Cork Travel Guide

Introduction

Cork is the second largest city in Ireland (after Dublin of course) and is located in county Cork in the southwestern coastal area of the country. It has about 125,000 people living in the city proper but around 400,000 in the greater metropolitan area.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

• St. Mary's Cathedral
• St. Finbarr's Cathedral
• Cork City Hall
• Cork Opera House

Events and Festivals

• Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is Ireland's famous national holiday, celebrating one of Ireland's patron saints, Saint Patrick.
• Cork Folk Festival - The Cork Folk Festival takes place over a weekend in October, attracting the stars of traditional Irish music for performances in concert halls, open-air venues, pubs and bars. Set dancing, lectures and workshops complement the musical events and the festival draws audiences from all over the world.

Weather

Like much of Ireland, you don't come to Cork for the brilliant weather. Still, it's not as bad as you might think. Average daytime temperatures in summer (June - August) are around 19 degrees Celsius and nights are just above 10 degrees. Winters (December to February) are around 8 degrees during the day and still above zero at night. Absolute records are 28.7 en -8.6 degrees Celsius. Precipitation is possible in all months, though the spring and summer months are somewhat drier compared to autumn and winter.

Getting There

By Plane

Cork Airport (ORK) has quite a few flights with Aer Lingus to European cities, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, Rome, London and Lisbon. Aer Arann has flights to several destinations in the UK and several smaller airlines serve a few destinations throughout the UK and Ireland as well, including Manchester, Birmingham and Dublin. Wizzair flies to Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk and Katowice in Poland.
During the summermonths, charter airlines fly to more destiantions in southern Europe.

By Train

Trains go to Dublin, Killarney, Tralee and a number of other destinations. It's usually not much faster than buses though.

By Bus

Bus Eireann offers regular bus services throughout the country, including buses to Dublin, Killarney, Waterford, Kilkenny, Galway and Limerick. Buses usually go multiple times a day, almost hourly within the region.
Eurolines has buses from Cork via Bristol to London.

By Boat

Brittany Ferries has regular ferries between Cork and Roscoff in France.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

City routes are numbered 1 to 19 and connect the city centre to the suburbs, colleges, shopping centres and places of interest.
the Cork Suburban Rail System provides connections to parts of Metropolitan Cork, including Little Island, Mallow, Midleton, Fota, and Cobh.

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Public WiFi services are available in many cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels. They are also available on most Irish long-distance Intercity trains, some commuter trains and buses. Internet cafes are available in major urban areas, but are not as common as they once were, due to the growth of 3G data services and public WiFi. However, you will still find them in areas popular with tourists.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

There are currently four main mobile phone operators dominating the Irish market:

• Vodafone (prefix 087 - GSM900/1800 - 3G 2100)
• O2 (prefix 086 - GSM900/1800 - 3G 2100)
• Meteor (prefix 085 - GSM900/1800)
• Three (prefix 083 - GSM900/1800 - 3G 2100)

Most European phones and operators will allow you to roam on Irish networks, however you should ensure before arrival that your phone can operate on the GSM900/1800 network and that your service provider has set you up to allow roaming. This is especially true for visitors from outside the Eurozone. You can also buy a cheap prepay SIM card if you have an unlocked handset. This can be considerably cheaper as it means that you will be assigned an Irish number which you can be called at during your trip and your outgoing calls are charged at normal Irish mobile rates.
Pay phones are fairly widely available (but becoming less so) and most take euro coins, prepaid calling cards and major credit cards.
The police service (An Garda Síochána) and fire services can be contacted by dialling 999 or 112 on any phone or mobile phone throughout the country.

Post

An Post is the national postal service provider. They're generally open Monday to Friday, between 9:00am to 5:30pm or 6:00pm, and smaller post offices would also impose lunch-time closure. Half-day service is available on Saturday, from 9:00am to 1:00pm. The General Post Office (GPO) on O'Connell Street in Dublin is the main post office in Dublin, and it is open Monday to Saturday, from 8:00am to 8:00pm. The post offices are closed on Sunday and Bank Holiday. If you want to use private courier services for sending packages you can also use companies like DHL, UPS or TNT.

External Links

• Cork Official Website
• Cork City.ie