The Dean Galway, Ireland Hotel

Galway, Ireland

There can’t be many better places to watch a storm roll in off the Atlantic than Sophie’s Bar – The Dean Galway’s rooftop restaurant. With rain lashing the window and Jameson in hand, it’s easy to get swept up in the romance of Ireland’s rugged west coast. Two years since the hotel launched in Galway’s city centre (there are older siblings in Dublin and Cork), it’s still making waves. Park any nervousness surrounding the presence of a lobby DJ at weekends or their insistence, ‘We do fun’; guests will be won over by the sheer joyfulness of it all. Panelled pink rooms have a ‘munchies’ shelf stocked with Tayto crisps, and a gym built into a stretch of decommissioned railway will wow even the most fitness- apathetic. It’s a far cry from the often fusty b&bs that were once the launch pad to the Wild Atlantic Way. This is a new interpretation of Ireland’s Wild West at its absolute best.

Doubles from £136.

Words by Rachel Walker

This article was taken from the May 2024 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.