Moving to Galway...

Meghan

Hi, In May I will be moving to Galway from Canada for at least four or five months and will be working there. I was wondering if any of you had suggestions on what the best areas are to look and how much you usually pay for rent, etc. I hope to be fairly central but who knows... I would greatly appreciate any help! Thanks!

forbairt

this all depends ...

In ireland .. you usually move into a house / flat sharing with other people due to high rent / house prices ...

you can get a room in a central place ... from about 75 EUR a week ... it all depends on where .. who ... and the condition of the place you want to live in ... size ..etc.. you can check out http://www.galwayadvertiser.com/dws/

[edit]check out classified down the bottom left[/edit]

which is out every week at 3:30 ?? or something like that online as it is the main source for accommodation listings in galway ... there are many agencies as well that you could try ... but they are usually looking for long time professional people ...

tman

error9 wrote:

which is out every week at 3:30 ?? or something like that online as it is the main source for accommodation listings in galway ...

yeah, every thursday at 3:30 iirc.

good luck with the flathunt

Cloud

You can also try www.daft.ie for accommodation. Best of luck with the move!

Meghan

Thanks for the suggestions, moving to another country is making me a little nervous...

forbairt

we .. won't hurt you ... we ... won't ... hurt ... you ...

the advertister is out online or from their office at 3:30 on a wedneday to best of my knowledge .. and as it was out at that time today I'll assume I'm correct

what type of work will you be looking for just summer type work ?

Meghan

Thanks for the reassurance...

Yeah, some kind of full time summer job... I'm hoping it won't be too hard to find one. I can't wait to get over there though, I'm tired of here! I had to pick a place to go and Galway seemed like a good one to choose from what I've heard from other people.

forbairt

there's lots of craic to be had in galway so you've picked a good place ...

most people I know who come here love it so ...

depending on the type of work you're looking for you could try one of the agencies .. see the other threads in here

po0k

www.let.ie is another site you may want to check out.

Afaik we found our current apartment through daft.ie.

Meghan

Thank-you for helping me out, I really appreciate it! I didn't expect so many people to answer so quickly, but I'm glad you did! Anyways, thanks for all the great starting points!

forbairt

try galway.net as well ... lots of links / photos / other stuff in there ..

Meghan

Thanks for that, it has a lot of nice pictures and has given me a few ideas on things I want to see while I'm there... By the way, how easy do you think it is to travel across Ireland to different places from the city? I know it's not a big country, but I'm not used to being able to cross the country easily, so I just wanted an idea before I start getting too many ideas.

jester77

Unless you are going to the main cities then the public transport is fairly poor. Trains are useless unless you are going to Dublin, only place you can get to from Galway and they are not even electrical! Buses are sort of ok, expensive and slow though. For such a small country you won't believe how long it takes to get from A to B!
http://www.buseireann.ie is the main carrier, there's also a link to the train service from there - Iranrod (sp?) Eireann. There are a few smaller bus carriers depending on where you want to go.

Meghan

Coming from Dublin to Galway would you suggest the train then? Or the bus? Thats where I'm flying into, then spending a week...I'm not too concerned about cost really.

po0k

www.citylink.ie
Cheap fares (~€9 one-way, ~€16 return)
Regular departures from Galway and Dublin city centres, on the hour every hour.
Nice buses.
Average trip time is about 3hrs 30mins

Meghan

Thanks, that looks like a good option.

forbairt

again depending on time of year / week ... a car could be cheap enough to rent ? ... and get you to loads of places ... depends if its just yourself or a group of ye ... never know you could hook up with a bunch of like minded people looking to see stuff

as has been posted ... public transport is .. pretty bad ...

last time I used the bus ... it was cramped and took a long time ... all depends if you feel like an adventure and roughing it ... the train is definitely gonna be in my mind in future .. if only for the beer and the jacks :P ... but it is a bit of a rip off pricewise... and takes about the same length of time if not more to get from dublin ?? maybe someone else can confirm that ...

Meghan

Hmm...I think I might cause an accident if I tried to drive there, so I might stay away from that to be safe But who know's what'll happen! Yeah the train is sounding good now, just for the space.

forbairt

not sure of your age ... but had friends with problems before ... most rental agencies won't rent to people under 23 .. I believe it is ... also ... an american driving license only counts as a provisonal here or some such so hmm... at least I think it worked out that way for a work mate...

had kinda forgotten that

Meghan

Yeah, I'm only 20, and then I'd have to go to the trouble of getting an international drivers licence...and I think it would be more trouble than it was worth, even though it would be interesting...

By the way, do you think it will be easy to find a room to rent for only 4 or so months or do most contracts have to be longer?

fozzle

Well lots of student accomodation is rented out for the summer so it shouldn't be a problem, except in May. Have a look at the classified section on www.sin.ie/boards it's part of the University website and there's often students advertising rooms there.

Meghan

Why would it be a problem in may? That is when I will be coming, most likely May 4th or something...

po0k

Due to college exams

Mid-may might be your best bet.
You could still get lucky though, what with 3rd year students going on PEP placement and whatnot.

Meghan

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I'll probably be staying in a hostel or something for a week or so anyways, so I'm not going to worry about it. I didn't think of that, because University here finishes in April.

dee1979

Hi Your best bet if you are coming from the airport to Galway is Citylink. The have direct buses straight to the city and are regular.Look at their website for times and booking. Put an ad on daft.ie for accomodation someone should ring you even start now and in terms of jobs its hard but look up galway advertiser on wednesdays and start applying now because this is when they are all there.