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Belfast-Causeway-Londonderry-Éire Connections

My wife and are planning a two-week trip to Ireland in September. Our current thinking is that we would fly into Belfast, go see the Giant's Causway, travel on to Londonderry, and then proceed into Eire, eventually to leave via Dublin. I am wondering about transportation in the Northern Ireland part of the trip. We'd be happy to use bus or rail if it won't burn up our time in waiting and riding. I'm also okay with renting a car. So:

  1. Can one get from Belfast to the Giant's Causeway without a car? Is it practical?

  2. If we do that, how would we move on to Londonderry from there?

  3. From Londonderry, what is a good first stop in Eire?

  4. One guide book (Let's go...) says that we could not rent a car in Belfast and then drop it off somewhere in Eire (say Dublin). Is that correct?

Posted by
9371 posts

Some companies allow pick up in Northern Ireland and drop off in Ireland, some do not. And if they do, there could be a hefty fee for dropping it off in another country, which you would be doing. You could rent a car for the Northern Ireland part of your trip, and take a train to Dublin (about 90 minutes from Belfast) and pick up another car if you wanted. You won't need or want a car in Dublin, though, so you could train to Dublin, get a car and drive wherever else you wanted to go, then drop it off outside of Dublin before spending your time seeing Dublin before leaving. Or you could take a bus from Londonderry to, say, Galway and pick up a car there.