3 Best Sights in Galway City, County Clare, Galway, and the Aran Islands

The largest open space in central Galway and the arrival and departure point by train and bus, this is a favorite chill-out spot on a sunny day for students, visitors, and lunching locals. Eyre Square on the east side of the River Corrib incorporates a sculpture garden and children's play area, while its west side is bound by a heavily traveled road. In the center is Kennedy Park, a patch of lawn named in honor of John F. Kennedy, who spoke here when he visited the city in June 1963. At the north end of the park, a 20-foot-high steel sculpture standing in the pool of a fountain represents the brown sails seen on Galway hookers, the area's traditional sailing boats. Now a feature of Kennedy Park, the Browne Doorway was taken in 1905 from the Browne family's town house on Upper Abbeygate Street; it has the 17th-century coats of arms of both the Browne and Lynch families (two of Galway's 14 founding families).

The city's civic museum, housed in a modern building behind the Spanish Arch, contains materials relating to local history: old photographs, antiquities (the oldest is a stone ax head carbon-dated to 3500 BC), and a full-scale Galway hooker (turf-carrying boat) in the stairwell, as well as information on the city's involvement in Ireland's 1916 Rising. On the top floor, there's a child-friendly ocean-life museum with panoramic Corrib River views. Its café, the Kitchen, is a lively lunch and coffee spot.

A lively, hugely popular seaside resort, Salthill is beloved for its old-fashioned seaside promenade—the traditional place "to sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh, and see the sun go down on Galway Bay," as Bing Crosby used to croon in the most famous song about the city. Today locals use it for a routine run from the city center or weekend leap into the ocean from its diving boards. The main attraction of the village, set 3 km (2 miles) west of Galway, is the long sandy beach along the edge of Galway Bay and the promenade above it. New hotels, trendy restaurants, and craft beer pubs along the seafront have nevertheless left plenty of room for the traditional amusement arcades (full of slot machines), seasonal cafés, and a fairground.