Dublin/Belfast

We spent two nights in Belfast so we could visit the Titanic Museum and thought it was well worth it. We also stopped in New Grange on our way from Dublin to Belfast (we had a car but you can do day a tour from Dublin and I'm betting you can do one from Belfast as well). It was fascinating--a must see IMHO. We went to Giant's Causeway on our way across Northern Ireland after our stay in Belfast. We really enjoyed it, despite the blustery day, but we're Oregonians so it didn't seem bad to us. There were several tour buses there at the time and many folks chose not to make the trek down to the columns, which is too bad. The visitor's center is perfectly nice (and the food in the cafeteria was quite good), but hiking around the basalt formations really adds to the experience I think.

Thank you, PJ. I'm starting to think that 6 days is too long to stay there.

Hi Sharon,
Six days! Depending on what you want to do may not be long enough. There are many tour bus company's that do tours from Dublin and in Belfast as well.
Belfast is a nice and interesting city to walk around and lots to see and do and of course shopping.
Visit the City hall, beautiful architecture and grounds. the Titanic, (she was alright when she left Belfast), Belfast castle and gardens, Visit Stormount the N. Ireland par.l building and grounds where every thing, inside and outside id symmetrical. The run up the Antrim coast is one of the mist scenic areas in the world, Carrickfergus Castle built in 1170, 10 miles from Belfast, See the Carrick a Rede rope bridge, Dun Luce castle, The Giants causeway, Bushmills. the Glens of Antrim, Londonderry (Derry) the only walled city left in Europe. The Gobbins cliff path in Island Magee.

As I say depending on what you want to see and do, sis days may not be enough.
Been there a few times and still no seen it all.
Pat

Thank you, Pat! This is very helpful. Have you always had a rental car when you were there or did you make your way to these sites in other ways?

For Belfast City 6 days would be a bit much IMO but Northern Ireland in general is worth at least a week.
You wouldn't want a car in Belfast itself, but getting one for a several day excursion out of town to many of the attractions mentioned by previous posters would be a great idea. The Antrim coast was one of our favorites - lots of pretty little glens to explore once you're north of Carrickfergus.
Another attraction that we particularly enjoyed was the Ulster-American Folk Park near Omagh. Fascinating place, especially if your heritage traces to Ulster. Can google it to see if it might be of interest.

Thank you all so much for the time and effort you are putting in to these responses!! So very helpful. Greatly appreciated.

We only had one day in Belfast because it was a cruise stop, so we wish we had more time. We booked a packed tour, with a city bus tour, the Titanic museum for 2 hours, and then out to Giant's Causeway and the countryside/Antrim coast (en route, we made two brief photo stops and a lunch stop but I wish we could have stayed longer since it was very beautiful). We did spent more than an hour at Giant's Causeway, which was nice, but an entire afternoon would be better since we saw many walking paths we wanted to do.

Giant's Causeway and the countryside needed at least one full day. We saw some people doing a Game of Thrones bus tour, since they filmed at sites along the same route.

I would also have liked a full day exploring the city, though our guide did a good job explaining the political background and we made a brief stop at some of the murals.

The Titanic museum was crowded. We stayed 2 hours, and I think 4 hours would have been enough.