Things to Do in Galway

A day trip takes eight hours of a day that has sixteen in it. This page is about the rest: the evening in the Latin Quarter, the music, the prom at Salthill, and what to do when it rains. The day trips themselves are the Galway food tours, and they are one page away.

An evening in the Latin Quarter

The pedestrianised half of the old street — Shop Street into High Street and Quay Street — is where Galway spends its evenings, and it is about four hundred metres end to end.

1. Start at the top, around five. The buskers set up on Shop Street below Lynch's Castle, and the light is still good on the carved stone front.
2. Eat early or book. The Latin Quarter restaurants fill from seven, and in July they fill earlier than that.
3. Walk down to the Spanish Arch. Ten minutes, and the last of the daylight sits on the water and the Long Walk houses opposite.
4. Come back up for the music. The sessions in the pubs start late and run later; the walking and tasting tour's own route is a shortlist somebody has already tested.

Traditional music, and where it actually happens

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 rather than to the room, usually starting after nine. Two of the city tours end in pubs that run them, which is the shortest route to finding one on your first night.

The prom at Salthill

Two kilometres of promenade above the shore, half an hour west of the centre on foot or four stops on the open-top bus. It ends at the Blackrock diving tower, and the local custom is to kick the wall there before you turn back. On a clear evening you can see the Aran Islands and the hills of Clare across the bay, which is the best view in the city and costs nothing.

On the water and on two wheels

Markets, festivals and race weeks

Two fortnights in the year change the city completely, and both fall in the second half of July.

Outside those weeks the street market beside St Nicholas' church is the thing worth planning around: it sets up in the lane against the church wall and sells food to eat standing up. The Arts Festival and the Races overlap by a few days, which makes mid-to-late July the hardest fortnight of the year to find a bed.

Where to eat, honestly

The Latin Quarter is where you will end up, and it is where prices are highest. Walk one street further — to Dominick Street across the bridge, or up towards Eyre Square — and you pay less for the same thing. Both tasting tours use the Latin Quarter, which is a fair way of finding out which doors are worth going back through.

Book if you are eating after seven between June and September. In July, when the festival and the races overlap, book before you travel.

A day with nothing booked

1. Morning. Galway City Museum opens at ten and costs nothing. Give it an hour and come out at the Spanish Arch.
2. Late morning. Walk the Long Walk, cross to the Claddagh and look back at the painted houses from the far side.
3. Afternoon. Take the open-top bus out to Salthill, walk the prom to the diving tower, and ride back.
4. Evening. Eat early in the Latin Quarter, then find a session. The music starts later than you expect and finishes later still.

Rainy-day Galway

Frequently asked about filling the days