Small country. Long coast road.
Black taxis through west Belfast, the basalt at the Causeway, Dunluce on its stack and the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede. What each tour actually covers, what it costs, and where to book it.
Start with the obvious ones.
Titanic Belfast, a black taxi up the Falls and the Shankill, the Causeway on a clear morning, the Dark Hedges before the coaches arrive. These carry a first trip; everything after them is bonus.
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The basalt is worth the early start.
Leave Belfast by eight and the stones are underfoot before the first coach party arrives. Then the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, Dunluce falling off its stack, and the Dark Hedges on the way home while the light is still low. Sixty miles of road, and almost none of it dull.
City day, or coast day?
Most visitors get two clear days here and spend the first one deciding. Belfast is compact and reads best on foot or from the back of a taxi; the Causeway is ninety minutes up the motorway and eats a whole day. Here is how the three usual answers actually run.
Stay in Belfast
The Belfast day
1 hour 30 minutes (approx.) · from $110 · 2,188 reviews
A black taxi up the Falls and the Shankill in the morning, the peace walls with someone who grew up beside them, then Titanic Belfast and the slipways after lunch. Everything sits inside three miles and you can walk most of it. Works in weather that has other plans.
See the Belfast tours →
Up the M2
The Causeway run
8 hours 30 minutes (approx.) · from $33 · 1,432 reviews
Coach or minibus north at eight, Carrick-a-Rede and Dunluce on the way, two hours at the stones, back for dinner. It is a long day in a seat, and the stretch between Ballintoy and Bushmills makes up for it. Book a small group if you want to stop for photographs.
See the Causeway days →
Both, with a driver
The car with your name on it
8 hours (approx.) · from $777 · 155 reviews
One driver, your own hours, and no coach park queue. It costs more per head unless there are four of you, at which point it stops being extravagant. This is how people fit the filming locations and the Causeway into the same day.
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The entries fill up after six.
The narrow lanes off High Street hold more bars than the map suggests, and the pours have improved: gin out of a Belfast bond store, whiskey distilled in the city again after fifty years without it, and food tours that put twelve plates in front of you before anyone orders a drink. Go with someone who knows which door is which.
The walls are still up.
Guides on these routes grew up on one side or the other, and most say so at the start. The Falls, the Shankill, the gates that still close at night, and the murals that get repainted as the politics move. Factual, first-hand, and longer on detail than any plaque.
Half the north stood in for Westeros.
Ballintoy harbour played Pyke, the Dark Hedges were the Kingsroad, the caves at Cushendun held the shadow scene, and the studio tour outside Banbridge keeps the actual sets. Some tours hand out cloaks and swords. Some do not. Read the description before you book.
The yard is still the tallest thing here.
Samson and Goliath stand over east Belfast, and the slipways where Titanic and Olympic went into the water are marked out at full size in the grass beside them. The building on the corner holds nine galleries and the SS Nomadic, the last White Star ship afloat. Give it three hours, not one.
Pick a place, get a day.
Belfast works in quarters and you can walk between them. The coast is a drive, and the drive is half the point. Bushmills for the whiskey. Ballintoy for the harbour. The Glens when the light is right.
Pick the format first.
Two hours or a full day. On foot, in a black taxi, on a coach, or with a driver who answers only to you. Every option behind these is priced and reviewed.
Everything is inside two hours.
Nothing here is far. The Causeway is ninety minutes up the M2, Carrick-a-Rede another twenty along the coast, and the Mournes sit an hour south of the city. You can be back for dinner from any of them.
Give it three days.
You cannot see all of Northern Ireland in a long weekend, but three days covers the parts people fly in for. This is the order that wastes the least time.
Day 1
The city, on foot and by taxi
Start with a black taxi up the Falls and the Shankill, then walk back into town for the City Hall and the entries. Two hours of recent history, then a long lunch. It sets up everything else.
Plan day one →
Day 2
North to the stones
Out early on the coast road, the rope bridge if the wind allows it, two hours at the Causeway, then Dunluce and the Dark Hedges on the way back. The longest day of the three and the one people remember.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Ships, sets and a distillery
Titanic Belfast first thing while the galleries are quiet, the studio tour or the filming locations after lunch, and a distillery in the city before dinner. Book the studio tour ahead; it sells out.
Plan day three →
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