Yes, I know it totally depends what you want to do - but I am curious to get the pros and cons of each town? Thanks.
We're big music fans, and on our last trip, we could not find any live trad in Ennis (in June) while it's widespread in Galway. Ennis appears to break out in tunes for the July tourist arrivals. Although the Galway region has a larger population, Galway City is quite compact, and we never pass it up for a night or two.
If you're more interested in cute towns, Ennis might win, as Galway can get more crowded, and feels more like a city. A lot of tours use Ennis as an endpoint.
Hi from Wisconsin,
I would go back to Ennis in a heart beat. Galway...not so much. Galway does have the one good sweater shop in Ireland, O'Máille's. Beware of the rest. Many sweaters sold in Ireland are machine made or if hand knit it was done in China. Read the label very carefully, hand assembled is not hand knit. O'Maille's has real Irish sweater, the price is the first clue.
wayne inWI