Goldcrest Village Rooms University of Galway

Budget accommodation without the manky factor, on lovely campus. Helpful staff. Bed not so comfortable, but everything clean and fresh. Shower a problem - impossible to adjust or aim, stinging pressure but mostly missed your body and soaked your hair. In all, enjoyed our stay, and felt it was good value.

This location feels best for low maintenance solo travelers. It’s a bit outside the city center and is a half hour walk or short bus ride, with one bus coming through every 30 minutes. The room I stayed in was a single room in an “apartment.” If you’re from the US, this isn’t what we would think of as an apartment. It’s essentially a hallway with 5 or 6 rooms in it. But you don’t really share the space with anyone else other than the hallway, so it’s a good fit if you don’t want a group setting like a hostel. My number one issue with my stay was that it was VERY loud. The walls are paper thin and all the doors naturally slam shut unless you catch it and slowly close it, which no one did. So you hear loud slamming doors any time someone else in your hallway comes and goes. It was jarring every time. And there is no AC in the rooms, so you have to keep the window open if you want to cool down at all or enable any airflow, which also didn’t help with the noise. Loud conversations and laughter woke me up late at night from people outside. Between that and the constant slamming of doors, this stay was not at all restful. But you get what you pay for I guess, and this was far less expensive than the other options in the area other than hostels. So, if you’re one person looking for a night or two of your own space without a high price tag, this might do the trick. Just being ear plugs. Staff were very nice.