Galway

Galway's beach is Salthill, a long promenade a short walk west of the centre with small sandy and stony strands along Galway Bay. Locals swim here all year, and the Blackrock diving tower at the end of the prom is the city's sea-swimming landmark, busy with hardy regulars even in winter. Silver Strand, a little further west, is a sheltered cove.

The water is the Atlantic, though, and it peaks at about 15°C in late summer, with wind and rain never far off. The white-sand bays of Connemara are lovely but more than an hour away and just as cold. Come for a bracing dip, not a beach vacation.

Galway eats best from the sea: native Galway Bay oysters, mussels, smoked salmon and chowder, plus lamb and cheese from Connemara and the Burren. The Saturday market beside St Nicholas' Collegiate Church is the best place to find them, with farmhouse cheeses, baked goods and hot food stalls. The city also has a small, ambitious fine-dining tier for its size.

Otherwise this is a pub-food and café town. The Latin Quarter streets are lined with places for fish and chips, chowder and a pint, and some are much better than others. Range beyond Irish and modern European cooking is thin, and prices are high. The Oyster Festival in September is the year's big food event.

Galway's heritage is on a small scale and is best seen on foot in an afternoon. The medieval town of the Tribes, the merchant families who ran it, survives in fragments: the Spanish Arch and a stretch of town wall by the river, the carved front of Lynch's Castle on Shop Street, and St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, where Columbus is said to have prayed. The Galway City Museum covers local history and the sea, and the big domed cathedral of the 1960s stands across the Salmon Weir Bridge.

The pleasure is in the narrow Latin Quarter streets and the riverside walk past the Claddagh more than in any single sight. Visitors who want serious museums will not find them here.

Going out in Galway means the pub, and the city is very good at it. Two universities give it a young population for its size, so even midweek in term time the centre is loud and full well into the evening. Old bars with snugs, open fires and dark wooden counters sit alongside bigger, noisier places with DJs, and in summer the drinking spills onto the pavements whatever the weather.

When the pubs close, a handful of late bars and small clubs take the overflow, but there is little serious club culture and few cocktail bars, and most nights end by the early hours. The city peaks during race week at Ballybrit in summer, when it is crammed and raucous for days, and during the arts festival. Hen and stag groups are a regular part of the weekend crowd.

Galway is the gateway to some of the wildest landscape in Ireland. Westward lies Connemara, about an hour away: bog, lakes, the quartzite peaks of the Twelve Bens and the hill walks of Connemara National Park, with a broken coast of inlets and islands. South across the bay is the Burren, a bare limestone plateau full of spring flowers, and beyond it the Cliffs of Moher.

Closer in, Lough Corrib stretches north from the city for fishing, kayaking and boat trips, and the Salthill promenade is the city's favourite walk. The Aran Islands are a ferry ride away for cycling between stone walls. Expect rain, wind and fast-changing light in every season, and bring proper waterproofs.

The classic outing is the Aran Islands, reached by ferry from Rossaveal or by small plane. Inis Mór has the prehistoric cliff fort of Dún Aonghasa, early Christian ruins and a village where Irish is the everyday language. In Connemara, Kylemore Abbey sits on its lake, Clifden makes a stop at the far end of the drive, and the village of Cong lies between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask.

South, Kinvara and the tower house of Dunguaire are close, and Bunratty Castle and Limerick, with King John's Castle on the Shannon, are about an hour and a half away. The monastic ruins of Clonmacnoise are about an hour and a quarter east, and Westport is within reach. The list is mostly villages and single sites rather than other cities. Ennis and Limerick can be reached by train, but most of the rest means a coach tour or a hired car.

Galway is a safe, easy-going small city where children are welcome in cafés and pubs during the day, but there is not much built for them. Salthill is the main draw, with the national aquarium on the prom, playgrounds, a summer funfair and paddling at low tide. The pedestrian streets in the centre, with their buskers and street performers, keep younger children entertained.

Beyond that, families tend to head out: farm parks, boat trips on Lough Corrib, ponies in Connemara and the caves of the Burren. The weather is the main difficulty, as rainy days leave few indoor options for children.

The centre is small and largely pedestrian, and everything from Eyre Square through Shop Street to the Spanish Arch is a few minutes' walk apart. The prom to Salthill makes a pleasant walk of about half an hour, and city buses cover the suburbs. Traffic on the roads into town can be heavy at rush hour.

The catch is the region beyond. Trains run east to Dublin and south through Ennis to Limerick, but Connemara, the Burren and the Aran ferry port are reached by regional coaches, day tours or a hired car. Visitors planning to explore the west in depth usually drive, on narrow, winding roads.

Shopping is concentrated along one pedestrian spine, from Eyre Square down William Street and Shop Street to Quay Street, with a shopping centre at the square for high-street chains. The best of it is independent: good bookshops, music shops, Irish design and craft shops.

The local speciality is the Claddagh ring, made by jewellers in the city where it originated, and Aran knitwear is sold all over the centre. The Saturday market adds crafts alongside the food stalls. There is no luxury shopping, and much of Quay Street leans towards souvenirs.

Galway is an expensive place to stay. Hotel rooms are limited for the number of visitors, and prices climb steeply in summer, at weekends and during the arts festival and race week, when the city fills up months in advance. Eating out and drinking cost much what they do elsewhere in Ireland, which is high by European standards.

The savings come from the city itself: the centre is walkable, the streets and churches cost nothing, and the pubs provide free entertainment. Coach tours and car hire for the wider region add up quickly.

Traditional Irish music is the heart of it. Sessions run in pubs across the Latin Quarter most nights of the year, often with fiddles, flutes, bodhráns and singers gathered round a table, and anyone can sit nearby with a pint and listen. Buskers fill Shop Street by day, and a handful of small venues host touring bands and singer-songwriters.

Galway is also a theatre town. Druid, founded here in 1975, is one of Ireland's leading companies, and the Town Hall Theatre and An Taibhdhearc, the Irish-language national theatre, keep a steady programme. The Galway International Arts Festival in July brings theatre, music and street spectacle. Classical music and opera are limited to occasional concerts.

Galway has no bathing tradition beyond the sea. The cold-water swimmers at Blackrock and the long, windy walks along the Salthill prom are the local way to reset, and they work well. Spas are mostly in hotels, in town and at country-house hotels in Connemara, and traditional seaweed baths can be found along the west coast within a drive.

The city is relaxed in the daytime but loud at night in the centre, especially in summer. For real quiet, stay out in Connemara or on the Aran Islands rather than in town.