What is the best way to get to Giants Causeway from Dublin train or bus? Is there a direct route or do we have to transfer in Belfast?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
I see that you also did not get any response to your general itinerary but I'll just respond to this specific question.
I don't think this makes a practical roundtrip in one day from Dublin. Rick's book mostly emphasizes car travel to Giants Causeway. It sounds like you chose time in Dublin versus driving from Galway to N. Ireland at the end of your trip. A bus tour from Dublin to Newgrange and Bru na Boinne is an easier side trip during your three days in Dublin.
A train departing Dublin Connolly station at 7:35 arrives in Belfast at 10:00, but that would be too late to meet the 9:30 Causeway bus tour by www.mccombscoaches.com. You can transfer at Belfast to a train to Portrush and get there at noon. Then, you'd have to catch the high season Causeway Rambler bus. For N. Ireland train schedules, see http://www.translink.co.uk/Routes-and-Timetables/ and for the Rambler see www.translink.co.uk. See also Rick's pages 375 and 403.
Posted by
RIchmond, BC,Canada
932 posts
I would not recommend this trip from Dublin. I did it from Belfast on a bus tour, and it's an all day trip from there. As the other response mentioned you can easily get a train from Dublin to Belfast, but you would be too late to join the bus tour. You would spend most of a very long day just trying to get there. I would highly recommend the bus tour that does Newgrange and some other stops.