Ballymaloe House Hotel, an SLH Hotel

"Myrtle Allen is Ireland’s answer to Alice Waters: The centenarian chef has lobbied the Irish parliament for better food policies, earned some Michelin stars, and, 50 years ago, opened a restaurant called the Yeats Room in the town of Shanagarry, an hour east of Cork City. She eventually added bedrooms upstairs and called it Ballymaloe House, and her sous-chef-turned-daughter-in-law, Darina Allen—who has written canonical Irish cookbooks and helped lead Ireland’s Slow Food movement—tacked on the Ballymaloe Cookery School and farm two miles from the main house. This is thus the seat of Ireland’s food royalty, and it shows. The restaurant spins flavorful dinners out of whatever comes in from the farm or East Cork’s fishing boats, and the cookery school has become known the world over for teaching expert and novice chefs to make pizzas, ferment pickles, cook baby food, and grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Even without all that, the ivy-fronted house—and cabins and cottages on the farm’s grounds—make for a simple, pleasant country retreat."

"Spread across a 400-acre estate in rural eastern Cork, this seventeenth-century stone mansion earns a perfect score for "service that has to be experienced to be believed." Accommodations vary from those in a Norman tower to modern rooms in multiple settings, including cottages in a farmyard. Rooms are furnished in country style, with plenty of chintz. Lunch and dinner menus change daily, depending on the local supply and the house’s gardens. The cooking school amid the 100-acre organic farm is an experience "no foodie should miss." Guests can try their hand at croquet."

"Cork County has long been on the international set of culinary coordinates — from Ballymaloe and its world-class cookery school in the east." - Eater Staff

"For AFAR’s second annual Travelers’ Choice hotel awards, our readers cast close to 60,000 votes to recognize their favorite hotels, including Ballymaloe House." - AFAR Editors