Waterford a depressing hole?

CAUN

I suggested to a few mates that I might head down to Waterford of a Saturday just to get a break from Cork. They laughed at me and said stay away from the place, tis gone to shih since the recession.

So Waterford people, is your city any good for a day out? Shopping, restaurants etc. Some tourist stuff/sight seeing as the missus is a foreigner. Sell the city to me.

Thanks

BBM77

CAUN wrote: »

I suggested to a few mates that I might head down to Waterford of a Saturday just to get a break from Cork. They laughed at me and said stay away from the place, tis gone to shih since the recession.

So Waterford people, is your city any good for a day out? Shopping, restaurants etc. Some tourist stuff/sight seeing as the missus is a foreigner. Sell the city to me.

Thanks

SHOCK HORROR! Cork people saying somewhere outside of Cork has gone to ****e…
That’s just cork people being cork people. If you want to see Waterford come to Waterford and make up your own mind. You’ll see that it has suffered from the recession like everywhere has but has far from gone to ****e. If Waterford had gone to ****e its population would be shrinking instead of growing as it is.

Wanderer2010

As a proud Waterfordian born and bred, I feel Im qualified to give you my opinion. Yes, the city has suffered a lot from the recession and has been neglected by the government in terms of new job creation ( a mix of our reputation for being strike happy militant workers and a lower population than say, Galway or Dublin) but thats not the issue. You asked is it ok for a weekend and shopping, tourist sites etc and the answer is a resounding yes!

Our Viking Triangle has been revamped almost beyond recognition and I strongly suggest a trip to Reginalds Tower, the Waterford Crystal plant on The Mall, where they take you on a trip of the remaining product line in the factory and a chance to browse the showrooms afterwards. Then you have Bishops Palace and the Medieval Museum just across the road if you are interested in the history of Irelands Oldest (and best ) City. Both places are relatively cheap to visit and the tour guides are top notch. If you have the time, a walking tour around Waterford taking in the remains of the old City Walls back in the fortress times is a must do and Jack Burchell (think thats the surname) often brings his tourists back to the Granville Hotel for a few pints and banter afterwards, time very well spent.

The best thing about the tourist spots are they are all in close proximity around The Mall, Viking Triangle and up around Baileys New Street, which happens to feature charming old preserved bulidings similar to Old London in style. Shopping? Ok its not our best asset I will admit that but City Square does have Debenhams, River Island, Golden Discs, GameStop etc so you will be catered for if you are male or female and whatever your clothing needs are. We also have The Book Centre, Shaws, Gregorys Clothes for Men on Patrick Street which is a top place for shirts and jeans.

Hungry? No problem, for cafes we have Aoifes on the Mall, The Tea Assembly on Michael Street, Kylemore in City Square and if you after a meal there really is no shortage of places to go. MacLearys on High Street serve in my opinion the best steaks around, you have Italian and Thai restaurants, a new Tapas bar open near Theatre Royal on The Mall and there are plenty of decent places to eat if you take a 10 minute drive out to Tramore (like Brooklyn for example, food there is delicious). Take a walk along the Quay for the atmosphere, window shopping and sights like the Clock Tower.

As for nightlife, its mostly concentrated in one area, Michael Street. I would strongly recommend the Kazbar for live music and atmosphere, Geoffs if you want character, Sinnots to dance the night away and while you are here check out our new nightclub and bar The Reg which is naturally right next to Reginalds Tower. For places to stay you cant beat the Tower Hotel or Dooleys for location and price and if you need help ask! By and large Waterford people are friendly and approachable. Like every city we have some scumbags and a few beggars but thats just life. Dont believe all the bad press about the place, come down, check out a few places as above and make your own mind up!

Oh and I almost forgot, we have a unique bread roll or bun called the Blaa, which comes in 2 varieties Soft and Crusty, and can be filled with ham, cheese, bacon, whatever you want. Its a taste of real Waterford right there (get one in the mornings at the Kiosk stand right outside the Book Centre).

See you there, boy, on the ball....:p

dzilla

Ridiculous thread name

Totally Tropical

BBM77 wrote: »

SHOCK HORROR! Cork people saying somewhere outside of Cork has gone to ****e…
That’s just cork people being cork people. If you want to see Waterford come to Waterford and make up your own mind. You’ll see that it has suffered from the recession like everywhere has but has far from gone to ****e. If Waterford had gone to ****e its population would be shrinking instead of growing as it is.

Cork people being Cork people what do you mean!Yes i am from Cork and i am quite patriotic about my home place and i do get quite argumentative when people put it down or say that it's not as great as i say it is.But i like other places too!It is true that the recession has affected Waterford but it has affected everywhere else has well.I wouldn't tar the populance of an entire place with the one brush based on some throwaway subjective comments.In my subjective opinion i find Waterford (along with Limerick) to be the most underrated city in the country and i find it to be the nicest city in Ireland (along with Limerick) after Cork.That is just a subjective opinion that i wouldn't pass off as fact.Waterford has very friendly people and some lovely medieval architecture and nice scenery along with a great selection of pubs and restaurants.What more would you want?Depressing hole what a load of crap!

