Hi,
I will be travelling to Ireland at the end of June 2025. Flying into Shannon and looking to start our trip in Cork. Hope to stay there 3 nights and day trip to Cobh and Killarney. Any recommendations on the best area of Cork to stay in. We would like easy access to things to do, eat and listen to music.
Thanks!
Just got back from there. We stayed in Camden Quay, north of the Lee, in a budget-friendly 2BR apartment that I can't really recommend (though if you're interested in the details, you can DM me), but the location was ideal. There was a Residence Inn across the alley that looked nice enough. Around the corner on Coburg Street was Sin é, a pub with music most evenings. There are a couple of smaller hotels on/off Coburg Street, as well. We took a bus from Coburg Street to Blarney, and that was a great day out. We also took the train to Cobh and walked to the train station in about 15 minutes.
You don't say whether you will have a car, but I imagine parking in this area could be tough. Looks like the Residence Inn uses an off-site parking garage that is behind our building. Our apartment might have included parking in that garage, now that I think about it. We didn't have a car.
Re: music, our host told us that the pubs in the city center, south of the river, were more like clubs for the under 30s. We found this to be all too true. Sin é and The Corner House next door were much more to our taste. We were two women in our 50s.
I would recommend central Cork or Cobh, which are about 15 miles apart. I also drove through Killarney, which was also beautiful. Sorry I don't have names.
If you don't mind, I'll add an anecdote: I visited Cork in 1993 and 2010. In 1993, Cork was the second city of the Republic of Ireland -- much like my home town -- with a working class vibe and a lot of industry. When I visited 17 years later, I couldn't believe the change. Central Cork was sparkling with economic development. The Celtic Tiger had definitely visited Cork.
OK, so you’re not flying in to Cork, then? We did in the springtime two years ago, and the bus ride into town was easy and close. How are you getting from Shannon to Cork? After we had several nights in Cork, we took the bus back to the Cork airport to rent our car for visiting more of Ireland. We flew out of Ireland from Shannon, BTW.
We had an Airbnb up the Summerhill N road, northeast of downtown, on the north side of the River Lee. It felt a bit suburban, where the local residents lived, with plenty of restaurants, although we also went into downtown some nights for dinner, including at the outstanding Goldie restaurant (make reservations). It was a bit of a walk to downtown, the English Market, the Crawford Art Gallery, the Butter Museum, and many music pubs, and we took a taxi a couple times, but walked the rest of the days and evenings, and the price for our small studio place was certainly right. We were also a few short blocks from a nice local’s pub, the Belle View Bar, on Old Youghal Road, where the talented owner and his band played one night a week.
I don’t know what lodging options are there, but if you really wanted to be “in the mix” of things, I’d look at the pedestrian, somewhat gentrified area around the Goldie restaurant. Otherwise, our Airbnb area in Summerhill was very good.
I stayed at The Metropole Hotel in 2019. It has nice Victorian character. Our room faced the main road, but it was quiet. The breakfast has lots of options and plenty of seating. The hotel is a short walk from the train station, and it's another easy walk to the city center. Just down the road, you can hear fantastic trad at the Corner House.
