Top Attractions in Cork for Families with Teenagers [2022]

Finding fun activities for your guests with teenage children can sometimes be a challenge! Thankfully in Cork, we have a wide variety of experiences that teens and tweens will love. In this blog, we recommend 7 amazing activities that families with teenagers are sure to enjoy.

1. Fota Wildlife Park
2. Fota Island Adventure
3. Titanic Experience in Cobh
4. Blarney Castle and Gardens
5. Zip-It
6. Cuskinny Court

1. Fota Wildlife Park

Fota Wildlife Park provides a memorable day out in the great outdoors for all ages. We are one of Ireland’s top visitor attractions, with 460,000 visitors coming through our gates every year.

Set on 100 acres, Fota Wildlife Park is home to 135 species of animals, 75 of which face extinction in the wild. The naturalistic habitats are carefully designed to promote biodiversity and encourage natural behaviour.

Fota Wildlife Park is Ireland’s only zoological wildlife park and features endangered species such as Rothschild’s giraffe, Asiatic lions, Sumatran tiger, Indian rhino, and Northern cheetah. Explore the Asian Sanctuary, see the African savannah, take a stroll around Palm walk areas with its primate islands and experience a variety of free-roaming animals and birds such as Ring-tailed lemurs and wallabies.

Fota Wildlife Park contains everything you need for a memorable day out for all the family including cafes, a gift shop, tour train and during the peak seasonal times, you can also find food vendors at the Asian Sanctuary, including Badger & Dodo coffee and Volcano Pizza.

We are situated in a prime location to enhance any hotel stay in Cork the surrounding region. We are only a 20-minute drive from Cork City centre and easily accessible from many of the national road routes. We also have our own dedicated rail stop with Irish Rail serviced by the Cork-Cobh line for your guests that choose to leave the car in the city centre.

2. Fota Island Adventure

After your guests have finished exploring our magnificent park, we recommend that they head over to Fota Island Resort to take part in an exciting Fota Island Adventure that teens are sure to love! With plenty of fun-filled activities in store, including forest activities, obstacle courses, bushcraft, archery and find the sniper.

Between water sports such as kayaking and SUPing, and forest activities including an obstacle course, bushcraft and finding the sniper, there are plenty of activities to stimulate the mind, get active and have great fun.

3. Titanic Experience 

Just a stone’s throw away from Fota Wildlife Park, the Titanic Experience will allow your guests to take a step back in time to 1912. Located at the original White Star Line Ticket Office, the building is saturated in history dating back as far as the early 19^th Century.

Upon entry, visitors are given a boarding card belonging to one of the 123 passengers who boarded the Titanic at her final port of call at Queenstown. Over the course of a half hour tour, visitors are taken on a virtual journey aboard the Titanic, learning about the history and life on board the ship, before experiencing the sinking through a unique cinematographic-based experience.

At the final point of the tour, visitors will learn the fate of the passenger named on their boarding pass, as well some interesting artefacts in the Story Room. This tour is a must for any history loving teens.

4. Blarney Castle & Gardens

Blarney Castle might be most famously known for kissing the Blarney Stone, but there is much more to this destination than coming away with “the gift of the gab”. Blarney Castle is one of Ireland’s much-loved treasures and is steeped in a history spanning almost 600 years.

After viewing the castle from all its angles and exploring inside the castle walls and dungeon, your guests can ascend the castle to see the iconic Blarney Stone. Once atop the castle, they will be treated to the breath-taking views of the castle parklands spanning over 60 acres.

Your guests can then make their way to the castle gardens to traverse through the diverse range of gardens, avenues, arboretums, and waterways, with plenty of ideal spots to bring a picnic. The castle grounds also include many other mystical sites to behold, including the Badger’s Cave, the Lake, the Kitchen and Stone of the Blarney Castle witch and the Wishing Steps. A trip to Blarney Castle is sure to be one your guests will remember forever.

5. Zip-It

For your more adrenaline-chasing guests, we would highly recommend paying a visit to Farran Park for tree-top adventure with Zip-It! Zip-It offers a range of unique high rope activities, including 1.8km of tree-top challenges, high ropes circuits and up to 1km of Ziplines. Heights of the wooden platforms, ropes and ladders range anywhere from 1-20 metres off the ground, built around the natural forest setting. All Instructors are ERCA certified and use the most up-to-date safety equipment so your guests can rest assured they are in safe hands.

6. Cuskinny Court Group Activity Centre– Group bookings

Just a 5-minute drive from Cobh’s seafront, Cuskinny Court is a country house estate spanning over 15 acres of woodland, open meadows, and gardens. Cuskinny Court provides a range of outdoor activities that are particularly popular with teens, including zipline, a 24ft realistic climbing wall, obstacle courses, grass sledding, bushcrafts, archery and team-building games! Their focus is on getting groups to embrace their natural environment in fun and creative ways.

Interested in becoming a hotel partner of Fota Wildlife Park?

If you are interested in working with us in developing an added value holiday package that your guests will love, we would love to hear from you! Get in touch with us today to find out more, including our T&Cs and our discounted ticket rate for corporate partners.