Ireland - 3 Days After Dublin
 

Hello,

My wife and I are doing a tag-on trip to Ireland for a few days in mid-October. We are starting with a few nights in Dublin, and plan to depart Friday morning. Will be departing back out of Dublin on Monday afternoon. Renting car on way out of dublin. Happy to stop one or two quick stops during the drive but would be great to set up whereever we land on that Friday night and have two full days in the spot in question. Drive back to DUB monday AM. thinking somewhere between 2-4 hours of Dublin.

We are looking for a few ideas of where to head to and pretty open. Fairly flexible (contemplated around Galway, learned about some small towns on South coast near Ballycotton) on where to head, but would like to set up in accommodations somewhere for 3 nights vs, move around. We are ideally looking to not stay in a 'city center' (don't want to stay in Galway, don't want to stay in Cork), but would love to find a small town with easily accessible things to do with a drive around us.

Ideally looking for folks favorite towns (we want small quaint town feels, picturing towns with 2-4 pubs in the town max (yes, this is how i'm judging town sizes in Ireland), ideally near a coast, not big populated areas.

Ideas?

It's been a while but I enjoyed Cobh (pronounced "cove", more or less). Close enough to pop over and see a bit of Cork without actually staying in Cork. And at least one good pub along the water serving the local Murphy's Stout. I'm sure I saw another pub up the hill on the way out, but can't say the status of the pub count now. Worth checking out though.