Galway city tours are the ones that never leave the city: walks, tastings, an electric-bike ride and an open-top bus loop, all working the square kilometre between Eyre Square and the Spanish Arch. They run one and a quarter to three hours, and not one of them needs a gate ticket.
Tastings are the fare rather than an extra, over two and a half hours from Shop Street into the Latin Quarter. Group capped at twelve; dietary needs want a day's notice.
From $106 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Ninety minutes of Irish myth on foot, from the university down to the Claddagh. Under-sevens come free without booking, and the whole route is step-free.
From $35 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Nine stops with the history and the food together, at three or six in the afternoon. Non-alcoholic pours for anyone who does not drink, and step-free throughout.
From $82 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Five neighbourhoods including Salthill, which no walking route reaches, on an electric bike with a radio in the helmet. Minimum height 146cm, group of eight.
From $100 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Your party alone with a licensed guide, at whatever pace you set, from Eyre Square to the university. Offered in English and Italian, with rest stops built in.
From $159 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The lowest fare here and the shortest route: seventy-five minutes around the medieval core, finishing at the Long Walk. Built for the afternoon you arrive.
From $17 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Thirteen stops and a loop every ninety minutes, valid twenty-four or forty-eight hours. The one to take if walking is hard going or the rain has set in.
From $24 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Every city tour here runs under three hours and starts within the medieval core. Compare what each one stops at.
Compare every Galway tourSomething that never leaves the city — no coach to the Cliffs of Moher, no ferry. What you get is walks, tastings, a ride and a bus loop, and all of them work the same square kilometre between Eyre Square and the Spanish Arch. They run one and a quarter to three hours, so they fit an afternoon rather than a day.
Nothing they pass charges an admission you have to buy, which is why no fare here carries a gate ticket. The city's landmarks are free, or ask for a donation.
Eyre Square to the Spanish Arch is a ten-minute walk, and almost everything worth stopping for is on that line. A guide turns it from a pretty street into four hundred years of merchant families.
Every day trip is back in the city by late afternoon, and the tasting routes run at three and six in the evening.
The mythology walk, the walking and tasting route, the private walk and the short introduction all describe themselves that way. None of the coach days does.
The shortest guided walk here is $17, which is the cheapest thing on the whole site and the right thing to do on your first afternoon.
Different products for different hours, and most visitors want one of each.
| A Galway city tour | A day trip out of Galway | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours | 1h 15m to 3 | 7h 30m to 13 |
| Where it goes | Nowhere — the old town and Salthill | County Clare, Connemara or the islands |
| Gate tickets | None needed | €8 at the cliffs, or the abbey |
| Weather risk | None — most of it can duck indoors | None on the roads, high on the water |
| Wheelchair access | On four of the seven | On none of them |
| Fares from | $17 | $58 |
Do the city tour first. Knowing the layout makes every later evening easier, and the walking routes are cheap enough that it costs you almost nothing to find out.
Fares run from $17 to $159. Start points are 9 Eyre Square, Shop Street, Ballalley Lane, the Kennedy memorial and the Martin Ryan Institute — all inside the medieval core, and all a few minutes from each other.
The open-top bus runs a thirteen-stop loop in an hour, every ninety minutes and every forty-five in summer, with the first bus at 9:30 and the last at 15:30. Its ticket is valid twenty-four or forty-eight hours and the voucher itself lasts twelve months.
If you have one day in Galway, spend it on a day trip and keep the city for the evening — the Cliffs of Moher tours page has the shortest of the long days. If walking is hard going, take the open-top bus rather than a walking route. And if you want the food to be the point rather than a stop, the dedicated food walk puts the tastings inside the fare and caps the group at twelve.
Seventy-five minutes to three hours, starting inside the medieval core, with nothing to pay at any gate.
Check availabilityNext: every fare on Galway Ireland Tours, the practical detail on planning your trip, and the month you are coming on Galway weather.