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I use the strings in EWQL Hollywood Strings as well as the ones in Symphonic Orchestra.  They sound very realistic and include a large variety of articulations.  Best of all, they are on sale now (see for example the Complete Composers Collections).  Cheers...

+1. I use these libraries as well. Hollywood Strings takes time to learn, but once you figure them out, they are IMO the best out there (and the legatos are incredible). I use them for all my orchestral film/tv/theater work. I can't beilieve GPO is still around, they are awful...no matter how well you try and orchestrate them. Vienna Ensemble also offers some excellent string libraries (ie; Dimension Strings). I have also heard good things about LASS and Cinematic Strings.

Garritan has up strokes and down strokes and auto alternate on the keyswitches in the lower keys. You can manually alternate the strokes or just click on the alternate key.

My experiences:
 
Vienna Symphonic SE and SE+ do almost everything I need.  (When I bought SE/SE+ it included the whole orchestra including strings, plus chamber strings and solo strings.)  It has most of the articulations you will need.
 
Dimension Strings is fabulous but it is a smaller section (though full sounding) and it takes a bit of work to understand all the articulations.  You should also think about buying the Vienna Instruments Pro Player to get the most out of it.
 
I think Hollywood Strings sounds good, but it requires an SSD (in my opinion) to perform well.  Streaming from a spinning drive does not always work well.  Many film composers swear by Hollywood, but I use it the least of the three.
 
I am a big Vienna fan.  It costs serious bucks but I think it is the gold standard and much easier to use than Hollywood.  If I could do it over, I would buy Vienna Apassionata instead of Hollywood for the epic sound.

I've got a bunch of the aforementioned libraries (EWQL platnium, Session Strings Pro, Action Strings, GPO, IK's big thing (?) and have delved a lot into the others, LASS, Cini, and AudioBro...most cost a big bundle of bucks (1-2k$$$)or, are quite cheesy, on the low end...... one not mentioned is the Kirk Hunter Libraries, which are on par with the big boys, are quite huge libraries, well regarded in the industry, incorporate "Pattern maker" (tvec5), a tool that's really cool (similar to NI's SSpro Animator but way better or LASS's ART auto rhythm tool)
 
I feel Kirk wins on several fronts:  1) He's a great guy who always communicates, not a giant company; 2 His packages are priced far more reasonably than the big boys but are just as huge and beautiful; 3) His prices are on par with the cheaper stuff like GPO/NI but way better and lastly,  4)as he is an artist/producer like us, he routinely has HUGE sales to make them even more affordable... 2 years ago, in a group buy I got every library at 75% off... I'm sure he's doin' something this year.
 
You'll need your own reverb (I use EWQL spaces) but they are stunning.... lots of examples on his website, including ooodles of videos here: http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/videos.html
 
And he'll answer your emails.... really! just like we do here!  http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/
 
BTW, I just checked his site and he seems to be doing it again!!!! After checking with the KH forum folks, they indicated that, "That's a stale link from last year, BUT stay tuned. A little bird on Facebook suggested there may be a massive group buy coming up soon."  I'll keep you posted as there's a few new offerings I'll want to acquire, along with albion 3.
 
I'm NOT associated with KH in any way but he does offer extremely generous sales on quality products because he wants everyday folk like us to have good stuff...Like Gregg at Orange Tree...it ain't all about the money to either of these dudes, which is refreshing
 
At least check out the orchestrations/examples on his website...before you plunk down ur doe/dough/duh! 
 

I think the last post needs to be edited. Cake forums has turned into a shop :)

I noticed that... was deleting while you were comedieing... your quick, sir!
 
Just noticed the new avatar... best one yet!!!

Just as well you edited it Vastman, I nearly bought all of the plugins... I'm already living off bread and water after paying a visit to Native Instruments and this would never do :) Cheers...

Spitefire Albion and Sable series are just crazy ....

BombayCharlie - if in the case you're in the 99% don't have skill, the recent Kirk Hunter Strings, which you can use with Kontakt, offers a lot to make you sound like you belong in the 1% who do know strings.

I suggest you give it a good look if you are really looking for some nice strings.

That said, if you mainly want to layer on some strings here and there in your pieces then many of the synths and synth libraries have worthwhile options. That includes what's already in Dimension Pro.

I'm particularly impressed with what's included in Omnisphere.

The Kirk Hunter library demos I have heard are great.
If someone just wants some simple string washes and some solo strings here and there, is there a package that makes sense that includes the sampler format, or does one have to buy a separate Kontakt sampler.  That is the part that throws me off on buying his libraries so far.