2025 travel to Northern Ireland

i'm a bit confused here.... where abouts in the trip does the Simply Red concert fit in - start, middle or what?

Where are you planning to fly into - Dublin, Belfast or somewhere else?

What exactly do you mean by Northern Ireland - is it just the six counties that are part of the UK OR does it also include northern parts of Eire - eg Donegal, Sligo etc (OK this may sound pedantic, but it does help to have as much information as possible. )

If you are covering both Northern Ireland and Eire, then check you can take the hire car between the two. Also think about where you are planning oit drop it off. Are you planning a one way hire?

How are you planning to get to Scotland - fly or ferry? Either way you will need to drop the car off and hire again once you get to Scotland. (If spending any time in either Glasgow or Edinburgh, you won't want a car - parking is a real problem and very expensive. Both have excellent public transport. What are you expectations of a 'few days' in Scotland? Don't try and do everything...

Goodness, Simply Red doesn't play in the States, so we're excited to see them in Dublin, late September 2025. We are just starting the planning stage, toured Ireland 6 years ago, and found that we spent too much time driving. Looked at Rick Steve's travel plan to get ideas on touring Northern loop. We will be driving, and we realize rental will be different between countries. Don't want to overdue but would enjoy seeing Scotland, possibly 4 to 5 days. Meeting a family member of a friend who lives near Belfast next month. Will pick their brain as well. Thanks for responding

American here who's lived in Belfast for the last 3.5 years. Happy to suggest a few things! Flying into Dublin is probably the cheapest option rather than Belfast, so I'd start or end your trip with your concert and stay in Dublin for 1-2 nights for that.
I'd suggest taking a bus or train to Belfast from Dublin. There's companies (Aircoach and Dublin Express) that take you directly from either Dublin Airport (no train from the airport) or Dublin City Centre to Belfast City Centre or even all the way to Derry if you wanted to start your journey there. Really no need to rent a car from Dublin unless you were wanting to make stops along the way. There's a small charge with the rental company to cover your insurance for Northern Ireland so whether you rent in Belfast or Dublin you'll want to tell them where you're headed to include it.

If you take the bus/train from Dublin and want to rent a car from Belfast, I'd wait until you've spent time in the city first as you won't want your car while you're sightseeing Belfast. Rent the car when you're ready to head out of town. Highly recommend driving the coastal route to the Antrim Coast. Hit the top sights like Giants Causeway, Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, Ballintoy Harbour, the castles are mainly ruins but very pretty setting, Bushmills town is a favorite for us to show our guests and see the distillery and have lunch at Bushmills Inn, good food in the pub or restaurant there. The various game of thrones stops up on the coast are easy to look up as well. You're not far to keep going north up to Donegal, which is beautiful. Lots of small roads, coastal routes in Donegal. We've stayed in Donegal Town or even day trips from Derry as a base. The national park up in Donegal there is worth a stop if you like walking or nature, also e-bikes to rent there. It's stunning and there's a castle surrounded by gardens, a lake and there's a place to have lunch there.

For Scotland, you can either take the Stena Line ferry from Belfast with your car or you could hop on as a passenger and depending what you'd like to do in Scotland there are coach buses that take you from Belfast City Centre, onto the ferry, and take you all the way to Glasgow. You could definitely spend a few days in and around Glasgow and Edinburgh (1hr train between the two) without a car if you weren't trying to hit the highlands. Or take the car from Belfast and spend a week or so in Scotland. It's also just as easy though to buy a cheap and short flight to Glasgow or Edinburgh from Belfast and plan your journey from there. It's a 40min flight and will usually cost less than $100 round trip. You could also buy a one way from Belfast and fly back to Dublin to head home as an idea.

3 weeks will give you lots of flexibility, hope this helps your planning process. Enjoy your trip!

We took the train from Dublin to Belfast, did a cab tour, then the train to Derry. Spent three days in Derry. Rented a car and did a long day in County Donegal, over the border. After out time in Derry, returned to Belfast for another half day (downtown, Titanic Museum), then returned to Dublin. Scotland was separate trip.

I have recommended them before but coiste tours on west Belfast is really great. They have an opinion on the conflict which they are very open about. You get a great window into Belfast history. Also the city hall has a number of interesting exhibits.