Aran Islands - Ferry or fly? Day trip or overnight? More questions

We took the ferry both ways. I felt it was fine and my sister found it very uncomfortable in a little rougher seas. We took the shuttle bus from Galway to Roosaveal and the ferry from there.

I strongly encourage you to spend the night on Inishmore. We spent two nights and could easily have done more. We stayed in a "Glamping Pod" about 5 minutes walk from the dock. Small kitchenette, bathroom and two beds. Killer views out over the bay.

The night we spent on Inishmore is still a top-10 travel memory: the quiet walk at golden-pink twilight, Treasa's amazing hospitality & great food at Kilmurvey House, stunning Dun Aonghasa up the path & nobody else there in the early morning. You can stay in a great city lotsa places, but a silent island? If you're just there for one long day, you'll be looking at your watch/phone every half hour. If you stay, you'll relax into the luxury of island time/timelessness.

We left the car at the Rossaveel ferry's pkg lot & rented bikes in Kilronan with day bags slung over our shoulders, great ride along stone-edged fields & the sea (& a friendly pub) to Kilmurvey House. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

In your particular case flying make more sense.
Although an overnighter on the island would be memorable, you'll have to decide whether that time might be better spent exploring the charms of the Connemara Loop, the Sky Road, etc.

The night we spent on Inishmore is still a top-10 travel memory: the quiet walk at golden-pink twilight, Treasa's amazing hospitality & great food at Kilmurvey House...

@Stewart&Vicki - I took a look at Kilmurvey House online, looks nice. But when I went to check availability for July 2019, every day of the year appears to be booked up. Either they are VERY popular (possible), or maybe they just haven't started taking bookings for next summer and everything is simply blocked right now.

I'd like to ping the owners but can't find an emil for them (their website links to booking.com, which masks their contact info). Do you have an email for them I could try? If so, please send via PM. Thanks!

I will report back later with my Ireland trip report when we return from our October trip. Recently we decided to give up one of our three nights in Galway and overnight on Inishmor. We will fly and stay at the Glamping site. Pat O’Connor the RS guidebook writer and travel consultant highly recommended staying overnight. We will also rent bikes weather permitting and see the eastern part of the island while the day trippers are there. Check the RS Ireland book for details about how to do an overnight sight seeing plan.

We are very excited as we leave in about a week for Dublin. On 10/7 we join the RS Heart of Ireland tour in Ennis right after our Aran island adventure.

Just a heads-up... It seems that the little airline that makes the hop from the mainland to the Aran Islands (Aer Arann) has stated their intention to end all flights as of December. Apparently there's some ongoing dispute with the local government over payment and contracts. Trying to read between the lines I'm guessing this may just be an empty threat and a hard-nosed negotiating tactic, so it's quite possible that they will settle their disagreements and flights will continue. But the official word right now is, no more flights to Aran Islands after early December 2018. I hope they work things out.

David, thanks for this info. I hope they work it out. I like ferries, take them here on Puget Sound from Bainbridge Island to Seattle a few times a week. But the Aran Island ferry looks iffy in rough seas if you’re not a good sailor which I’m not. 😬

OK, you all have collectively convinced me, especially after doing more online research about what to expect there. I think I'm going to try and do the overnight on Inishmore. Plan is to catch the first morning flight out (gets there at 9 am), drop our gear at our overnight accommodation, rent bikes and go explore the island for the day. Spend the evening, then fly back to the mainland next day on the 10:00 flight. Here's my rationale...

We will be going right smack in the middle of busy season - early July. We have limited time, but the place certainly looks worthwhile. But I expect there to be a lot of day-trippers. By going on the first flight of the day, we should get the jump on most day-trippers - as best I can tell, the first ferry doesn't arrive on Inishmore until almost noon, so we should have a few hours with thinner crowds. Also a few crowd-free hours in the evening. Then we would get up very early the next morning and try to get photos with few other people about. After the early morning photos, grab breakfast and head for the airstrip, flying back to the mainland and getting there around 11, and back to Galway around noon.

I'm working from the following assumptions:

1. Aer Arann (the little airline that does the short flights) will have settled their disagreements with the government and will be flying next summer (I think this is a fairly safe bet since the islanders depend on this service and are not shy about applying political pressure to keep air service in place; it seems this dispute has come up before and both sides found an accommodation...I think the current official announcement that they were going to quit flying is mostly posturing to apply pressure to resolve a local political dispute; hopefully that will be resolved).

2. These islands are popular in mid summer, and just like other small places in Europe that are getting loved to death by visitors (Mont St Michel, Cinque Terre, etc.), if you go mid-day, you will have to share these special places with crowds of strangers. So it's often best to overnight there, optimize your time by enjoying the relatively crowd-free mornings and afternoons/evenings. We are avid photographers, and it's important to me to try and get photos of special places without having 100 people waving selfie sticks in the foreground (I can remove a few in Photoshop, but not a few dozen). I figure the early/late times would give us at least a shot at getting photos without crowds.

3. We will have two other nights in Galway, and my sense is that will give us enough there. As stated upthread, it seems like a good choice to trade (what would be for us) a third night in Galway for one on Inishmore.

David, I think you have made a great choice!

We’re in Ireland right now, 2 nights in Galway and 1 on Inishmore, then to Clifden and beyond. On trip 7 years ago, with bikes, we rode to Rossaveal, ferried to Inishmore (stayed at Man of Aran cottage, which is sadly no longer a B&B), ferried to Doolin, and continued south. Frequent rough seas make the Doolin crossings less reliable. This time, without bikes to start, we paid the 50 euros for two to fly (really fast flight), and stayed at the Seacrest (great breakfast, great shower), but a fierce storm grounded our return flight the next day, and there was some question as to whether any ferries to Rossaveal would be available to get us off the island. The 5pm ferry did sail, pitching a fair amount in the rough sea, and the airline shuttled us back to the airport and our parked rental car once the ferry landed. So it worked out, and your results might vary, but weather can play a huge role. Biking in the headwinds that preceded the storm on Inishmore would’ve been miserable, so for 15 euros each, a shuttle van was cheaper and more comfortable than pedaling (we’re avid cyclists, but not masochists), and in addition to the regular itinerary, we got a custom guided walk to The Wormhole, which would’ve been tough to find without the local driver. He got a big tip, we got back to our B&B just before the storm and rain arrived that first evening, and Day 2 was just soggy. Did get in a damp walk that second afternoon, before it was determined that the ferry would actually go. Dinner at the Aran Islands Hotel was very ordinary, though, so we’d go another place for dinner.