Moving to Galway from Dublin

dellytots

Me and my boyfriend have desided to move to Galway. At the moment we're looking into getting a job and looking for a place to rent(any help with this greatly appreciated) before buying a place of are own. We've have a couple of great short stays in the city but I was wondering what it like actually living there? - Transport, cost of living, things to do etc???

kevmy

Well it's much more laid back than Dublin and the cost of living is definetly less especially if your going out. Rent should also be cheaper.
Traffic can be dodgy at peak times but not as bad as Dublin. Live on the same side of the river as your work and you shouldn't be to bad. If your work is in town you could probably walk or cycle. It generally takes 20-25 mins at most.
Things to do - well the usual I suppose. Going out; plenty of decent pubs and probably a club or two that you like (depends what your into). Cinema; main two are the Omniplex (Headford Road) and the Eye (Wellpark) close enough to town for both.

Good luck

PopeBuckfastXVI

It depends on what you're into...

Being from the GDA myself I can give you my thoughts.

Things to do: if you don't like a pint don't bother coming here, there's quite limited sober entertainment in Galway. Clubs are fairly limited too, most are clones of each other and play the usual chart stuff, there's 1 or 2 indie/dance clubs. I think the dance ones are popular, but the indie ones aren't and have strayed away from pure indie/rock recently and into other areas, this may not be of concern to you. But then if you are into daytime activities you should find loads of outdoors type stuff like surfing/sailing/rowing/hillwalking around. Unfortunately it rains about 250 days a year here, you really notice the difference between galway and leinster when it comes to rain, really, I can't stress that enough.

Expenses: A night in the pub/club is slightly/much cheaper depending on the dublin equivalent, there's no rediculous places like café en seine here, the price of a pint in any pub or club is going to be under a fiver. Rent is a good bit cheaper than dublin, though if you are after a 1/2 bedroom apartment for just yourselves, expect to pay at least 800 pcm for anything that isn't a dive, and 1000+ for anything nice. House prices are way above dublin when compared to salary, surprisingly. Salaries aren't as good as dublin generally either. The job market in some areas is quite limited, the city is mainly made up of transients, students and locals. There aren't a huge amount of professionals who have moved here from elsewhere, and expect to take a little friendly ribbing from locals for being a dirty english b*stard from the pale. I wouldn't reccommend moving here without a job already lined up, unless you are looking for something like factory work, which is readily available in one of the many large medical device manufacturing companies.

Getting about: Gridlock, the traffic is tragic, but thankfully it's a small enough place so it doesn't take *that* long to get from one side of the city to another, distances under a mile though, walk because it's just not worth bringing the car (though with the weather you might be willing to sacrifice time for comfort, I do!). The public transport system is crap, busses don't run to much of a schedule and show up at stops at roughly half hour intervals give or take 10 minutes either direction, you will generally be waiting in the rain for your bus, there's no point in timing it, just show up and hope you haven't just missed one. Taxis are pretty cheap because you're never much distance from anywhere, taxi to the outskirts after a night out shouldn't set you back more than a tenner and will be frequently less than that.

Safety & Crime: It's the safest city I've ever lived in, on a night out if you don't look for trouble, it won't find you. Having said that the usual caveats apply, it's safer than most places but nowhere's 100% etc. If you are moving into an area, use your discretion, I can't think of any "no go" areas per say, but keep an eye out, you should know what to look for.

Over all Galway is a pretty decent place to live, I love being on the edge of connemara, there's generally a bit of drinking crack going on any given night of the week, and the people (locals and blowins) are lovely, apart from the hippies who stink and are floater airheaded idiots (there's a lot of hippies!).

