Hello - My friend is getting married in Cork, Ireland, next June. I did a quick flight search and it appears MUCH cheaper and faster (direct flights) to fly into Shannon.

Anyone know how far apart these two cities are? Would it be advisable to fly into Shannon and take a bus or train or something to Cork? Not sure how long that would take...

Thanks in advance for any suggesions!

I've been trying to figure out the same thing to go visit family in Durrus and an Irish friend told me to take the train to Cork. There are a few every hour.

www.irishrail.ie

It's only about 80 miles from Shannon to Cork and you can do it in a straight shot pretty easily by car. There seems to be a train you can take with a couple of changes from Ennis but it all seems workable. http://www.irishrail.ie/home/

From my reading of the Irish Rail timetables, trains run only about every two hours between Ennis and Cork.

On the other hand, bus service (Shannon-Limerick-Cork) is more frequent (about once/hour) and would certainly be cheaper than the train. See www.buseireann.ie.

You might look at flying into Dublin direct from the US and then flying Aer Arran Dublin to Cork. They run several flfights each day and the Round trip would most likely be under 100 Euro. Have fun

I agree with JohnOD. Fly into Dublin then hop a flight into Cork. I've done it several times and been very happy I did.

I've flown in and out of Cork, but it's inevitable that you rent a car, so you might as well fly into Shannon, pick up a car there then save the hassle of the extra hop from Dublin to Cork.
Is this your first time? Are you nervous about driving on the left, especially right after getting off the plane, jet-lagged? Ireland isn't a great country for public transportation...

By the way, ask your friend about the wedding - if it's anything like the weddings I've been to over there, it will be quite different from what you are used to...