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If visiting Northern Ireland is on your bucket list, but you’ll be basing yourself in Dublin without a car, a bus tour is the perfect way to fulfill your travel dreams!
On our first trip to Ireland, we only had one week to explore, which meant fitting in as many activities in the most efficient manner possible. Since we were based in Dublin most of the week, we decided against renting a car. Instead, we booked a couple of day trips to help us see some of Ireland’s famous scenery. We chose the Northern Ireland day tour from Dublin with Wild Rover and couldn’t have been more pleased!
The Northern Ireland tour with Wild Rover takes you from Dublin to Belfast, where you’ll have the choice of going on a Political Black Taxi Tour or a self-guided experience at the Titanic Museum. From there, it’s out to the Antrim Coast to see Dunluce Castle and the famous Giant’s Causeway. It’s a long but worthwhile day filled with history and some amazing scenery!
In this post, you’ll find details on our itinerary and all the stops we made, plus helpful tips on everything you need to know about taking this same (or similar) bus tour yourself.
Know Before You Go
Even if you’re traveling on a pre-planned bus tour, there are some essential things to know before heading out on a day trip to Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland is a part of the U.K.
Did you know that Northern Ireland is a separate country from The Republic of Ireland? It’s also one of the four countries under the rule of the United Kingdom. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is open, which means you do not need to bring your passport for entry to Northern Ireland.
Currency is the GBP
Because Northern Ireland is in the U.K., this also means that their currency is different. In Northern Ireland, currency is the pound sterling (GBP) rather than the euro. For a day tour or day trip to Northern Ireland, you’ll be fine without GBP in cash as long as you have a credit card to use to pay for food and souvenirs. Otherwise, plan to get some pounds either from your bank before you leave for Ireland or upon arriving at the Dublin airport.
Arrive Early to Your Pickup Spot
Plan to arrive at least 10 to 15 minutes early at your pickup spot. The tours run on a very tight schedule and you do not want to get left behind by arriving late.
Food on the Tour
Food is not included on the tour, but there are a couple of opportunities to get some grub in. In the morning, if you’re taking the black taxi tour, you’ll have a chance to stop at a mall and get a quick sandwich, coffee, or pastry. Alternatively, if you’re choosing the Titanic Museum option, there’s a café onsite with plenty to choose from. Otherwise, plan to pack snacks for the morning bus ride up (just remember no hot foods allowed on the bus).
For lunch, there are two options to choose from upon arriving at Giant’s Causeway – The Nook pub and the restaurant at the Causeway Hotel. I’ll detail more on our choice below.
Dublin to Belfast
The drive up to Belfast from Dublin is roughly two hours, depending on traffic getting out of Dublin and arriving to Belfast. We happened to book our tour on the October Bank Holiday Monday, which was probably a good thing traffic-wise since a lot of people were off of work.
On our trip up to Belfast, we were treated to lovely views of the Irish landscape! Our guide also filled us in on the history of Northern Ireland (including The Troubles) while playing a selection of curated music from Irish musicians. Our guide was Sarah and she was an amazing singer too!
Black Taxi Tour vs. Titanic Museum
As I mentioned above, this tour with Wild Rover includes the option to choose between a Political Black Taxi Tour or entry to the state-of-the-art Titanic Museum. On the drive up up to Belfast, the guides will ask which option you’d like to choose from. I wish we could have done both! In the end, we chose the Black Taxi Tour to learn more about this important part of Northern Ireland’s modern history.
Side note – you might be asking why there’s a Titanic Museum in Ireland. The Titanic was actually built in Belfast!
Black Taxi Tour
Upon arriving in Belfast, Black Taxi Tour participants were dropped off at the Park Centre Mall, which is the pickup point for the taxi tour. This was also a great time for a restroom break and a chance to snag some food from one of the cafés.
If you opt for the Titanic option, there is a café at the museum where you can get different hot food options.
Quick Breakfast
The Jam Restaurant and Coffee Shop is well-prepared for the tour bus crowds with a set menu of quick-grab items to like ham and cheese toasties, breakfast baps (sandwiches), pastries, and coffee.
We grabbed a couple of warm ham and cheese toasties to scarf down before heading out to get into our cab. It was the perfect fuel we needed to get us through to lunch.
