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Galway Ireland Tours › Three Days in Galway: An Itinerary That FitsUpdated 2026-09-12

Three Days in Galway: An Itinerary That Fits

Hours, prices and access verified by the Galway Ireland Tours team — last checked 2026-09-12

The painted houses of the Long Walk seen across the water at the Claddagh

The short version. Day one is the city, because a seventy-five-minute walk on your first afternoon makes the rest of the stay easier. Day two is the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, leaving Merchants Road at 9:40. Day three is Connemara from Forster Street at 9:45, or the island day if the forecast is settled. Book the Galway day tours before you travel between May and September.

Three nights in Galway gives you two full days out and two and a bit in the city, and the thing that breaks most itineraries is not ambition — it is departure times. The coaches leave between 8:40 and 10:15 in the morning from kerbs five minutes apart, and nothing waits. This plan is built backwards from those times.

Before you arrive: what to book, and when

Book both long day trips before you travel if you are coming between May and September. The small-group coaches cap at eight, twelve, sixteen and twenty-five, and the small ones fill first; the food walk caps at twelve and goes earliest of all. Out of season, a day or two of notice covers almost everything.

Leave the city walks and the open-top bus. Both can generally be picked up the same morning, and they are the right answer to an afternoon that changes shape.

Day one, afternoon: get your bearings

Arrive, drop your bags, and take a seventy-five-minute guided walk of the medieval core from 9 Eyre Square. It costs $17, it ends at the Long Walk, and it points at everything you will come back to: the Browne Doorway, Lynch's Castle, the Claddagh Ring Museum and the Spanish Arch.

Afterwards, walk back up through the Latin Quarter and eat early. The restaurants fill from seven and earlier than that in July. The street-by-street version of that route is on Galway city.

Day one, evening: the music, and where it actually is

Almost every pub in the centre advertises music and not all of them mean a session. What you are looking for is musicians in a corner with no microphones, playing to each other, usually starting after nine. If you would rather have somebody take you to them, the walking and tasting route runs at 3pm and 6pm and finishes in the right part of town.

Day two: the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

Check in on Merchants Road by 9:40am. The day runs eight and a quarter hours and comes back in the late afternoon, which leaves you an evening.

  1. 9:40am, Merchants Road. Check in beside Kinlay Hostel; allow extra time for city traffic.
  2. Across the Burren. Ninety minutes south through Kinvara and Ballyvaughan.
  3. Poulnabrone Dolmen, 20 minutes. A portal tomb on the limestone pavement.
  4. Dunguaire Castle, 15 minutes. A tower house on the water at Kinvara.
  5. Doolin, 40 minutes. Lunch, which is not in the fare.
  6. The Cliffs of Moher, 90 minutes. Entry included; O'Brien's Tower and the path.
  7. Back in Galway by evening. Time to eat and walk.

Day three, option A: Connemara

Outside the HYDE Hotel on Forster Street at 9:45am, and back seven and a half hours later. Two hours at Kylemore Abbey with the ticket in the fare, half an hour in Leenane, fifteen minutes at Killary Harbour and a last stop at Spiddal on the coast road home.

This is the option for any forecast, and it is the one that pairs best with day two, because the landscape is completely different. Free hotel pick-up if you telephone the operator twenty-four hours ahead.

Day three, option B: the Aran Islands

Only if the forecast is settled. Check in on Merchants Road by 8:40am for a ten-and-a-half hour day: the coach to Doolin, a fifteen-minute ferry to Inis Oírr, two hours ashore, an hour at the Cliffs of Moher and the drive home.

The crossing sails at the skipper's discretion. If you want the island and the wind is against you, book it for day two and keep Connemara for day three, which cannot be cancelled. The detail is on the Aran Islands page.

What if it rains for three days?

Nothing on the coach days changes. One operator's own notes say the tour runs in all weather and asks you to dress for it, and the Clare and Connemara routes keep their timetable through the winter. Only the water stops: the ferry and the cliff cruise.

In the city, the wet-day list is short and good: Galway City Museum is free, the Hall of the Red Earl is indoors and free, the cathedral asks €3, and both tasting routes spend most of their two and a half hours under a roof.

