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The town has good transport connections. Buses (tel 071/60066) to Athlone, Boyle, Dublin, Mullingar and Sligo leave from in front of Coffey's Pastry Case in Bridge Street. The train station (tel 078/20036), ten minutes' walk southwest of town, is on the main Dublin-Sligo line, with three or four trains a day in each direction.

Carrick's very helpful tourist office (Easter-May, Sept & Oct Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; June-Aug daily 9am-6pm; tel 078/20170) is on the quay on the Leitrim side of the river, offering information on all aspects of holiday-making in the area, along with an accommodation booking service. Rental of bikes and fishing tackle is available at Geraghty's on Main Street (tel 078/21316; bikes £25/¬31.74 per week). Internet access is available at the small cybercafé at the back of Gartlan's newsagents on Bridge Street.

Michael Lynch's, on the Roscommon side of the river, has fishing boats for rent (tel 078/20034), and there are numerous companies that rent out Shannon cruisers by the week (two- to ten-berth); one is Emerald Star Line (tel 078/20234). The locks on the Shannon-Erne Waterway - there are sixteen of them in all - are operated electronically with a swipe-card, so you don't need to be an expert to use the canal. For detailed information on Shannon navigation consult www.iwai.ie/maps/shannon-erne/contents.html and to purchase navigation charts call Dúchas, The Heritage Service, in Dublin on tel 01/677 7510. For shorter excursions , Moon River organizes trips up the river leaving from the bridge (daily 2.30pm & 4.30pm; lasts 1hr 30min; tel 078/21777; £6/¬7.62). Another starting point for the waterway is at Ballinamore , where you can also rent boats.