This café does accept euros in cash as payment, but you need to make sure you’re handing over enough to cover the conversion rate to GBP.
Note: please be kind to the workers in this café as they are working fast to move the crowd along so you can get to your taxi tour on time.
What are The Troubles?
The included Black Taxi Tour is all about learning about The Troubles, which was a decades-long political conflict wherein more than 3,000 people lost their lives. The conflict essentially existed between loyalists who wanted to remain under the United Kingdom (largely Ulster Protestants) and nationalists/republicans who wanted one united Ireland (many who were Irish Catholic).
The Troubles technically ended in 1998, though evidence of tensions still exist.
Black Taxi Guides
After our snack and restroom break, we piled into little black taxis on a very gloomy and drizzly day in groups of about four to five per car, each with its own guide/driver.
The black taxi guides are generally folks who lived through The Troubles and are able to provide their own unique take on the history and their experiences. Because of this, no guide is really the same and perspectives can be biased at times. However, I found that our guide gave us a pretty balanced tour.
And a quick word of warning – the Northern Irish accent is very tough to understand, which our Wild Rover guide did give us a heads up on. Our taxi guide was incredibly difficult to understand and I had to strain to hear what he was saying. It didn’t help that many stops were by busy roads with added noise from cars going by. I’m lucky if I caught 40% of the information! Good thing our Wild Rover guide gave us an overview on the history of The Troubles on the way up.
That being said, I still really enjoyed our guide and was overall very happy with the tour. If you choose to take the Black Taxi Tour, it’s worth it to do a little research on The Troubles before heading to Northern Ireland to help put the pieces together.
Belfast Murals
One of the main focal points of the tour is seeing many different mural sites that commemorate The Troubles and prominent figures involved – particularly Bobby Sands. Bobby Sands was a Catholic and member of the Irish Republican Army, fighting for a united Ireland away from British rule. He was only 27 years old when he passed away from a hunger strike in prison.
We also learned a little about Jim McCabe who campaigned for decades to ban plastic bullets after his wife was killed by one. Could you imagine getting shot by one of those things?
Other Notable Sites
The Black Taxi Tour also includes a stop at a Sinn Fein office, an old church which was used as a gathering spot during The Troubles, and a large Peace Wall. There are about a dozen or so Peace Walls still standing in the city and some have gates that still close in the evening!
We also stopped at an interesting viewpoint not too far from the Peace Wall where the U.K. Monarchy is clearly celebrated today.
Overall, I found the tour to be interesting but it was definitely a somber experience.
The Black Taxi tour ends at the Titanic Museum, where there’s plenty of time for a restroom break and quick café stop if you need a snack.
At the museum, we met back up with the rest of our group and guide before heading out to the next stop.
Tipping
Tipping the Black Cab guides is not necessary, but you can if you feel inclined. We only had euros in cash with us, but our guide happily accepted the gesture.
Dunluce Castle
Moving on to more uplifting stops on the tour – the scenic ones! Next up was a stop at Dunluce Castle – one of my favorite stops on the whole tour. For you Game of Thrones fans out there, Dunluce Castle was used as the model for House Greyjoy on the Iron Islands (obviously with a lot of CG added).
Not only was it cool to get to walk through and explore the castle ruins, the scenery in this area was just absolutely stunning. There were picturesque views from every angle.
My favorite view in all the places we visited on this trip to Ireland was looking out towards the beautiful limestone arches from Dunluce Castle. The Irish weather was super moody that day, but I think it adds its own element of beauty.
We had about 30 minutes to wander around Dunluce Castle, which I feel was the perfect amount of time. The site is not very big and it was really windy and cold on the day we visited. I was ready to get back on the bus just to warm up!
Lunch at Giant’s Causeway
Once the bus arrived to our final stop on the tour, Giant’s Causeway, we could choose between two options for lunch: The Nook pub or the restaurant at the Causeway Hotel. I chose The Nook since it was right near the bus drop off point and their hearty food menu sounded delicious!
Note that you can opt to head down to Giant’s Causeway before eating lunch. The choice is yours depending on how hungry you are. At this point in the tour, you have two hours to eat and explore the site.
