Connemara Lake Hotel

When I stayed here over a year ago, they seemed to have recently re-​opened. The bar staff were a bit slow, the reception was a bit slow, everything seemed a bit higgledy-​piggledey, but for some reason, the chilled atmosphere of the place made this seem ok.
We got the room at a good rate of € 50 per person (one double and one single). There is no lift and you have to clamber up a skinny stairwell, down some corridors and open heavy fire-​doors to get to your room but, my, my, when you get there is it worth it. Perhaps first impressions lower expectations but the rooms look great. Each is themed, I had the «safari» room while my parents had the «buddah» room. Decorated only with trinkets, paintings and clever fabrics, the themes are not overwhelming and just add a nice quirk to the room.
The bathroom was spacious and fabulous, with a real window you could open with real natural light in both the bathroom and bedroom. So rare.
The television didn’t work but the high class air-​conditioning did (usually in Ireland I would have thought priiorities would be the other way around!)
The breakfast in the morning was huge and tasty and set us up for the day.
Parking is on-​street, but they assured us that the car would be ok and it was.
Oughterard is a bit off the beaten track but if you are travelling Galway and need to be in the area then its great.