Things I miss:
Gigs: If you like your smalltime acoustic whingers like damien rice, you'll love it here, I don't, I wanna see big rock gigs, they don't happen here.
Cinema: There's nothing like the IFC (please don't mention the film fleadh, it's once a year and crap), you'll get your blockbusters and the occasional indie palm d'or winner but that's about it.
Record stores: Basically just HMV & its local clone
Clothes: If you want to look like everyone else in Galway, buy your clothes in Galway.
Permanence: Meet someone and get on well with them, but they'll be moving somewhere else within a year. It's a ****e/good city to be single in, ****e because it's hard to meet somebody great, good because it's easy to meet lots of not-so-great people. This isn't a problem for you.
Variety: There's 2 pubs here, the "old man" pub and the "young trendy" pub, that's it. This lack of variety goes for a lot more than pubs, I guess it's economics of scale or something
Houseing: if you are planning on settling here they won't pay you enough to buy one here, you'll be commuting, same as dublin really but hey, it's always worth b*tching about houseing right!?
Dublin Airport

Things I don't miss:
Taking 2 hours to get to my friends house
Scummy northside dubs
Toffy southside dubs
House rental prices
Crime
Beat the neighbours (it's here but not as bad, we're all Hibernian first, material celtic tiger cubs second in the west)
Spending 4 hours a day travelling in and out of work.

I hope you enjoy living here as much as I do, just be warned it's not the be all and end all of places to live, and a very different kettle of fish from a fun weekender away.

tman

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote:

Record stores: Basically just HMV & its local clone

What about Mulligans?

PopeBuckfastXVI

tman wrote:

What about Mulligans?

I guess mulligans is ok, they're quite hit and miss though, have picked up an indie gem or two there, but it's not exactly a huge selection imho.

I forgot the main missing thing in Galway: Burger King!!

Oh I'd kill for a whopper some days, but the drive to Limerick is a bit much for one!

Robbo

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote:

I forgot the main missing thing in Galway: Burger King!!

Y'know, I moved to Dublin solely to eat at the King's table. If it were possible to marry a burger, you'd see me carrying an Angus across the threshold and then nine months later, a litter of bacon double cheesburgers.

padi89

tman wrote:

What about Mulligans?

Their prices are a joke.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Robbo wrote:

Y'know, I moved to Dublin solely to eat at the King's table. If it were possible to marry a burger, you'd see me carrying an Angus across the threshold and then nine months later, a litter of bacon double cheesburgers.

Oh god my mouth is watering... f*ck this, I'm off to scottys for lunch...

SuperMacs

Robbo wrote:

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote:

I forgot the main missing thing in Galway: Burger King!!

Y'know, I moved to Dublin solely to eat at the King's table. If it were possible to marry a burger, you'd see me carrying an Angus across the threshold and then nine months later, a litter of bacon double cheesburgers.

What about KFC! I really miss KFC.
I lie in bed awake dreaming of chicken dusted in Cl.Saunders secret recipe.
Dam, maybe I'll open a franchis and eat all the profits

1huge1

in limerick theres 2 burger kings and 3 kfc's strange about galway,
just out of curiousity is there anot a virgin megastore or golden discs there becuase one of the posters said there was only hmv (and the locals)

galwayrush

Golded Discs on Eglinton street. the locals are quite good as well.

stevecrow74

tman wrote:

What about Mulligans?

try Bell Book and Candle behind the Crane Bar... CD's and Vinyl (second hand, but still good.. and cheap).. various books and magazines.. and the lad that runs the place is dead sound, you couldnt meet a nicer guy...

Interceptor

I moved here with my wife ten years ago - we thought Dublin was gone too expensive and were never going to be able to buy our own place. We arrived here, rented a flat on Mainguard street and spent a house deposit in six months of partying and eating out. Its changed a bit in ten years, but not much - I'd recomend it if the pace of Dublin has gotten too much for you. The Burger King thing is a pi55er but your heart will thank you in the long run...

'cptr

dellytots

Thanks for the help, I had an interview in galway the other day so if i get it I'll be moving there in the next month

nollaig

you really notice the difference between galway and leinster when it comes to rain, really, I can't stress that enough.

I moved to Dublin from Galway 1 yearago and in weather terms, Ive noticed Dublin to be so much colder. Am I imagining it? Didnt really notice about the rain

Sponge Bob

dublin may be a bit colder in winter but its a lot drier too

Robbo

nollaig wrote:

I moved to Dublin from Galway 1 yearago and in weather terms, Ive noticed Dublin to be so much colder. Am I imagining it? Didnt really notice about the rain

I moved to Dublin about 3 months ago and notice the coldness as well. Rains less though so swings and roundabouts.

