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Galway as a daytrip

What are your thoughts on doing Galway as a day trip vs. staying overnight? How hard is to drive in and find parking? My research indicates not that hard, but I am interested in your experiences in trying this. (I did search for this on the RS board but did not find anything).

I am as usual a day short in my travel itinerary, and could gain that day back by doing Galway as a daytrip from Ennis in County Clare—but my gut says I want to stay overnight in Galway. I drove in Ireland on our 2002 trip, and it went fine but I would prefer to minimize days with the rental car for reasons of expense and the stress of driving over there (mostly because of speed cameras). We are consciously excluding Kilkenny on this trip, as much as we would like to go back.

This is my straw man itinerary (one of many), but i think it gets too busy at the Trim/Cahir stops. I can imagine an itinerary that would have us driving across from Trim to Galway as well, which would enable a stop ay Clonmacnoise. Looking at this, I think it's too much in the Trim area with too little time. Please let me know your thoughts!

Day 0 Fly
1 Galway
2 Galway
3 Dublin
4 Dublin
5 Dublin
6 Trim (Trim Castle, Monasterboice, Newgrange, Knowth-some of this can be on day 7 before leaving)
7 Cahir (Cahir castle, Swiss Cottage, nearby Rock of Cashel; can do some of this on day 8 before we head to Kinsale).
8 Kinsale
9 Kinsale (visit to Cobh, which we stopped at on our previous trip).
10 Kenmare (want to go to Bantry house on the way there. We stayed in Kenmare in 2002).
11 Dingle
12 Dingle
13 Ennis
14 Ennis (hopefully do the Burren right this time, last time it was too rushed!)
15 Fly Home

Posted by
317 posts

Greetings from Dingle!
Nice itinerary, you'll have a blast!
Galway is a great city and if you can I think you should stay overnight. However, it can be easily covered in a day from Ennis, less than 2 hours away.
In my humble opinion, Galway during the day is a nice place to see but not an amazing place to see. Its at night it comes to life, with street performers, live music, bustling theatres, people eating and drinking al-fresco under awnings and heat-lamps, loads of colour and flair especially down in the Quay Street area, in fact really only down in the Quay street area, but it really is fantastic!
So do try and stay for a night if you can. But if you cant, you can easily cover all the main historic sites in Galway in one day from Ennis.
Best wishes to you, any questions just let me know.
Slainte/Good Health
Stephen McPhilemy
Tour-Guide