How the three days compare on hours

DayOut of the cityBack byWhat it asks of you
City afternoonNothingWhenever you likeAn hour and a quarter on foot
Cliffs and the Burren8h 15mLate afternoonWalking at four stops
Connemara7h 30mLate afternoonA long drive on bendy roads
Aran Islands10h 30mEarly eveningA ferry and a settled forecast

Can you fit a fourth thing in?

Yes, in the evenings. The tasting routes run at 3pm and 6pm, the mythology walk takes ninety minutes, and the open-top bus loop takes an hour and its ticket lasts twenty-four or forty-eight hours. None of these needs a whole day, and all of them start inside the medieval core.

What does not fit is a second long day trip on the same day as a first. The coach days overlap by hours at both ends.

Can you swap the order of the days?

Yes, with one constraint: put the weather-dependent day where you can move it. If the island is on your list, book it for day two rather than day three, because a cancelled crossing then still leaves you a day to try again. Connemara and the Clare day can go in either order and in any weather.

The other constraint is your arrival time. If you land in Galway in the evening, the city walk moves to the morning of day two and the first coach day slides to day three, which turns three nights into one day trip fewer.

What does the whole thing cost?

Both long day trips and a city walk come to roughly $159 a head at the fares quoted here, with the Cliffs of Moher and Kylemore Abbey tickets already inside two of them. Add food on the road, which is excluded everywhere, and whatever you spend in the evenings.

Swapping the Connemara day for the island day takes it to about $177, and the extra buys you a ferry and two hours on Inis Oírr. Neither figure includes a bed.

Where to eat, in one paragraph

The Latin Quarter is where you will end up and where prices are highest. Walk one street further — Dominick Street across the bridge, or up towards Eyre Square — and you pay less for the same thing. Book anything after seven between June and September, and book before you travel in the second half of July, when the Arts Festival and the Races overlap.

Getting in and out

The train from Dublin Heuston runs to Galway Ceannt, calling at Athlone, Ballinasloe, Athenry and Oranmore, and Ceannt is beside Eyre Square and a few minutes from both coach kerbs. Citylink coaches from Dublin city and airport set down at the bus station next door. Either way you land within walking distance of every departure in this itinerary.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to book in advance?
Book the day trips ahead between May and September, when the small-group coaches sell out days early. The city walks and the bus ticket can usually be picked up the same morning, though the food walk caps at twelve and goes first. Out of season, twenty-four to forty-eight hours is normally enough.
Where do Galway day tours leave from?
From two kerbs about four hundred metres apart. The Galway Tour Company and Wild Atlantic Way Day Tours load on Merchants Road outside Kinlay Hostel; Lally Tours loads outside the HYDE Hotel on Forster Street. Both are a short walk from Eyre Square, and check-in times run from 8:40am to 10:15am depending on the day.
Which day trip should I take first?
If you only have one day, take the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren: it is the shortest of the long days and it carries the gate ticket. With two days, add Connemara for Kylemore Abbey, the Twelve Bens and Killary Harbour, which is a completely different landscape. Save the Aran Islands for a settled forecast, because the ferry is the first thing a gale stops.
What should I wear on a day trip?
Layers and a windproof jacket, whatever the forecast says. The clifftop at Moher is exposed and the mean wind on this coast sits near nine knots year-round, so it is colder up there than in the city. Comfortable shoes matter on the Burren limestone and on the cliff path, where one operator warns about trip hazards.
Are the walking tours worth it if I only have one evening?
Yes, and the short ones are designed for exactly that. A seventy-five-minute introduction covers Eyre Square, Lynch's Castle and the Spanish Arch and leaves you at the Long Walk in time for dinner. If you would rather eat as you go, the walking and tasting route runs at 3pm and 6pm and puts the food inside the fare.
When is the best month to visit Galway?
May and June, on the numbers. The nearest long-term record on this coast, Shannon Airport, gives May the most sunshine at 5.9 hours a day and April the least rain at 62mm, while December brings 115mm and the most gales. July and August are warmest and busiest; September keeps the long evenings and loses the crowds.

Compare every fare and every check-in time on: Galway Ireland Tours.

The three days this itinerary is built on