Holiday in Galway

What makes Galway special as a destination?

Galway is the soul of the wild west of Ireland — a bohemian, music-filled university town on Galway Bay, serving as a gateway to Connemara, the Aran Islands, and the Cliffs of Moher. The third largest city in the Republic of Ireland has rightfully earned its reputation as European Capital of Culture 2020: Few cities of this size offer so much live music, theater, street art, and festivals per square meter. Shop Street and Quay Street form the vibrant heart of Galway: cobbled streets lined with colorful pubs, boutiques, and street musicians performing everything from Traditional Irish Music to flamenco guitar to beatboxing. On sunny afternoons (which occur more often than one might think), people sit with pints and oysters outside the pubs, enjoying the unique atmosphere. The Aran Islands (Inis Mór, Inis Meáin, Inis Oírr) are accessible by ferry from Rossaveal (40 minutes) and are a time travel into Gaelic Ireland: On Inis Mór, Dún Aonghasa, a prehistoric stone fort from the Bronze Age, sits on the edge of a 100-meter-high cliff overlooking the Atlantic — one of the most dramatic prehistoric monuments in Europe. The Cliffs of Moher, 80 kilometers south of Galway in County Clare, are Ireland's natural wonder number one: 214-meter-high sheer cliffs stretch over 8 kilometers along the Atlantic coast, home to thousands of puffins, razorbills, and guillemots. On clear days, the view extends to the Aran Islands. Connemara, west of Galway, is one of the last true wildernesses in Europe: vast moorlands, lonely lakes, the Twelve Bens mountain range, Connemara ponies, and tiny villages where Irish (Gaeilge) is still spoken as a mother tongue. The Sky Road Drive near Clifden is one of the most beautiful coastal roads in Ireland. The Galway International Oyster Festival (late September) is the oldest oyster festival in the world (since 1954): For three days, Galway Bay Oysters are slurped, Guinness is drunk, and the fastest oyster shucker in the world is crowned.