Pure luxury at Adare Manor as well as beautiful scenery at Blarney Castle including kissing the Blarney Stone.
Adare Manor
With the stormy weather and the fact that we were in a castle, we stayed until check-out time. I attempted to take pictures outside, but the wind was extremely strong, and it was hard to keep my camera still. Storm Diana was definitely making an appearance and I was the only one outside the manor besides people working. We had some great conversations with the doormen and enjoyed just taking it easy and slow.
Breakfast was in The Gallery and it was the most amazing display of breakfast foods in a beautiful grand room! They had wellness shots which my mom and I took advantage of. The one I had was apple cider vinegar, lime and honey. They had the cutest jars of jam and it was so yummy. Every little detail was accounted for at the Adare Manor.
We went to the gift shop and bought a couple things, including some of the jam from breakfast. Unfortunately, we had to check out and head on our way to Cork so we were close to the airport for our flight the next day. They ended up cancelling all the flights that day so we were happy that we were flying to London the next day! On our way to Cork we planned for a stop at the Blarney Castle and Grounds.
Blarney Castle and Grounds
The Blarney Castle is one of those iconic places you need to visit when in Ireland. It was raining when we arrived, so we waited a little bit and luckily the rain stopped so we didn’t have to suit up in our ponchos. There weren’t too many people around which was nice. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the castle, especially the gardens around the castle.
Of course, I had to kiss the Blarney Stone and there was no line so even better. The stairs up to the stone were very tiny and my knees felt like jello on the way up. There are a few places you can stop and look at various rooms along the way which helped you not feel so trapped in the stairway. I would not want to do these stairs when it’s full of people.
The poison garden looked kind of sad because of the time of year but it contains dangerous and toxic plants from all over the world. We headed to the fern garden which was really cool and probably one of my favorite gardens. I can only imagine how gorgeous the different gardens are at prime time of the year. The bog garden and the jungle were cool but they were under some construction with the walkways.
If you plan to go, I would print out the map and plan where you are going to go first because there is a lot to cover. You can easily spend the day here and don’t just kiss the stone, visit the whole grounds and the estate. It rained off and on while were there so I was glad I had my raincoat with me.
We decided to head to our hotel and for dinner before it got dark. I plugged in the address in maps on my phone which I am super thankful for because there were a lot of huge roundabouts, lots of turns and a very busy area. Thankful that we stayed close to the airport that night so we didn’t have to worry about traffic in the morning.
Cork International Hotel
We chose this hotel because it was near the airport (you could literally see the airport landing strip from the hotel). The food was great and the hotel was clean and nice. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel for dinner and I tried something completely different from what I would have back home and it was delicious. My mom and sister had the pasta which also looked good.
We ended up purchasing breakfast for the next morning which wasn’t included when we made our online reservations. The woman at the hotel said if we would have called at the time of reserving, they would have included breakfast. Something to remember in the future!
Airport to London
The next morning we packed our bags and headed to the airport. We returned our rental car and it didn’t take too long because we had full coverage insurance. Nothing happened to the car, but paying the extra for ease of mind was well worth it!