Hi ksween:

It's hard to tell from your original note what the entire plan is other than you have 3 nights in galway and an unknown # of nights in Dingle. Also, there is the desire to stay on Aran for a night or two and some places in the north. As far as what you should do ...

It sort of depends on your interests. Both Galway and Westport have active music scenes. Galway is a city and Westport is a town so they have a much different feel to them. Galway tends to be a pretty young town in the evening (mixed with tourists) and Westport is more of a mix, again with tourists. Scenery wise, they both are surrounded by spectacular scenery so my take would be to stay in both areas. You won't exhaust your options.

As you head north in Donegal it becomes less populated. Donegal is the largest county in Ireland with the smallest population, thus, another different feel. I've never stayed in the town of Donegal so I don't what it has to offer. I've stayed in Ardara before which is village sized and had a wonderful time and again, plenty of scenery to keep me busy.

I've never stayed in Bushmills but I've been. It gets high marks from lots of folks and of course there is that little distillery is there. Last visit during the off season we got virtually a private tour because there was no one around.

Hope this helps

Bill