An American living in Kathmandu was surfing the Internet. He was looking for holiday ideas for his kids. He came upon a web page set up by an Irish sailing club . . . and before you know it, he and his family were bound for Dingle, Co Kerry.

It actually happened earlier this summer, when young visitors from Nepal turned up for two days' sailing instruction with Dingle Sailing Club in the Kerry port. They loved it; for them, Fungi was not the main attraction. As for the resident dolphin, his own heart is still smitten, though the object of his attentions - a spry young female bottlenose named locally as "Smokey" - is reckoned to be a bit of a fly-by-night (or should that be swim-by-night).

Summer may hold out the prospect of some reasonable weather, but there is never a time of year when one can be fed up in Dingle. The season is all-year round, and is never really slack. Even on the busiest bank holiday weekend, accommodation is usually available further out the peninsula, and few visitors ever leave without finding some sort of a bed.

This month, the annual Dingle regatta is the magnet, when the former Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, is expected to make his regular guest appearance. The lord of Inishvickillaune has been doing so for the last 26 years, and there is said to be no truth in the rumour that he might not make it 27. As one of the committee members says, "forget about tribunals. It wouldn't be the same if we didn't have the Boss".

Much of Dingle's activity is water-based, whether it be the courses run by the local sailing club, coastal tours, angling and diving expeditions or trips on the Fungi boats. The State marina, built as part of an extensive fishery harbour development five years ago, has become a very popular landfall for visiting yachts. The dolphin taxis are something of an institution now, and still offer passengers money back if "himself" doesn't appear. That's been a rare enough occurrence of late; as a fallback, pods of marine mammals have been venturing more frequently this summer inside harbour mouth.

Fungi has attracted many scientists, psychologists and all sorts of "ists" over the years. Significantly, new research into dolphin behaviour has applied the chaos theory to learn how the cetaceans can pick out objects underwater. Such is the dolphin's ability to detect the tiniest fish in the murkiest water that it even outclasses the US Navy's latest military weapon - the Seawolf attack submarine.

The Dingle dolphin won't live forever though, which is why the town began to plan ahead and built its own aquarium. Since Mara Beo was opened by the former Tanaiste and Labour leader, Dick Spring, last summer, thousands have passed through its doors. Many of its exhibits have been captured by local boats, as Kerry waters are renowned for the rare species swept in by the Gulf Stream.

The plateau of shallow continental water fanning out from Dingle Bay has been described as a "biological funnel", and nursery to a colourful kaleidoscope. The area supports some of the most interesting marine life in northern Europe. It was during the last century that Dingle's diverse fauna was recognised by an English naturalist, William Andrews. He recorded the first trigger fish, and his interest inspired locals like Dingle publican, Michael Long, to continue the work in the 1950s.

Long is credited with recording some 82 per cent of rare fish species found in Irish waters. Latterly, Kevin Flannery of the Department of the Marine, and fellow biologists like Declan Quigley of the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) took on that mantle. Flannery first thought of the aquarium some 15 years ago. He convinced Udaras na Gaeltachta and local backers, and provided much of the inspiration for the imaginative interior design.

Mara Beo transports the visitor on a magical mystery tour from the Kerry mountain, Brandon, to the Atlantic "abyss", via the Arctic charr lake habitats of Annascaul and Glenbeigh and the caves around Dingle harbour. Among the highlights are the touchpool ray and other flatfish, which like their flesh to be tickled by small fingers. "Fungi's garden" hosts anemone, shrimp, starfish and other diverse life from shallower waters. The aquarium has made its own contribution to the ecosystem, by hatching hundreds of baby lumpsuckers for return to the Atlantic. Lumpsuckers are reared by the male of the species for the first month, after which the father's life-cycle comes to a rapid end.

If the aquarium is most popular on wet weather days, one should also spend a few hours' browsing over excellent coffee in An Cafe Liteartha. Apart from obvious stocks of Blasket island literature - Peig Sayers, Tomas O Conchuir, et al - it has the latest guide books and maps to the mountainous Corca Dhuibhne peninsula. The town also has its own arthouse cinema, run by Michael O'Sullivan, whose interest in film dates back to the making of Ryan's Daughter by David Lean.

Bicycle hire is an imperative when it is dry. Slea Head is a half day destination. One can stop off at the controversial Blasket Island interpretative centre - like it or not, it is still well worth a visit, and is open seven days a week - or take a ferry to the islands from Dun Chaoin. The registered ferry operator has recently acquired two new vessels, with the help of Udaras na Gaeltachta, and runs trips every hour from 10 a.m., weather permitting.

Cultural tourism is developing on the peninsula. There is the language - it is part of the Gaeltacht - and there are specialist archaeological trips from the town, run by the Collins family. The peninsula has more than 2,000 archaeological sites, the best known of which is the early Christian Gallarus Oratory, some 4 km from Ballyferriter. Hill-walking is also an option, with routes ranging from Mount Brandon, the second highest peak in Ireland, to the Dingle Way.

The 112-mile marked way runs from Tralee, via the Slieve Mish mountains, Camp, Inch, Annascaul, Lispole, Dingle, across Ventry Strand and by Slea Head to Dun Chaoin. It curls around Smerwick harbour to Ballydavid, over a high pass near Brandon and eventually back to Tralee. The trail can be traced on Ordnance Survey maps 1:50,000, Discovery sheets 70 and 71, while for the more adventurous the Mountain Man shop in Dingle can provide guides to the Kerry hills.

Come nightfall, and there is no shortage of music venues in the town, which once boasted a pub for every week in the year. There's a fleadh atmosphere almost every night of the week in summer, with An Droichead Beag being one of the most sought-after venues. Restaurants can match the best in the Egon Ronay guide, thanks to the standard set originally by John Doyle, while some of the local hotels have added extra rooms this season. But even the bed and breakfast accommodation is second to none.

One particular guesthouse - and it would be invidious to name names - has an international reputation for its extraordinarily wonderful breakfasts. Worth losing sleep to get up for. Who would want to sleep in Dingle anyway . . .