Hello,
My husband and I are going to Ireland for a wedding in late August of this year (2026) and are struggling to make the best out of our trip. We will have 5 days after the wedding (not including our final day, which will just be the journey home to the states). We have already decided on (and booked, non-refundable) 2 nights in Galway straight from the wedding venue in Cavan. Our original plan was to spend two nights in Doolin and then head back to Dublin for the final day to be prepared to fly out of Dublin on our last day. But, now we are thinking it might make more sense to just go back to Dublin from Galway and just spend our final three days in Dublin and doing day trips to places like the Wicklow Mountains national forest and Howth Cliffs. We have been told Galway is great time, which is why we booked that straight away, but really want to enjoy the natural beauty of the country without spending too much time in the rental car and bouncing around from hotel to hotel. We also realize we are visiting during peak visitor season, which is making everything much more expensive.
We have not ever done a trip like this, and are working a bit outside of our means for this trip, so we really want to make sure we are making the most out of our time, but are a bit lost.
Can anyone provide some guidance on what we should do with these final days so that we are exploring some natural beauty without being stuck in the car for too long?