Galway Travelers Recommend

Get your bearings and soak up some of Galway’s rich history on a walking tour of city. Stroll along the quay beneath the legendary Spanish Arch, remembering to pop into the Galway City Museum overhead, then marvel at the eclectic architecture of Galway Cathedral, located right on the River Corrib. In the evening, head to the nearby village of Doolin, celebrated as the traditional music capital of Ireland, where you can wile away the hours sipping Guinness in one of the historic pubs and listen to some of the world’s best Irish folk musicians. Pay a visit to the mighty Cliffs of Moher, where you can take in spectacular views over the Galway Bay, The Twelve Pins and the northern Maum Turk Mountains. Hike the famous cliff walk, a hair-raising pathway towering 214 meters over the Atlantic Ocean, or take a ferry out to the nearby Aran Islands, a collection of three historic islands, where the villages are still inhabited by Gaelic-speaking communities.

Forget scrambling up mountain peaks or trekking into the wilderness — Ireland’s most hair-raising hike is the 8km trail running along the top of the mighty Cliffs of Moher. Soaring 214 meters over the Atlantic Ocean, the coastal cliffs are so dramatic they’ve even been immortalized on screen, with films like The Princess Bride and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince shooting scenes on the windswept cliff tops. Carved by a river delta an estimated 320 million years ago, the Cliffs of Moher are now a listed UNESCO World Heritage site and a Special Protection Area for Birds (Common Gulls, Chough, Razorbill and Atlantic Puffins are all common sights), making the site one of Ireland’s most visited tourist attractions. The most popular way to experience the cliffs is by walking or cycling the coastal trail, running from near the village of Doolin to the evocatively named Hags Head (so called as the headland resembles a woman’s head gazing out to sea).