KevIRL

hmmm, seems like the OP has a history of trollish type comments to places outside Cork in his short boards posting history

CAUN

KevIRL wrote: »

hmmm, seems like the OP has a history of trollish type comments (plural????) to places outside Cork in his short boards posting history

Wow ... what a "history". One whole comment. LoL.

I see I've struck a nerve with this particular Waterford person. He had to go and snoop around my business. "Who's this stranger coming to my village?" Also, I was referring to one pub in Kilkenny, not the whole city. Talk about overreacting.

To the rest of the folks, thanks for your input.

The thread title was to provoke the strongest pro-Waterford tourist advice. I got what I wanted and if there's any more, please do share.

Digital Society

BBM77 wrote: »

growing as it is.

aaaaa

Gardner

been from waterford i do agree, its a ****hole when it comes to nite life....... hate saying it but its the truth

Mint Aero

It's grand for a visit. Like it's probably better than Carlow and Wexford town?

I think Waterford needs to drop their obsession with Vikings and the Viking Triangle. How long are they going to flog that dead horse? It clearly isn't a seller.

MRnotlob606

Mint Aero wrote: »

It's grand for a visit. Like it's probably better than Carlow and Wexford town?

I think Waterford needs to drop their obsession with Vikings and the Viking Triangle. How long are they going to flog that dead horse? It clearly isn't a seller.

how do you mean its a dead horse ? Waterford is celebrating its 1100 year birthday this year so maybe that's why there's so much talk of it, We are just trying to promote our city that has been overlooked at times.

BadCharlie

Mint Aero wrote: »

It's grand for a visit. Like it's probably better than Carlow and Wexford town?

I think Waterford needs to drop their obsession with Vikings and the Viking Triangle. How long are they going to flog that dead horse? It clearly isn't a seller.

Strongly disagree, its not even finished and dismissing it all ready is madness. Once its finished the council can move onto the next stage.

The area which is knowing as the viking triangle was well run down and badly needed an upgrade.

A one day trip would be enough i think, You just missed winterval which is a great day out with the kids. And even if you don't have kids its still fun.

Cabaal

Mint Aero wrote: »

It's grand for a visit. Like it's probably better than Carlow and Wexford town?

I think Waterford needs to drop their obsession with Vikings and the Viking Triangle. How long are they going to flog that dead horse? It clearly isn't a seller.

How is it a dead horse?
Bottom line is Waterford undersold its tourist attractions for decades, people just depended on the glass to bring people to the city,.

Tourism can bring alot of business to a city (you've only to look at Kilkenny city to see how successful this can be) and the viking triangle thing, along with Irish flag festival are very much a step in the right direction.

Waterford has a whole has alot to offer, but sadly its been under-marketed for a very long time.

imho its posts like yours that show the negative view people have of so many things in Waterford and its a crying shame,

mike65

Why would anyone leave Cork for Waterford anywhere else? Sure Monte Carlo in the mid 60s wouldn't have been as groovy as Cork is at any time.

mike65

Mint Aero wrote: »

It's grand for a visit. Like it's probably better than Carlow and Wexford town?

I think Waterford needs to drop their obsession with Vikings and the Viking Triangle. How long are they going to flog that dead horse? It clearly isn't a seller.

"Isn't a seller" What the feck does that mean?

Waterford was founded as a Viking settlement, the evidence is still here to be seen (though the Norman era has left more artefacts in truth) so the City would be foolish to ignore that heritage and not develop a profile around it. Like Belfast and its sunken boat.

Mint Aero

Calm down lads and lassies just my humble opinion as an outsider...I don't get it. Now I've a basic enough knowledge of history but didn't the Vikings land in Dublin too around the same time. You don't see Dublin shoving Vikings into your face at every oppurtunity.

Now, by all means latch onto this Viking thing but take it down a notch. It's very one dimensional. I've been to Reginalds Tower...pffft, big whoop? Now, what you guys need are lots of shops facing the quays. There's nothing there is there? Except a run down hotel by todays standards which enjoys an influx of grey haired yanks, a couple of small pubs, small insignificant shops etc...that's yer selling point. It's yer handshake to visitors but no by all means obsess about a non existant triangle.

Bottom line as someone from Ireland, I really don't care about Vikings, it's not worth the trip. Even if I did like Vikings is it worth a repeat trip? The Winterval thing is a great idea and is working well for now but what about the rest of the year? The dank depressing winter months? Hmmmmm. And for summer? Tramore? That place is gone to ..... Why did Tramore get so bad? Gets better weather than Salthill like.

