A great base for touring and a city full of life and vitality .
Disadvantages:
Patchy public transport and some ugly ribbon building .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
We need to choose our holidays carefully, us pedestrians. Call us cautious, but we opted for Galway, mid-way up the West Coast of Ireland. Not that Galway feels 'safe' in a stodgy kind of way. We didn't go for the nightlife but there was a buzz about the place that hit us as soon as we stepped off the train. Now what is this thing called a 'buzz'? We couldn't quite work it out to start with, but then it dawned on us: we were a couple of dinosaurs abroad in a modern landscape. Galway is a young city, full of young people. It's a city too, with more than its share of teething troubles relating to its prosperity. Ugly ribbon built development sprawls along the coast through suburbs like Salthill, decked out like a junior Blackpool.
Not that the other Galway is far away. All paths in Galway seem to lead back to Eyre Square, dominated by the imposing Great Southern hotel, with Kennedy Park at its centre, commemorating John F Kennedy's visit to Galway in 1963. It was the quiet things about Galway we liked. We watched the swans that populate the river Corrib, where it enters Galway Bay. Most people go for the jewellery and knitware that the region is famous for but we found other shops selling leather goods that were better value and the second-hand bookshops were far more interesting.
We stayed in Galway with our family, relying on public transport to get us around. Transport in the city is reliable enough and not so expensive as to be prohibitive. It's when connections are needed elsewhere that problems begin. We took two organised tours, south to the Burren and north to Connemara. They were worthwhile and not too rushed, but expensive if you are travelling on a budget. Scheduled bus services beyond Galway have a weird logic of their own which we were no nearer fathoming out by the end of our holiday. Surely, we thought, there would be a bus between Galway and the nearby town of Westport. Indeed there was, but not one that would leave early enough in the morning and return late enough in the evening to plan a day trip. Westport remains a mystery.
As a base to explore the West Coast without a car, Galway is unrivalled. Try to stay as near to the centre of town as you can. Wonderful self-catering bargains are always to be found in the classified adertisements of the Irish Post, widely available in newsagents this side of the water. Galway has its fair share of costly restaraunts but for families on a budget there were a fair number of affordable diners, which were good value. If you have never been to the West Coast before, then Galway is the place to start. It is almost certain, though, that it will only be a start.
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