Dublin Alone
Dublin, Georgian squares and a pub table.
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Galway
Alone
Galway's compact old center holds an arts festival every July, a food market beside a church and a touring theater company. Leave the evening open for live traditional music.
$6.99 ebook
Ebook · Updated Q4 2026
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Where you might stay
- BudgetSkeffington Armsnear the coach and train
- Mid-rangeHarbour Hotelaway from late pedestrian streets
- A treatThe House Hotelold-town base with a café bar downstairs
Two places to eat alone
- Cava BodegaSmall tapas plates suit a solo diner.
- Tigh NeachtainSnugs and fires make a comfortable room for eating alone.
SAMPLE
A Small City With a Long Reach
Galway is not a large place. You can cross the old center on foot in fifteen minutes and still have breath for the walk up to the cathedral. On a map of Europe it sits at the far western edge, the last town of any size before the Atlantic. For most of its history that position made it either very rich or very poor, depending on what the sea was doing.
What is unusual is the reach. This small city on a river mouth runs an international arts festival that fills its theaters and warehouses every July. It has a restaurant that has held a Michelin star (check the current guide), a food market that has traded beside the same church for generations, a theater company that tours to New York, and a pub culture with live traditional music most nights, in several places at once.
A free excerpt from Galway Alone.
PRACTICAL SAMPLE
The Table for One
Lunch is the better solo meal in Galway. The rooms are lighter, the service faster, the prices lower, and the cooking often identical to dinner. Kai, on Sea Road in the West End, takes walk-ins at lunch and reservations only at dinner, which tells you where the pressure is.
Sit at the counter when there is one. You get the kitchen or the bar to watch, the staff to talk to if you want them, and no empty chair opposite you.
Book the early sitting for dinner. It is calmer, and you are not the last table in an emptying room.
Bring something to read. A book on the table signals that you are happy sitting on your own.
Order the way you want to eat. Two starters, a bowl of chowder and a glass of wine, a plate of oysters and brown bread: all of it is normal.
A free excerpt from Galway Alone.
Inside this book
- Galway Awaits
- A City Shaped by History
- Planning Your Escape
- The Solo Woman’s Galway
- Where to Stay
- Street by Street, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
View the chapter contents
- Galway Awaits
- A City Shaped by History
- Planning Your Escape
- The Solo Woman’s Galway
- Where to Stay
- Street by Street, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
- Days in Galway
- Art, Culture & Creativity
- The Pleasures of the Table
- Evening & After Dark
- Retail Therapy
- Beyond the City, Day Trips
- Conversation Notes
- Practical Matters
BUY THE GUIDE
Galway Alone
Galway's compact old center holds an arts festival every July, a food market beside a church and a touring theater company. Leave the evening open for live traditional music.
$6.99 ebook
Ebook · Updated Q4 2026
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