Getting here
From Dublin, the Enterprise train runs from Connolly to Belfast Lanyon Place in a little over two hours and it is the civilised option. Driving is about two hours on the M1 and there is no border check, no currency stop, nothing. You will notice the road signs change from kilometres to miles and that is the whole event.
From the United States, Belfast City Airport is a ten minute taxi from the centre and takes connections through London and Europe. Most American visitors still land in Dublin and come up, which is fine, and is why this route starts on arrival day rather than day one.
Day one: the city, and the tour that reframes it
Morning: Titanic Belfast, first slot. Two and a half hours, then walk out to the slipway and the SS Nomadic.
Afternoon: a black taxi tour at two. The Falls, the Shankill, the peace walls, ninety minutes, and it will be the part of the trip you talk about at home. Take it on the first day, not the last, because it changes how you read every street afterwards.
Evening: the Crown Liquor Saloon at five for a drink in a tiled snug, then dinner at the Muddlers Club if you booked ahead, or the Cathedral Quarter if you did not.
Day two: the Causeway Coast
Leave by nine and go up the Antrim Coast Road, not the motorway. Larne, Glenarm, Cushendun, and the sea on your right the whole way. It is three hours with stops and every stop is worth it.
Carrick-a-Rede at midday on a timed ticket, Dunluce Castle at two, Bushmills at three, and the Giant's Causeway at five when the coaches have gone. Dinner at the Bushmills Inn.
If you can, stay the night up there. If not, the motorway home is ninety minutes and you will be back in Belfast by ten in summer light.
- Up
- The Antrim Coast Road via Larne and the Glens. Three hours with stops.
- Book
- Carrick-a-Rede timed ticket, in advance. It closes in high wind.
- Late
- The Causeway after four. This is the single most important instruction on the page.
- Back
- M2 motorway, 90 minutes, or stay at Bushmills and drive down in the morning.
Day three: the slow one
This is the day most itineraries delete, and it is the one that makes the trip. St George's Market in the morning if it is a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The Ulster Museum and the Botanic Gardens if not, both free, both twenty minutes from the centre.
Then City Hall, which does free guided tours and is far more interesting than a municipal building has any right to be, and an afternoon walking the Cathedral Quarter with nothing booked. Belfast is a city that improves when you stop scheduling it.
Dinner at OX, and a last drink in the Duke of York.
What we would add with a fourth day
Derry. Ninety minutes west, the only fully walled city in Ireland, and the walls take an hour to walk. The Bogside murals and the Museum of Free Derry make a serious afternoon, and the city is warmer and funnier than its history suggests.
Or the Mournes, an hour south, for a genuinely empty mountain range with the sea at the bottom of it. Very few American itineraries include either, which is the argument for both.