Galway vs Salt Hill (a question most likely for stephen)

If you mean Salt Hill, I personally prefer to stay there than in the city. If you do want to go into the city at night, we paid about 10 euros for the taxi. There was also a bus that ran into town so you didn't have to bring the car in if you didn't want to. I didn't find it hard to drive in our out of for our day trips, I think it was easier than driving out of the city. The summer may be much busier or if there is a race/festival. We were there in Oct.

Mary

Mary, yes I did mean Salt Hill. I had not seen any mention of Salt Hill on the forum so I thought only Stephen would have information. Glad to hear the day trips were easier from Salt Hill then downtown Galway. Do you have a BnB or hotel to recommend there? Not sure what day trips you did but are the ones I mentioned doable...as in maybe an 8 hour day. Any other recommendations for the area? Thank you!

We stayed at the Salt Hill Hotel both times, back in 1994 & 2014. Changed quite a bit in the 20years. I loved being able to walk on the walkway at night & early morning.

I don't think a Salthill location will much effect your daytrip driving. It's 15 minutes or less to navigate from Salthill into Galway but through roads that get you to N-84 or N-59 don't have to cross through the town center. www.viamichelin.com can help estimate drive times, probably a bit more conservative/less optimistic than Google Maps estimates.

Back in 2011 we stayed in Salthill, and it worked well for visits to Galway. We toured western Ireland by bicycle, and had bikes delivered to our B&B in Galway on our 2nd day before beginning the journey. One day, we took the local bus to/from Salthill to downtown Galway, and the next day we rode our rental bikes. Not too far, and while the roads and streets weren't multi-lane urban thoroughfares, they weren't tiny country lanes (by Irish standards), either. The roads were like those you might find in smaller American cities, like Boulder, CO or Madison, WI.

If you're driving, aside from staying on the left side of the road, the biggest challenge might be finding a parking spot in Galway, which was not an issue when we took the bus, and was easy when locking up our bikes.

When we arrived at our Salthill B&B the first night, tired and a bit jet-lagged, our hostess described a pub to the east, in the direction of Galway, and said is was an easy walk, "It's not far." Actually, it WAS pretty far that night, but we made it there and back on foot. It was a great dinner, and the walk, although long, was lovely.

Thank you one and all for the information but.......dang....everytime I try and book a BnB in Salt HIll they are full for our September dates!

We were traveling by car from Dingle and had one night before returning to Dublin. We didn't want to make an advance reservation because we weren't sure where we were going to end up. The owner of our Dingle B&B suggested Salthill if we found ourselves in Galway. There is a street the runs along the waterfront (I can't remember the name, maybe Gratten Rd.?) that is lined with B&B's. We started at the first one, wanted to check out another one before deciding, and went with #2. We were able to walk into Galway easily. We had a wonderful view of the water.

Greetings from Galway!
Everyone has answered your question, so not much for me to add except If I was going to Galway for a little break with friends or with family, the last place I would stay would be Salthill. A nice coastal path and a couple of good pubs isn't enough to attract me.
I spent every summer there as a child and it is now unrecognisable due to development (not all of it positive).

Stay in the city-centre in a nice hotel or go up to College Road and get a B&B there. Walk to the historic-heart of Galway, rather than taxi it from Salthill.

If you are interested in experiencing the best customer-service and welcome in any B&B in Galway, stay with Frank and Joan at Petra house on College Road. They'll provide parkign and great advice as well!

Enjoy. Galway is a great city. (though 4 nights might be a bit much, Ive just done 4 nights in Galway and am ready to bid it adieu and move on) Consider visiting the Cliffs of Moher on the day you are going to Dingle, doesn't make sense to go back to Galway that night.

Slainte/Good health
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves ireland Tour-Guide
Dingle and Derry

We're not really city people, so we stayed in Barna, a bit west of Galway and right on Galway Bay. It was an easy 15-20 minute drive into Galway City, which we did twice and that was enough for us. There are 3 superb restaurants in Barna, two of which specialize in the best seafood you'll ever have! Our hotel in Barna, The Twelve, was superb for a modest price, far more affordable than comparable quality hotels in Galway City.

Thank you everyone for your input! I just love this forum. I am surprised that every time I make an enquiry for September the BnB is full for those nights!! I thought September would be a bit slower.

Stephen, we must be thinking a like at this point :) We decided to stay only 3 nights in Galway and I have sent an enquiry off to the Petra BnB. Keeping my fingers crossed that they will have an opening. When we leave Galway we will then drive the Burren and visit the Cliffs of Moher. Probably will spend one night in Doolin and the next day make our way to Dingle (and drats, looks like your BnB is full up for our nights in Dingle) I know we could probably drive from Galway via the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher to Dingle in one day but we would rather stop off in Doolin to shorten our drive time. I like to leave a bit of a buffer in case we want to stop and smell the roses or taste the Guinness!

I agree with Stephan that Petra House is a wonderful choice! We stayed there several years ago and loved it. (If Frank offers you a shot of Bailey's for your porridge take him up on it--delicious.) Even though we had a car we chose to walk to Old Town. There are many restaurants and pubs in that area and we very much enjoyed the music at Taaffe's. We opted to take a cab back to Petra House--it was quite reasonable and it saved us from trying to find our way home in the dark. In the event that you would like to stay out of town, Barna and Furbo are both options and, as I remember, the road from there to Galway was fine. (On the other hand, driving in Galway was difficult for us--lots of traffic and we got lost several times.) On our recent trip we stayed in a wonderful AirBnB in Furbo and used it as a base for touring the area. It's a fairly short drive from there to Rossaveel to catch the ferry to Inishmore.