Blarney Castle from Cobh On Your Own

The train station in Cobh is located directly across from the cruise ship berth. It’s less than a five-minute walk. Get off the ship quickly—this will help you beat the excursions! The train to Cork runs every 30 minutes, so you don’t really need to worry about meeting the train. There are ticket machines on the platform, they take credit cards, and the cost is about seven euro for a return ticket. You can get the tickets online as well, on the Irish Rail site.

Blarney House. It's open in the summer, but we missed it by a few days.

Once you arrive in Cork, which is about a half-hour trip, there is a bus, but we chose to take an Uber (which was actually a taxi) to save some time. That was about $35 each way. The bus would obviously be cheaper, but it’s a 15-minute walk from the station, and then another seven-minute walk in Blarney. With one objective being to save time, the taxi was a better choice. You can buy tickets to the castle online as well; currently, it’s 23 euro each.

The queue

Almost there!

Made it!

By arriving fairly early, we were able to make the climb to the Blarney Stone before the rush. We had about an hour-long line, but it’s an interesting climb up the castle, so it wasn’t bad at all. We could see the line growing longer behind us as we climbed. After kissing the stone, we explored the grounds, which include some interesting gardens—even a poison garden! Then, we got an Uber back to Cork, where we shopped a bit, starting near the English Market. We found lunch at a kebab shop before walking back to the train station to return to the ship.

The poison garden. For Harry Potter fans: They also had mandrake!

Just a taste of the gardens.

Everyone's got to go!

You would also have time to go to Blarney, return directly to Cobh (through Cork), and then visit the Titanic Experience, which is just a short walk from the pier. It is a good experience, with a different perspective on the disaster. A bit of the tender pier that was used by passengers going to the ship still remains, and at least part of the building is the original White Star Line office.

For more inspiration and insider recommendations, visit our Ireland page.