What's the best way to get from Dublin to Giant's Causeway?
October 7, 2013 6:56 PM Subscribe
I'll be visiting a friend in Dublin in a few days, and we'd like to go see Giant's Causeway. Is there a good and easy way to do this that could get us there and back in a day? Or if you've done it spending the night somewhere, is there an in-between place you'd suggest?
The pressing issue is that we do not have access to a car (well, to drivers' licenses, more specifically), so this all has to be buses and trains. The "tours" from Dublin seem so, so oppressively corny and rah-rah and just…not our style. But straight public transit seems very laborious and damn near impossible to do in a day. What's the best way to do this? In general we prefer to do things on the relatively cheap but it doesn't have to be shoe-string.
The pressing issue is that we do not have access to a car (well, to drivers' licenses, more specifically), so this all has to be buses and trains. The "tours" from Dublin seem so, so oppressively corny and rah-rah and just…not our style. But straight public transit seems very laborious and damn near impossible to do in a day. What's the best way to do this? In general we prefer to do things on the relatively cheap but it doesn't have to be shoe-string.
Definitely stay in the North. That's a heck of a daytrip with the border crossings, and you'll have to switch transport at least once, change money etc.
posted by fshgrl at 7:20 PM on October 7, 2013
posted by fshgrl at 7:20 PM on October 7, 2013
Without a car, you're going to need an overnight stop to avoid your visit being 90% travel and 10% Causeway.
Perhaps Coleraine, or Portstewart or Portrush? You can get a train to Coleraine or bus to Portstewart/Portrush from Belfast, and you can actually get a through ticket on the train from Dublin. It's not exactly seaside season, but that means you should be able to find somewhere to stay. Staying relatively close by allows you to get up early, make it to the Causeway before the day-tripping tour buses arrive, stick your head in the Bushmills distillery once you're done, and then head back to Dublin.
If you do that, then definitely try to see a bit of Belfast when you're changing trains or buses.
The switch from euros to sterling isn't that big a deal as long as you have an ATM card that isn't going to kill you with fees.
posted by holgate at 7:25 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
Perhaps Coleraine, or Portstewart or Portrush? You can get a train to Coleraine or bus to Portstewart/Portrush from Belfast, and you can actually get a through ticket on the train from Dublin. It's not exactly seaside season, but that means you should be able to find somewhere to stay. Staying relatively close by allows you to get up early, make it to the Causeway before the day-tripping tour buses arrive, stick your head in the Bushmills distillery once you're done, and then head back to Dublin.
If you do that, then definitely try to see a bit of Belfast when you're changing trains or buses.
The switch from euros to sterling isn't that big a deal as long as you have an ATM card that isn't going to kill you with fees.
posted by holgate at 7:25 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
The reason I suggest staying locally rather than Belfast -- which is definitely worth seeing -- is that it's October, so the weather's hard to gauge and you've only got ten hours of daylight (8am to 6pm) to work with. The 7-day forecast is breezy/cloudy/autumnal chilly, but if there's morning drizzle or sea fret when you wake up, you have more flexibility to play it by ear, and if the journey back is in the dark, you're not missing a massive amount if you got to see the landscape on the way up.
posted by holgate at 8:00 PM on October 7, 2013
posted by holgate at 8:00 PM on October 7, 2013
You can do this by train and public bus, no tour bus required. You will need to overnight in Coleraine or Portrush. There is also an adorable narrow-gauge rail line that runs Bushmills < - > Giant's Causeway, but I've no idea how one gets to Bushmills.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:37 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by DarlingBri at 8:37 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
There are local buses that connect Coleraine and the coastal towns to Bushmills and the Giant's Causeway, and the Ulsterbus route planner is your friend. The narrow-gauge railway is weekends only in October.
posted by holgate at 9:34 PM on October 7, 2013
posted by holgate at 9:34 PM on October 7, 2013
That's a heck of a daytrip with the border crossings
There are no border controls other than some random stop checks of public transport so this shouldn't be a problem. It is a long trip to be doing from Dublin in a day though.
posted by knapah at 2:25 AM on October 8, 2013
There are no border controls other than some random stop checks of public transport so this shouldn't be a problem. It is a long trip to be doing from Dublin in a day though.
posted by knapah at 2:25 AM on October 8, 2013
And as for changing currency, you just put your ATM card in an ATM and take out sterling. It's no big deal. You can change anything other than coins back to Euros at any bank in Dublin.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:34 AM on October 8, 2013
posted by DarlingBri at 8:34 AM on October 8, 2013
http://www.railtoursireland.com/train-tour/TheGiants-Causeway/dc10/
We took this tour back about 8 years ago and it was nice and not Rah-rah at all.
Plus got very drunk of free samples at the Bushmills distillery.
posted by csmithrim at 9:22 AM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
We took this tour back about 8 years ago and it was nice and not Rah-rah at all.
Plus got very drunk of free samples at the Bushmills distillery.
posted by csmithrim at 9:22 AM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:14 PM on October 7, 2013