Day trips from Galway: the Cliffs, the Aran Islands and Connemara

Galway is small, but it sits at the door to some of the best country in Ireland. The Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, Connemara and the Burren are all doable as day trips, and you have a real choice for each: an organised coach tour that does the thinking for you, or going under your own steam by bus, ferry or car. Tours are easier and cover more ground; independent travel gives you time and quiet. Here is how each one works.

The Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs are in County Clare, south of Galway across the bay. By car it is around an hour and ten minutes' drive to the visitor centre, which charges an admission that includes parking; book ahead online for the cliffs in summer, as timed entry and crowds are both real. Without a car, Bus Éireann route 350 runs from Galway towards Ennis and stops at the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, with several services a day in summer; the trip takes roughly two and a quarter hours each way, so it makes for a long but workable day. Plenty of coach tours also run the Cliffs, often paired with the Burren and the villages of Clare, which spares you the timetable.

One thing worth knowing: the nearby village of Doolin sits about ten minutes from the cliffs and is a destination in its own right, with trad music in its pubs and the cliff walk that runs along the clifftop. If you want more than the visitor centre, base the day around Doolin.

The Aran Islands

The three Aran Islands, Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr, lie out in the mouth of Galway Bay, Irish-speaking and stripped back, with stone walls, prehistoric forts and not a lot of traffic. There are two main ways out by ferry.

From Rossaveal, west of Galway in the Connemara Gaeltacht, ferries run to all three islands; the crossing to Inis Mór, the largest, is around forty minutes. You do not need your own car to reach Rossaveal: the ferry company runs a shuttle bus from Galway city, leaving from Victoria Place just off Eyre Square, which you book together with the ferry. Book the shuttle well ahead, at least the day before. The other option is to drive to Doolin in Clare and take the shorter ferry from there, which is handy if you are combining the islands with the Cliffs.

Inis Mór is the obvious first choice for a day trip: big enough to fill a day, with the dramatic clifftop fort of Dún Aonghasa as the headline, and bikes, minibuses and pony traps to get you round. Inis Oírr is the smallest and easiest to do quickly. Inis Meáin is the quietest and least set up for casual visitors. Whichever you choose, the crossing is weather-dependent, so keep the day flexible and check sailings.

Connemara

Connemara is the wild, boggy, mountainous country northwest of the city, all lakes, the Twelve Bens, Killary fjord and the Connemara Gaeltacht. It is the hardest of these trips to do well by public transport, because the sights are spread out and the buses are sparse. This is the one most worth doing either by car or on a coach tour. A typical day tour loops out through Connemara to Kylemore Abbey, the lakeside Victorian house and walled garden that is the region's most visited spot, and back, taking in the scenery along the way. If you are driving, give yourself the whole day and do not try to cram the Cliffs in as well; Connemara is north and the Cliffs are south, and they do not combine.

The Burren

The Burren is the strange grey limestone landscape of north Clare, bare karst pavement that grows Arctic and Mediterranean wildflowers side by side, dotted with ancient tombs like the Poulnabrone dolmen. It sits on the way to the Cliffs of Moher, which is why so many tours bundle the two together: a loop south through Kinvara and Dunguaire Castle, into the Burren, on to the Cliffs and back. Doing it independently means a car, as public transport through the Burren proper is thin. If you have one day and a car, the Burren and the Cliffs make a natural pairing.

Tour or independent: deciding

The honest rule of thumb: take a tour for Connemara and for any day that bundles the Burren with the Cliffs, because the driving and the logistics are the hard part and a good driver-guide adds a lot. Go independent for the Cliffs alone if you are happy on the 350 bus, and for the Aran Islands, where the ferry and shuttle make it simple and you want the island to yourself rather than a coach group's schedule. Whatever you do, the Atlantic weather has the final say, so build in slack and do not pin a tight onward connection to the back of a day on the water.