Cork is Ireland's second city and its first when it comes to food. The English Market has been trading since 1788, and the culture of small producers, artisan cheesemakers and independent restaurants that surrounds it has made Cork one of the most interesting food destinations in Europe.

West Cork is where the coastline becomes extraordinary. The Mizen Peninsula, the Sheep's Head and the Beara are three fingers of land pointing into the Atlantic, each with its own character and its own rewards. The villages of Schull, Ballydehob and Castletownbere are small, independent and entirely themselves.

Kinsale, at the mouth of the Bandon River, is the most polished of Cork's coastal towns — a seventeenth-century fortified harbour with excellent restaurants, a strong sailing culture and a food festival in October that draws visitors from across Ireland.

Bantry Bay is one of the great views in Ireland: a deep-water inlet flanked by mountains, with Bantry House — an eighteenth-century mansion with formal gardens — looking out across the water. Bella Via designs Cork itineraries that combine the city's food culture with the quieter pleasures of the west.

Cork rewards those who come hungry — for food, for landscape and for the particular pleasure of a county that does things its own way.