Day Trip to the Aran Islands

gerry2014 · Newbie

Day Trip to the Aran Islands

markan · Senior Member

I'd absolutely recommend Connemara as a place to visit. One of the most stunningly beautiful parts of Ireland.

Regarding Traditional Irish Music, I'd recommend Galway city over Doolin hands down. Not that Doolin is a terrible choice considering you want to visit the Aran islands but there are just more and better options for trad in Galway city and I'd put the Crane Bar on Sea Rd. and Tigh Choilis right on the top of the list for that. In Connemara your best bet for trad is to stay in Clifden. Lowry's and Mannion's are two pubs in Clifden that hold regular sessions and between those two there is probably one going on in town every night of the week. There are many other places in Co. Clare to find trad sessions as well such as Ennis, Feakle, Kilfenora, Miltown Malby, etc.

tony2phones · Guru

Inis Meain can be accessed easily from either Doolin or Rossaveal.
Connemara is an excellent place to visit but covers a lot of ground, Clifden is a good spot with a variety of pubs each with a different atmosphere almost.. Cycle hire (including power assisted) is available in town for exploring the Sky Rd, National Park or one of the peninsulas.
Doolin has the given reputation of being "the centre of Trad" how somewhere with only 3 bars and brings in paid musicians to entertain Tourists can be regarded as such is beyond me. But tourists love the place and go home saying how great it is..

For the best advice, some idea of how long you have and when you will be over would be helpful

Welcome to the forum.

Michele Erdvig · Host

Since the Aran Islands and Connemara are in the mix as well as a wish for good trad music pubs, I think Galway would be a good place for a couple of nights. Once you decide on which island you want to visit you can spend a day doing that and another day visiting Connemara. Although Connemara is a large area you can see a good portion as a day trip. It is lovely if you can spare more time for the area but that depends on your overall plan.