Fota Island Resort

Well where to begin, perhaps at the bottom of, what seems like, the mile long drive up to the hotel. Watch out for the speed bumps!
The hotel/​resort is set on an actual island. Attached to the hotel is the Forta Golf course, which I was told has hosted some major golf tournaments. There is a wildlife park, tennis courts, football training pitches and the island even has its own train station.
There are several trails which you can walk or run around, if you are that way inclined. The island is very green and picturesque, the sun rise is particularly good if you have one of the front facing bedrooms.
The bedrooms are very well appointed with all the bits you would expect, large bed, desk area, sofa chairs and ample wardrobe space if you have lots of clothes to store.
The hotel staff could not do more for you. Yes I know it is the service industry but they all seemed genuinely happy to help, even with very very mundane things.
Now I was there over a weekend and they had one wedding party on the Friday and one in the Saturday night, if you are staying on the 1^st floor you will hear the music into the early hours, be warned.
The food was ok, although we were stuck on the tournament menu which was not very good but looking at the food served to other guests it looked good.
They have a very good bar with good bar staff, plenty of Irish whiskey’s to sample. Our Irish counter parts were in there one night until 5am!
A good venue with high quality accommodation. Would definitely come back here.

Popped in with 2 friends for coffee and pastries. All I can say is that is exactly what I would recommend to do ther. Soooooo
Chilled and comfortable, you could spend hours sitting, relaxing and catching up with friends in lovely luxurious surroundings. Plenty of easy parking also

I have mixed feelings about this hotel. Though the grounds are beautiful, the facilities themselves (hotel rooms, restaurants, etc.) are just ok. Service has been a hit and miss, wherein you get folks who constantly check to make sure you’re attended to versus some who consider you almost invisible. If I just wasn’t polite, I would have just walked out a number of times as the check had taken so long to get. On a couple of occasions, there was an error too. Not sure if it was the fact that I don’t look local or well polished enough to get A+ service but regardless, I did not get that during my stay. To me, it was between a B and C grade.
I was only here for a short business trip and during this time, I had tried to book a treatment with the spa, only to find that they’ve been booked at least a couple days ahead already. As i understand that there is a ‘membership’ of sorts that they keep and probably get preferred treatment over hotel guests, it is very disappointing that I did not get an opportunity or have been made special accommodations to taste this supposed top class spa service.

Pure DECADENCE. Five stars of snootiness and luxury. We stopped in to get lunch and were refused from the BAR (by an extremely smarmy front of house) as we hadn’t got a reservation? But were sat in the restaurant instead? Confused.
The Steak sandwich and beef burger were amazing. The open fire we were sat next to wasn’t, as for some reason there was no heat from it at all?
€ 34 in total for one burger, one sandwich and two tap waters. Ching-​ching.

Afternoon Tea — what’s not to like about it?! Dainty sandwiches, pretty cakes and fancy coffee all eaten in the afternoon when you could probably be doing something much more productive. But you’re not, you are eating cake in the afternoon while gossiping with friends — amazing!
Recently I travelled to Fota Island Resort for a wedding with a friend as her plus one. I didn’t know the couple very well but am very easy to entice with promises of a spa day and lots of cake! To start our weekend off we settled ourselves into the big comfy chairs in the Amber Lounge and ordered afternoon tea which was included in our Afternoon Indulgence spa package. Like all good afternoon tea outings we began with tea and coffee which was swiftly followed by an enticing three tier cake stand filled with goodies. This afternoon tea was slightly different to normal as it was a healthy options version due to it being part of the spa package.
The first tier consisted of smoked salmon on brown bread, shots of tomato juice and a deconstructed caprese salad. This was followed by a second layer of fresh scones with pots of butter and raspberry jam to lash on top of them. Afternoon tea was then finished off with slices of lemon cake and a nutty type sponge slice both of which were lovely. We were well and truly full by the time we finished and were totally relaxed and ready for our treatments.
The spa in Fota Island is also one of the nicest I have ever been too. The whole experience was wonderful and worth every penny. The staff were knowledgeable and polite and the spa itself was well kept and very clean. As a former employee of a day spa I have very high standards when I am paying for a treatment and Fota lived up to all my expectations. They catered to our every need and made us feel like we were paying a lot more for the experience than we were. The Afternoon Indulgence Spa Package cost € 65 and includes a range of options which you can view here. If I lived closer I would be taking advantage of their special offers on a regular basis.