Woodquay Hostel

I stayed here one night as part of a tour. Seriously, the best thing about this hostel is the owner. She is an amazing complex and worldly woman who will talk your ear off. The hostel itself is clean, but old. It is actually the oldest hostel in Galway (and it shows). The pillows were as hard as rocks and I kept finding bits of glass in my bed. We arrived around 6pm because we had been out touring all day and were put in where we could fit in. I stayed in a 12-​bed mixed dorm on the ground floor. The office staff kept coming through this room because they had to to get to their office. I had the misfortune of being given the bed directly facing the office door so everytime they would come out of the office a bright light would be shone in my face. I was actually woken up at 3am and 7am by this method. Additionally, because we were on the first floor, and right by the front door, the smoke from people going outside to smoke wafted into our room. I just pulled out my pajamas today from sleeping there last night and they smell like an ashtray. I can’t believe I slept in that.
The breakfast was a s basic as it possibly could be: toast, tea, and coffee.
I am thankful that I had a clean-​ish place to stay over a bank holiday when all of the other hostels were sold out, but I would never come back to this hostel again if I had a choice.

Little did I know what I would find at my arrival in Galway. Just as we walked in, the entrance was completely packed with confused clients; we showed the receptionist our reservation for a double private room and with no further explanation he took us to a guest house in the middle of the night, saying that the hostel was busy.
The host was a lovely lady and the house was fine, but I still could not believe that the hostel personnel treated us that way without even apologising.

I actually spent 3 weeks at Woodquay … I’m from Boston and I was working remotely during that time. The owner Julie and Paul were friendly and had a good sense of humor. They would help me find things to do when I needed it but otherwise let me go explore when I wanted to. The people staying there were interesting and fun — I met a group of guys from Dublin, a group of girls from Spain, and a charismatic older gentleman from County Coven. These made for great experiences on my visit to Galway.
Why not 5 stars? I would have liked to see lockers (I left my stuff at the check-​in office a few times and nothing ever happened to it). Also I thought the bedtime was a little early (either midnight or 1, I don’t remember anymore). That being said it was pretty good compared to most hostels I’ve stayed at.