Oh and the reason I don't like the triangle, is solely down to that big main street running through it cutting off Waterford Crystal out on its own and the like. So unless there's plans to do something significant about it? Probably impossible.

hardybuck

One thing I notice about Waterford these days is that it could do with a bit of life in the place. Very little buzz around at night in particular. I put that down to the fact that a lot of the 20's and 30's aged generation have left and probably aren't coming back.

Waterford is too big for the small amount of people who seem to be going out at night. There are quite few shows and gigs happening also. You'd get more of an atmosphere in a lot of smaller towns.

I would commend the recent aesthetic improvements that have been made in recent years. There is clearly more work to be done, but at least there are a number of good quality excursions which a tourist could take in on a visit. There are a number of good quality restaurants which I'd be happy to recommend to people down visiting.

Tramore - the prom area could do with a bit of a clean up alright. They have a terrific product there which they really should be exploiting more. Given the amount of house construction that took place there you'd imagine that the county council would have plenty of funds to reinvest in the area - however that would not appear to have been forthcoming.

Ballyv24

Was there ever talk of developing the car parks on the quay into a shopping center with apartments and a multistory car park?

A development like that would at least bring a young population into the city center

hardybuck

Ballyv24 wrote: »

Was there ever talk of developing the car parks on the quay into a shopping center with apartments and a multistory car park?

A development like that would at least bring a young population into the city center

No it wouldn't. Young people are either in WIT or have up and left.

Building anything like a shopping centre or multi level car parks on the Quay would be a disaster as you'd be blocking the views it offers. You might get more traction if you planned something for over on the other side in Ferrybank.

mike65

Mint Aero, what do you expect a largely neglected small city to be exactly? All sing and dancing? Rich? Full of glittery things? Fortnum & Mason? Even The English Market?

CAUN

What is the Viking triangle anyway?

I don't know why people get so worked up about criticism of their home town.

I will be the first person to say that my town is a steaming pile of shihe.

CAUN

hardybuck wrote: »

One thing I notice about Waterford these days is that it could do with a bit of life in the place. Very little buzz around at night in particular.

That's one of the reasons I wanted to go for a day trip. See the "buzz".

What about Kilkenny? Does that have a decent buzz?

stefan idiot jones

CAUN wrote: »

That's one of the reasons I wanted to go for a day trip. See the "buzz".

What about Kilkenny? Does that have a decent buzz?

The flies are buzzing around the 'muck savage' farmers.

hardybuck

CAUN wrote: »

That's one of the reasons I wanted to go for a day trip. See the "buzz".

What about Kilkenny? Does that have a decent buzz?

Depending on when you're going and what you want to do. Kilkenny is more compact so it can feel like there is more buzz. A lot of the tourist buses which used to pull into Waterford seem to go there now instead as it's closer to Dublin.

Is there more to do in Waterford though? I would say that there is.

hardybuck

stefan idiot jones wrote: »

The flies are buzzing around the 'muck savage' farmers.

The 'muck savage' farmers are spending money though, as opposed to the unskilled manual operatives who lost their jobs in Waterford.

stefan idiot jones

hardybuck wrote: »

The 'muck savage' farmers are spending money though, as opposed to the unskilled manual operatives who lost their jobs in Waterford.

Refer to KevIRL's post in this thread.

hardybuck

Should this thread either be binned or renamed to something positive to offer potential visitors?

CAUN

Thread should be binned. Feck Waterford. I don't want to run into the miserable folk on this thread. Wanderer2010 should teach ye a lesson!

I will stop by possibly in the summer for a cuppa.

old gregg

CAUN wrote: »

Thread should be binned. Feck Waterford. I don't want to run into the miserable folk on this thread. Wanderer2010 should teach ye a lesson!

I will stop by possibly in the summer for a cuppa.

In all honesty, what did you expect? You start a thread that is only going to piss the positive people off and bring the negative bottom feeders/trolls out for a few cheap thrills. You only got what you deserved on this one. A differently worded title would have produced a different and more welcoming thread for you. Most people who start 'should I come to Waterford' threads do so with respect and are welcomed and enjoy their visit. Yours just smacked of being an asshole.

BadCharlie

CAUN wrote: »

Thread should be binned. Feck Waterford. I don't want to run into the miserable folk on this thread. Wanderer2010 should teach ye a lesson!

I will stop by possibly in the summer for a cuppa.

Nice going from first post to this. Trolling from so very few posts you have.

BadCharlie

As with the vinking triangle you have to start @ something. All of this costs a lot of money, as pointed out by other posters. Waterford is very much on the bottom of the list of importance in Ireland. If people can come up with better ideas they should make their views knowing to the council.

I like waterford it has all i want & need.