Heading to Belfast and then to do hikes along the coast including Giants Causeway, rope bridge, etc. area. Thinking of staying in one location (e.g. Bushmills) and taking transit or cab to hike starts. Any ideas on if this will work. The trailheads do not look that far. Thanks
Posted by
Bellingham, WA
947 posts
Bushmills is an excellent choice. It's not on the water, so you won't have sea views from your accommodation, but it's a nice enough town with good transport connections. Here is a blog post I found about the Causeway Rambler, the bus that serves that area:
https://urbanistwanderer.com/2025/02/13/guide-ulsterbus-402-causeway-rambler/#:~:text=The%20Translink%20Ulsterbus%20402%20is,link%20to%20the%20Giant's%20Causeway.
Posted by
15 posts
Once we landed in Northern Ireland, we immediately bought two iLink cards that allowed us access to almost all public transportation in NE for the coming week. We took a bus to the train station, hopped on a train from Belfast to Coleraine and took the 402 Bus towards Ballycastle, and got off at Bushmills.
For the next few days, we'd take a bus to so many of your points of interest along the coast, and we never even needed a cab. There are a variety of buses running along here, and we rarely waited anywhere for more than five minutes at the end of our trailheads.
When we decided to move on, we bused it to the train again at Colerain, proceeded to Derry, spent a few days there, and took a bus back to Belfast.
We thought we'd top off our ilink or use other public transport there, but there the Hop On/Hop Off Bus package with Titanic admission was a deal, and otherwise, Belfast is so walkable, we really didn't need anything more.