ARGINITE

Screw burger king when you have a scottys up the road

5times

What was the name of the fast-food place that used to be beside the GPO nightclub .It was only there for a short while . Jaysus I used to come out of the club , off my ceann , and devour 10 onion rings from that place before heading to a house party somewhere . Woo-hoo !

padi89

5times wrote:

What was the name of the fast-food place that used to be beside the GPO nightclub .It was only there for a short while . Jaysus I used to come out of the club , off my ceann , and devour 10 onion rings from that place before heading to a house party somewhere . Woo-hoo !

Well i know it was Buck Rodgers for a while and i think it was Smurfs too.Beefeaters in Salthill is one i miss was much better than Wimpy.

5times

It might have been Smurfs . Onion rings and curry + coleslaw chips . Set you up to party until Sunday afternoon .

cp251

Don't bother, biggest mistake I ever made. Stick to holidays. This town is up itself but if you scratch the surface it's all fluff. Traffic is chronic and worse than Dublin considering how small the town is. Yet everyone here still goes around talking as if Dublin was gridlocked all the time. Try driving up or down the Monivea road in either direction any time during the day or the Tuam road or......... Pay is lousy and good jobs not as common as they pretend. If jobs were so plentiful. How come you see so many Galway and Mayo people working for 450 Euro a week after ten years working in places like Boston Scientific? House prices are too expensive for the wages. The cost of living is the same for Dublin and petrol is more expensive.
Galway is seriously overrated. Everyone slags off Dublin, fair enough. Galway gets off lightly. Plus it never bloody stops raining.

biko

Everyone, please leave as soon as possible.

padi89

cp251 wrote:

Don't bother, biggest mistake I ever made. Stick to holidays. This town is up itself but if you scratch the surface it's all fluff. Traffic is chronic and worse than Dublin considering how small the town is. Yet everyone here still goes around talking as if Dublin was gridlocked all the time. Try driving up or down the Monivea road in either direction any time during the day or the Tuam road or......... Pay is lousy and good jobs not as common as they pretend. If jobs were so plentiful. How come you see so many Galway and Mayo people working for 450 Euro a week after ten years working in places like Boston Scientific? House prices are too expensive for the wages. The cost of living is the same for Dublin and petrol is more expensive.
Galway is seriously overrated. Everyone slags off Dublin, fair enough. Galway gets off lightly. Plus it never bloody stops raining.

Bah humbug!!!!

cornbb

Ha. Just moved here meself from Limerick in October. Traffic and parking is worse, accomodation is a lot more expensive, I miss facilities like the UCH and Daghda in Limerick and the no Burger King thing really bugs me too. But the pubs and restaurants are great, the little streets and the market are lovely, Connemara is on our doorstep and there's a genuinely laid back vibe about the place. Lovin it here. Dublin's the last place I'd want to move.

ScumLord

Galway is still one of my favourite citys and I've traveled a bit. I love the way you can walk from one side to the other and there's allot in it for the size.

Whats all this about burger king? I've only ever had it in Spain and it was muck! There are loads of good resturants around Galway selling proper food.

OP, it might be worth considering looking just outside Galway in somewhere like Oranmore or Oughterard (off the top of my head I haven't a clue what there actually like) I don't know what there like for traffic but surely they can't be any worse than the N17. Jobs wise allot of the small towns outside Galway have one particular trade like one town might be full of ground works, another plasterers, another electricians. Going by some of the houses going up out in the country the wages must be quite high.

Living in the country means you can call into Galway at your lesure without the hassles of city living. Small towns aren't as secluded as they used to be either most towns seem to at least have a supermarket, some form of resturant/chipper and more than likely a golf course for some reason.

shatners basoon

Charcoal grill make much nicer burgers damn it!

Galway is pretty damn small- more of a very big town than a small city ala Limerick or Cork. So if you feel the need to live in a city i wouldn't recommend it (its growing though so it will probably become a proper city in the near future)
That being said its still got the nice qualities of a town and can be very enjoyable to live in. Nicest town in Ireland on a sunny day- great vibe.

