The best way to choose a relaxed, meaningful honeymoon? I've found it The Times Huw Oliver, Audience Editor, Travel Getty images huw oliver The best way to choose a relaxed, meaningful honeymoon? I've found it A three-day, tone-setting trip to Cork to revisit a favourite restaurant was the ultimate treat after our wedding Huw Oliver , Audience Editor, Travel Saturday October 17 2026, 5.00pm BST , The Sunday Times Listen 0:00 / · 4:29 min Share Share this article Email Twitter Facebook Link Save I n our house there is only one holy text: the “menu book”. This navy, leatherbound A3 scrapbook contains memories of meals that Morwenna (my wife, as of a fortnight ago — it sure feels great not to have to say “fiancée” any more) and I have loved over the four years we've known each other. If a restaurant makes the grade, we paste in the menu (grovellingly requested from staff), underline what we ate and scribble a couple of lines of commentary. The two pages dedicated to Goldie in Cork — our favourite restaurant — are especially sacred. No dish has ever topped the gloriously rich John Dory in chicken fat and miso butter sauce we shared two years ago at this small seafood spot, and no side could come close to the earthy, creamy colcannon, the vast mound of which seemed bottomless, in a good way. Most commented 1 Starlink deliberately slowed in Ukraine, says Zelensky Russia-Ukraine war 1,057 comments 2 Katie Zacharia departs as Trump's press secretary after less than a week US politics 689 comments 3 Hundreds of British troops to rehearse Ukraine mission Politics 309 comments 4 Scotland plane crash: boy, 16, and man, 80, killed Scotland 48 comments 5 All Blacks leave Australia chasing shadows in dazzling first half Rugby union 26 comments We discuss that meal with almost alarming frequency. We have even tried to recreate it, having bought the Goldie chef Aishling Moore's cookbook (mixed results). So when it came to planning a minimoon — three days somewhere the week after our wedding — we knew precisely where we would be going. Top stories 1 US inflation hotter than expected as Iran war stokes fuel costs Economics There's a lot of pressure to make your first holiday as newlyweds all about novelty and adventure — two weeks navigating the railway network of Japan, say, or a Scandinavian road trip along precipitous fjords — but not for us. We didn't want to feel challenged, nor that we had to cram in all the sights. What we did fancy was some menu book-worthy food, so we aimed to replicate the weekend break we enjoyed in Ireland's second city in 2024. Huw headed to Cork for his honeymoon Getty images Cork is brilliantly easy to get to. There are about 15 flights from the UK daily, taking just over an hour. This meant that within four hours of leaving our southeast London flat we were in our Woodland Suite in the grounds of the Montenotte hotel, on a hill overlooking the city. Advertisement These black-painted cabins are luxurious in many ways: they're enormous; you can take a buggy from reception to the suites (the alternative is a non-strenuous three-minute walk); there are freestanding baths, balconies shaded by oaks and birches, and TVs that emerge from the end of the bed and swivel, so you can watch while soaking in the tub. But what really brought us back was the satisfaction of the march down the slope into town for shellfish and pints of Beamish, before wobbling back up to our nest afterwards (B&B suites from ￡449; themontenottehotel.com). The Woodland Suite at the Montenotte hotel Our must-revisits included, at the top of the English Market, Farmgate Café, whose chowder and dunkable toasties — made with ingredients from the stalls downstairs — were as comforting as remembered (mains from ￡8; farmgatecork.ie). And then there were the had-to-have-them-again crab claws drenched in butter at the family-run seafood restaurant Quinlan's — messy but so very worth it (mains from ￡20; seafoodbar.ie). Read more Explore our full travel guide to Ireland Castles, cabins and lakeside destinations: Irish stays for design lovers More great places to stay in Ireland Goldie's offering, thankfully, hadn't changed much. We ordered the Taiwanese fish nuggets, Rossmore rock oysters, hake tail schnitzel and, of course, the main event of colcannon, this time accompanying two portions of brill in the chicken fat and miso butter sauce. We had built up quite a powerful image of this meal in our minds over the past two years. And I was delighted, almost tearful, to realise that it had been that good (mains from ￡18; goldie.ie). Morwenna dining at Goldie Thinking it OTT to return a second time in one trip to any of the above, we spent our final evening at the Japanese restaurant and natural wine bar Ichigo Ichie Bistro. Here, I tried my first fried oysters — would recommend — and slurped a bowl of soba noodles with tempura tofu whose batter melted to delicious goo (mains from ￡11; ichigoichie.ie). After that two friends whisked us through the rain to the charming speakeasy pub Maureen's, named after its owner, for far too many glasses of red wine (drinks from ￡6; maureenscork.com). Two more reasons to come back and do Cork a third time. Top stories 1 Theo Paphitis: I bought a ￡100m business for ￡1 and two packs of Benson & Hedges Family Finances 2 Premium Bonds are fun – until you realise what they are costing you Saving & Investing 3 Will Lyons: my vintage wine tour of South Australia Inspiration In the menu book we described that first trip as “a wonderful (wet) weekend, featuring the meal of the year!” The latest entry? The same, word for word. Advertisement Which destinations do you return to again and again? Let us know in the comments below Inspired? Our in-house agency Times Holidays can help you book your own, fully customisable trips Travel newsletter Your weekly round-up of the best travel inspiration, guides, hotel reviews and advice from our experts. Sign up with one click You've successfully signed up to the Travel newsletter Explore our newsletters An error occurred. Please use the link below. 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