Dublin and Northern Ireland in 2 Days

Guest post by thadeus_d3

Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.

We visited Dublin for a short trip around Thanksgiving. We had a jam packed itinerary and driving took a slight adjustment. Dublin was not my favorite city, but it’s worthy of a night or two. Northern Ireland is beautiful. I’d love to return and visit the rest of the island.

Day 1: Dublin

• Ha’penny Bridge
• Temple Bar
• Dublin Castle
• Christ Church Cathedral
• General Post Office
• Spire of Dublin

• 

• 

We arrived in the afternoon. After checking into our hotel, we walked along the River Liffey and took photos of the historic buildings along the route. Eventually, we reached the Ha’penny Bridge. We crossed the bridge and made it to the temple bar area to see The Temple Bar and have lunch. After lunch, we visited the Dublin Castle then made the short walk to Christ Church Cathedral. We were cold, so decided to stop by The Porterhouse to grab a few pints and warm up. We then headed to the General Post office and the Dublin Spire.

Day 2

• The Dark Hedges
• Giant’s Causeway
• Ballintoy Harbour
• Kinbane Castle
• Shankill Road
• Mural – British flag
• St. Peter’s Cathedral
• Aldos Fish & Chips

We started our 3 hour drive to Northern Ireland early in the morning. Our first stop was the Dark Hedges. We had the entire place to ourselves for around 20 minutes, but the attraction itself was a bit underwhelming. We visited in November, so the trees hadn’t bloomed.

We continued our scenic drive to Giant’s Causeway. It’s very, very windy there so you should dress accordingly. Giant’s causeway was really a highlight for me. The views and the rock formations are stunning. It also wasn’t as crowded as I expected. We stayed for a few hours and left for Ballintoy Harbor. We reached the harbor and had the entire place to ourselves. It was cold and rainy, so we didn’t stay too long. On the way up the hill, we stopped for a few minutes at the Ballintoy Church of Ireland. This church was very charming and had a graveyard overlooking the harbor.

• 

• 

• 

We made our way to Kinbane Castle. We walked down the steps to reach the castle and the views were outstanding. There were 2 very large waterfalls visible in the distance. Again, we had the entire place to ourselves. It was very cool to stand inside and touch a castle that was built in the 16th century. By this time, we were starving, so we left and hoped to find food nearby. None of the nearby restaurants were opened, so we stopped in Ballycastle to refuel our rental car and grab food.

• 

• 

We were exhausted, cold and wet, so we decided to cut our trip along the coast a bit short and visit Belfast. We visited the Shankhill road, Belfast Murals and St. Peter’s Cathedral. All are worthy of a visit. Since it was Thanksgiving, we decided to have fish and chips at the highly rated Aldo’s Fish & Chips for Thanksgiving dinner. Very bland and overrated. After a disappointing meal, we decided to make our way back to Dublin for the night.

Traveled in November 2017