In case you missed it, my family & I were away on a lovely road trip for 8 days to the south of Ireland. We started our adventure at Top of the Rock, Drimoleague, in a luxury pod – glamping at its best. From there we headed along the coast to the Radisson Blu which is located east of Cork City.
We had a gorgeous, sunny day during our stay at the Radisson Blu. We took full advantage of the lovely weather and headed over to Fota Wildlife Park for the morning. After we enjoyed all of the cute animals we headed south to the stunning coastal town of Cobh. Both of which were a short drive from our hotel.
I highly recommend a visit to both Fota Wildlife Park & Cobh because the day we spent exploring them was one of my favorite days of our holiday. I would say that the sunny weather was a big help to our enjoyment because both locations were beautiful in the sunshine.
Fota Wildlife Park
Fota Wildlife Park is located on Fota Island. It’s 100 acres in size and is located 10 km away from Cork City.
The animal enclosures are large & natural. It was amazing to see the zebras & giraffes running when we first arrived! I’ve never seen that in a zoo before. They also have some animals loose – just wandering around the zoo!
Maps cost 1 euro each and were well worth it. The map includes details of every animal enclosure, birds, trees & loose animals at the zoo. Keeping our eyes out for lemurs, mara, guinea fowl & peacocks wandering around the zoo added a sense of adventure to our visit.
The zoo was clean, very well kept & felt natural. The pathways felt like we were exploring rather than simply walking through a zoo.
We spent three hours exploring Fota (without eating) & saw everything at our leisure. May was a nice, quiet time of year to visit Fota Wildlife Park. We had a look around the gift shop before we left. They have the most adorable selection of baby zoo animal soft toys. Needless to say, my three kiddies each picked one to bring home.
Cobh
After our visit to Fota, we took a short drive south to the gorgeous coastal town of Cobh. It’s impossible to describe how beautiful this town is. It was built on a steep hill. Perched on top is a huge cathedral. There are houses built along very steep roads with shops and restaurants along the coast.
St. Coleman’s Cathedral is by far the most amazingly detailed one I’ve ever seen. It started construction in 1868. We marvelled at how it was built on the side of a cliff like it is! And with such beautiful detail.
Cobh is home to the Titanic Experience, which is located in the original ticket office that those boarding the Titanic from Ireland would have gone to! The experience was really informative & enjoyable. When we paid our admission fee, we were each handed a ticket with the name of a real passenger who had boarded the Titanic in Cobh.
We learned that there were 123 passengers who boarded Titanic in Cobh. Only 3 were in first class. Only 44 of them survived. A total of 1.5 million Irish emigrated from the pier in Cobh, which was known as heartbreak pier as most were never seen again. At the end of the experience, we found the passenger on each of our tickets to find out what happened to them. There is a real sense of history at the Titanic Experience which we all enjoyed.
Our Experience
I really can’t say enough good things about both Fota Wildlife Park & Cobh. They are fun to do together on a nice day when you are visiting Cork. The five of us all really enjoyed our day out.
I have put together a short video of our day, starting at Fota & finishing up in Cobh, including a bit about the Titanic Experience. I hope you enjoy it!
If the video doesn’t play, you can watch it directly on YouTube, here.
The rest of our road trip will be coming to the blog soon as we head into Cork City then over to a private island in Waterford! So buckle your seat belt & enjoy the trip with us! For more, visit my travel posts. Follow Cuddle Fairy on social media to keep up to date with the upcoming road trip posts. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. xx
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