As for the person who mentioned the lack of an IFA type cinema i couldn't agree more but unfortunately Art House cinema just fails miserably here or so it seems. The eye have them in from time to time but i'd recommend the Town Hall film club thing which does have good independant films and the price is decent too.

pencil

I'll through my twopence here.

Me & the Missus moved from Dublin to Galway two years ago.

Galway is great, definitely my favorite city, love the town, pubs etc...

However it may not suit all.

Galway suited us because we were ready to settle down & have kids, we're both in our early 30s. We also had a house in Dublin which was bought before the property in this country went mental. So we were in the enviable position of being able to sell our Dublin house, for crazy amount of money, and buy a house in Galway mortgage free. If you are in the same position, living mortgage free in your 30s is to be highly recommended!!

However I wouldn't recommend Galway a younger me. And I would not recommend moving to Galway to anyone without securing a job first! Galway is awash with low skilled poorly paid employment. Even jobs that are considered higher up the food chain are poorly paid. A nice techy job in Dublin that netted you 40-45k will only pay 25-30k in Galway!

This money difference is slightly offset by the fact that Galway is 20% cheaper to live in - for everything except housing. If you plan to work in Galway and hope to save enough to eventually buy your own house - you are truly joking yourself.

The costs of houses down here has gone through the roof in the last few years. You will pay 360,000 to buy a poorly built, high density, semi-d (with no garage & a stamp sized back yard).

I really do pity the 20 somethings down here. Poor pay & housing out of their reach. The price of property in this country is going to be our downfall. Frankly if I was 10 years younger & just leaving college - I'd immigrate rather than take on a lifetime of debt to live in a place I didn't want to.

Sh!te this is becoming a bit of a rant..... sorry.

So to sum that rant up.
Great town.
Poor Pay.
Cost of 'getting on in life': unattainable.

kevmy

shatners basoon wrote:

Charcoal grill make much nicer burgers damn it!

Damn right they do!!!

shatners basoon wrote:

... the lack of an IFA type cinema ...

???? One built by farmers?

PopeBuckfastXVI

pencil wrote:

I really do pity the 20 somethings down here. Poor pay & housing out of their reach. The price of property in this country is going to be our downfall.

As one of the twentysomethings I fully agree, owning a home, even a kip in a scummers estate, is not on the cards. If you had combined spending of a couple, you might do okish, but you're talking around 0.5 million for anything which you could describe as a nice, decent house.

PixelTrawler

pencil wrote:

living mortgage free...

True for me although unfortunately its because i have never bought a house yet and as you say its not really on the cards here for me.

I love the place but I can't see myself being able to afford a place or earn the cash I'd need to buy one... still waiting for that lotto win:D

My sister is pretty much in that lovely situation you speak off having bought a house in mid 90's in Dublin. Shes currently building a lovely place near my folks... < not envious at all:rolleyes: >

PopeBuckfastXVI

What kind of society are we living in where simply owning a house (even a mortgaged one) requires a decent lottery win. Just remember what happened to the upper classes the last time people in this country couldn't get their hands on a bit of land, about 100 years ago... Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

ScumLord

Whats the big deal with owning a house anyway? You only really need a house if you've got kids otherwise I think it's much better to be completely free of loans and comitments.

louisecm

kevmy wrote:

Damn right they do!!!




???? One built by farmers?

Ha! I was going to say that exact thing!

I may be Galway bound too in the near future but would be coming because of a great job opportunity. My main concern is my social life - will be leaving all my Dublin friends, reckon I'll pick up some Galway ones easily enough? I'm pretty friendly and I'm working on the smell.

cornbb

Galway's grand for meeting new people, picking up new friends etc. Its incredibly easy to strike up a conversation with a randomer. Probably even easier if you move to the city centre.

Even I'd probably have some Galway friends by now, if it wasn't for the smell :cool:

louisecm

Excellent because today I found out I am definitely moving! So, get ready Galway I'm gonna need some friends quicksmart.:D