One of the lovely perks of working with the Cork International Hotel, is that when each team member commences employment, they are invited with a guest to come and stay in either The Cork International Hotel, the Cork Airport Hotel or the Metropole Hotel for an overnight stay with a guest with dinner. The purpose of this is so that every team member has an opportunity to view the property from a guest perspective and enjoy the facilities that the hotel has to offer as a guest. Quite often in hospitality, the team members don’t get to see it from the other side, so it is a lovely treat.

As I am located with the International, I decided to stay there. I must admit, prior to working there, I had never stayed there before so I didn’t know what to expect.

The location of the property is excellent. It is 10 minutes from Cork City Centre on the link, 10 minutes from the centre of Douglas and 15 minutes from Kinsale town centre. It is deceptively close to all the aforementioned – and obviously, it is only minutes from Cork Airport so an ideal location to stay before you fly out on holiday – an early start to the holiday. In fact, they do great “Park and Fly” offers so that you can safely park your car and avail of the complimentary hotel airport shuttle bus to take you to the terminal.

The hotel lobby itself is extremely impressive on arrival.

It is a beautiful open space with high ceilings and magnificent natural light flowing through the large windows. The seating in the lobby area is extremely comfortable and an ideal place for afternoon tea or even a quite coffee whilst you catch up on work or catch up with friends.

The hotel although located in a business park naturally lends itself to hosting a huge amount of corporate events with the meeting and function rooms, it is also a really family and leisure focused hotel.

My nephews have visited the hotel on numerous occasions as they enjoy the children’s play room so much! They actually love the Sunday Buffet Lunch more, but that is a whole other blog post!

The playroom which is located on the first floor is suited to both the smaller guests as well as the ‘tweens’ as it has games to suit toddlers right up to the young teens who want to play with the Nintendo Wii (on the aircraft seats – which are such a novel feature in keeping with the hotel).

There is also a great selection of books that can be hired from reception and not only that – but smaller guests get to check in themselves in the “VIP check section” for young guests at reception.

As well as the playroom on the first floor, there is a fitness room which has a large selection of weights and cardio machines – but for this stay I left my gym gear at home. There is also a 5km route map for guests to take around the business park which the reception team have a map.

Another lovely room on the first floor is Cloud 9! This room is for residents only and for guests over 16. It has the most amazing massage chairs and a projector style theatre so that you can grab some popcorn and watch a movie – or close your eyes, listen to some music and enjoy the complimentary massage!

The bedrooms in the hotel are all really lovely. There are a variety of room types available and plenty of family rooms.

All of the bedrooms are uniquely furnished so no 2 bedrooms are the same.

The beds are exceptionally comfortable – especially the pillows! And the rooms have lovely space to them. There are also some rooms with balconies which are located on the 3rd floor.

With regard to dining options at the hotel, The New Yorker Bar serves food right throughout the day. The menu is very extensive and the food was excellent.

Whenever I stay in a hotel, my most favourite meal is the breakfast – and the Cork International did not disappoint! The breakfast buffet was honestly superb. There was a great selection of cereals, fruits, meats, juices, hot food, gluten free options and my favourite was the chef station (eggs cooked to your liking and waffles!).

There are currently some superb “May Madness” offers which you can see if you click here.

During my stay at the hotel, I took the 15 minute spin to Kinsale and stopped for a drink in one of my most favourite bars in the world – The Bullman.

I then drove on to a place, I must ashamedly admit, I had never been to before – Charlesfort. I would highly recommend a visit to this stunning heritage site. It is too often that we take for granted our own amenities but honestly, we are honoured to live in the most beautiful County and should appreciate our surroundings more than we do. I know that this Summer, I will be making a list of Counties and amenities to visit and appreciating our little Island more than I do presently.