs and excellent restaurant upstairs completes what really is a high-quality experience. Address: 11-13 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2Contact: 00 353 1 677 4215; avoca.ieGetting there: bus to College Green (multiple services)Opening times: Mon-Wed, 9.30am-6pm;

Sun, 11am-6pm Payment type: credit cards accepted Desperately looking for that gift to bring back home? Cocoa Atelier is the perfect answer. This elegant little store offers a dizzying array of exquisite chocolate, truffles, candied fruit, Florentines, and other delightfully sweet objects of desire, and all the chocolates are handmade here in Dublin, using Irish butter and cream. Pride of place, however, goes to the macaroons (box of four, €7), which glow like jewels as you enter this lovely place: every hue, every flavour under the sun, though I must put in a special word for the lemon, coconut and pear varieties. Of course, these are delicate objects: if they crack as they are being parcelled up, the assistants may hand them over for free. O, pray they crack... Address: 30 Drury Street, Dublin 2Contact: 00 353 1 675 3616; /cocoaatelierGetting there: bus to South Great George's Street (9, 16, 68, 83)Opening times: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, 10.30am-6pm; Thu, 10.30am-7pmPayment type: credit cards accepted

Francis Street climbs its long hill from the Coombe up to Thomas Street, in one of the most historic parts of the city. second hand chandeliers quezon cityIt’s a famous area for antiques, with both sides of the street lined with emporia selling everything from Regency furniture and chandeliers to brasses, paintings and oriental rugs. capiz shell chandelier graham greenThese fine shops are interspersed with knitting shops and the occasional café: the Cross Café (59 Francis Street) is a good bet, with its lemon squares and coffee an instantly reviving combination. chandelier cakes by natalie petersonEven if you have a wad of notes burning a hole in your pocket, you don’t have to buy: this is one of Dublin’s best and most tranquil browsing spots, so just go with the flow.

Address: Francis Street, Dublin 8Contact: artsandantiquesquarter.ieGetting there: bus to Thomas Street (13, 40, 123)Opening times: varies, but as a general rule Mon-Sat, 10am-5.30pmPayment type: credit cards accepted Irish Design Shop (4) From pop-up shop in Temple Bar to new, smart premises on fashionable Drury Street: Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey's Irish Design Shop has arrived. The name is plain, but the Drury Street interior certainly isn't. Instead, it's filled with over 50 excellent lines in contemporary Irish design, including hand-blown glass lampshades and vases in striking primary colours from Waterford's Irish Handmade Glass Company, and lovely woollen throws from Kilkenny's Cushendale. The emphasis is on the handmade and on superb materials. This also goes for the aesthetic of the shop itself, with its ash and birch shelving complemented with salvaged Georgian timbers; it really is wonderful to see contemporary Irish design supported and showcased so well. If you can plan ahead, consider booking a place on one of the regular craft and jewellery weekend workshops which run upstairs, and are designed for complete beginners.

Address: 41 Drury Street, Dublin 2Contact: 00 353 1 679 8871; Getting there: bus to South Great George's Street (9, 16, 68, 83)Opening times: Mon-Wed, Fri, Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun, 1pm-5pmPayment type: credit cards accepted The Gutter Bookshop (5) In an age when independent bookstores are falling by the wayside, cheer the success of The Gutter Bookshop (“we are all in the gutter,” said Oscar Wilde, “but some of us are looking at the stars”) in Temple Bar. With its wide range of titles and thoughtfully chosen staff picks, The Gutter is a wonderful champion of Irish writing, so come here for an insight into what's new in the field. There's also a range of stylish stationery. And note that the shop has a new little sister in seaside Dalkey, just beside the DART station (20, Railway Road). Address: Cow's Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin 8 Contact: 00 353 1 679 9206; Getting there: bus to Dame Street, Christchurch, Aston Quay or Wellington Quay (multiple services)Opening times: Mon-Wed, Fri, Sat, 10am-6.30pm;

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