GALWAY
1. For the best Fish and Chips in Galways, visit McDonagh’s.
It is cheap and hands down the freshest and most authentic in town. Click this to check out the menu and prices.
2. Visit the Claddagh Ring Museum
3. Visit The Kylemore Abbey
This is a Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle, in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. The abbey was founded for nuns who fled Belgium in World War I. Before this was turned into an Abbey, it was a home for the Henry family. There were 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants. Other buildings include a Gothic cathedral and family mausoleum containing the bodies of Margaret Henry, Mitchell Henry and a great grand-nephew. (Original owners of the castle) My favorite part of this Abbey had to be the garden however. Not only was it massive, but was strewn with various flowers, herbs, shrubbery in an incredible design.
4. Day Trip to the Cliffs of Moher
DUBLIN
5. The Brazen Head
Not only one of the oldest and greatest pubs in Dublin, but a family friend runs his business here: “An Evening of Food, Folklore and Fairies” Find the link to his business here. Johnny Daly will host a group of people with an included delicious meal, filled with laughs and music. The storytellers take you into a world of imagination with wonderful insights and mystical tales about the Irish way of life in the past. Click here to read some reviews on Tripadvisor!
6. St. Stephen’s Green
7. Bewley’s Cafe
It is beautiful, but still has a cozy vibe…and obviously quite charming. I love the second floor level inside the Bewley’s on Grafton Street.
8. The Blue Light
This is the least touristy spot you’ll find. My grandmother is from Sandyford, a small town outside Dublin city. If you follow the one road in her town, walk up the mountains…(while simultaneously having near death experiences every time a car is flies past you down the mountain) eventually you hit this pub, The Blue Light. This is where Bono, from U2, gets his beers when he is home.
The real beauty in the place has to be the incredible view you get to see while sitting outside. Dublin skyline is breathtaking.