The food at The Nook was surprisingly tasty for being so near a popular tourist destination! It also came out really fast. We ordered the lamb stew with a side of brown bread and I immediately understood why Irish stew is the national dish of Ireland. Warm and hearty stews are the best comfort food for moody Irish weather.
We also ordered the Steak & Guinness Pie, which was topped with a puff pastry and served with peas and mashed potatoes. This was so rich and flavorful! I only wished our portions were bigger to enjoy it all the more.
Giant’s Causeway
After lunch, it was time to head down to the Giant’s Causeway site. There is a bit of a walk to get down to the Causeway but if you aren’t up for the trek, a shuttle bus is available that runs both ways.
The cost for the shuttle is a mere one pound each way – and they do take credit card payments. However, I highly recommend doing the walk if you can to take in all of the beautiful scenery.
The Giant’s Causeway is a natural wonder and UNESCO World Heritage site made up of roughly 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns. It’s one of the most popular attractions to visit in Ireland!
Irish folklore tells of how this phenomenon was formed by the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (aka Finn McCool) who built the Causeway to fight the giant Benandonner over in Scotland. After seeing how large Benandonner actually was, Fionn decided to outsmart him instead. His wife disguised him as a baby and Benandonner was fooled into thinking the “baby’s” father (Fionn) must be an even greater giant by the size of the “baby!” He destroyed the Causeway while fleeing back to Scotland.
A less exciting version of how The Giant’s Causeway was formed: the basalt columns were a result of volcanic activity. I’m personally more of a fan of the Irish folklore version.
Regardless of how it was formed, the Giant’s Causeway is really a unique geological wonder and an absolute must when visiting Northern Ireland!
Once we made it back up to the Causeway entrance, we walked around on some of the cliff trails and around the Causeway Hotel in search of more scenic views. It was the perfect ending to a long day!
Pro Tip: Wait until just before getting back on the bus to use the restroom. It’s a long drive back to Dublin, even with a break at a rest stop in between. There is a restroom inside of The Nook, as well as a restroom at The Causeway Hotel.
What to Wear to Northern Ireland
The best advice I can give for what to wear to Northern Ireland is to dress in layers! We visited in October and found the temperature to be slightly colder than in Dublin, and I was happy to have each one of my layers. This was especially true when we made it to the Antrim Coast to see Dunluce Castle and Giant’s Causeway.
Here’s a list of everything I wore on our Northern Ireland day tour from Dublin.
I also recommend packing a portable charger for your cell phone. You’re going to be taking a lot of photos and video on this tour!
Read my entire Ireland Packing Guide for more outfit tips and inspiration!
Pros & Cons of a Bus Tour
If you’re on the fence about taking a bus tour from Dublin to Northern Ireland, here are some pros and cons to help make your decision.
Pros
- You don’t have to worry about transportation. Everything is all taken care of with Wild Rover! This really is the biggest pro of an organized tour in my opinion.
- A guide and separate driver are included with the Wild Rover tours. Having a guide separate from the driver means a better focus on Irish history and folklore storytelling while you’re on the bus.
- Your itinerary is made for you. Even though I’m a master researcher and like to do my own thing, it’s nice not to have to think about compiling a detailed itinerary for a whole day trip.
Cons
- You will spend a lot of time on the bus. There’s no way to sugarcoat it – this is a very long day (like 13 hours) with a lot of time spent on the bus. At times, it can be a little uncomfortable but I feel like the pros outweigh this con!
- Food is not included. This, for me, is a minor inconvenience since there are plenty of opportunities to grab a snack and full lunch.
- Bus crowds. Being on a tour bus definitely means sharing the experience with a lot of other travelers. However, I found that once you’re off the bus and people disperse, things really weren’t that bad.
Booking this Tour
You can book this tour direct with Wild Rover (and even receive a discount if you’re booking two or more tours with them). Alternatively, this tour is also available to book via Viator.
All in all, I really enjoyed this tour – especially because of all the beautiful scenery we got to see! I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Ireland who is short on time and wants to see a bit of Northern Ireland.
Do you have any other questions about traveling to Northern Ireland on a bus tour from Dublin? Drop me a comment below!
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