Fodor's Expert Review Galway City Museum

The city's civic museum, housed in a modern building behind the Spanish Arch, contains materials relating to local history: old photographs, antiquities (the oldest is a stone ax head carbon-dated to 3500 BC), and a full-scale Galway hooker (turf-carrying boat) in the stairwell, as well as information on the city's involvement in Ireland's 1916 Rising. On the top floor, there's a child-friendly ocean-life museum with panoramic Corrib River views. Its café, the Kitchen, is a lively lunch and coffee spot.