First, a hot tip: We booked our 2-night stay direct on the hotel's website , and took advantage of a fantastic offer which included breakfast and dinner on the first night, for less than any of the major travel search engine websites had for room-only!

As for our experience, let's just say that if we ever get to Galway again (which we hope to) we will stay at the Galway Bay Hotel. It was without question one of the best hotels we've stayed at. The staff were quite friendly, the building itself was well laid out, good size, and had a great sea-front location! The services available were great, including a descent leisure centre with pool and gym, an in-hotel library, the breakfast was quite good, the dinner was AMAZING, and they also had many add-ons during the week, such as a free wine-tasting and discussion on Wednesdays.

We booked a double room, although they gave us a triple (double plus single) so we had a bit of extra space to put our luggage. Even with the extra single bed, the room was still very spacious! The toiletries in the bathroom were quite nice, and the room was very clean.

As for downsides? Well, the hotel is shaped like a H, so very few rooms have a true sea-view, although most have a side-ways sea view. Also, the management seems to not mind if the staff leave lots of trays and lots of tray stands dotted around the restaurant permanently between every other table -- although not a big deal, it was a bit annoying as it took away from the nice atmosphere. Oh, the other complaint is that they had an absolutely fantastic Bailey's Cheesecake for as the "Dessert of the Day" on the first day we were there, but they'd run out by the second day! How dare they!?! Otherwise, the food was great, the staff were great, the building was great, and the entire experience was wonderful.

TripAdvisor rates this property as 3 stars. There is no reason this hotel shouldn't have a 4th star, and it is definitely striving for a 5th. Based on our trip, it has even earned that!!