Looking for advice on a driving route from Belfast to Dublin in 5 days. Suggestions on where to stay, what to see etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Scollard,

What are your interests?

The drive from Belfast to Dublin is 1.5 hours on motorway/dual carrigeway. However if you want to diviate a little and take 5 days to get there I can recommend some very scenic places but would need to know more about what you like. Mountains, lakes, sea, castles, history etc.

Helen

Hi Helen-

We'd like to drive the coast and stop in at a few B&B's along the way to Dublin. Thinking something like:

1 night Sligo
2 nights Kerry or Galway
2 nights Cork

There are 2 of us and we're 29&31 and like to do a lot of walking, hiking, golfing, pub hopping with some site seeing.

We plan to spend a few days in Dublin for a wedding and site seeing an then drive and fly out of Belfast on July 10th (car rental will be in and out of Belfast int'l airport).

From your original post thought you were planning on spending a leisurely 5 days enroute to Belfast. Five days(IMOP) is not nearly enough time to drive from Dublin to Sligo, Galway/Kerry and then on to Cork.

Hi Scollard,

I agree with the above 5 days is not long enough to go around the coast of Ireland.

My suggestion would be:

2 days Antrim Coast, lots of walking and hikes. The top walk at the Giants Causeway is wonderful and great scenery. Royal Portrush is a superb golf coarse and plenty of history.

2 days Donegal, again lots of lovely hikes and scenery. My favorites are Dunfanaghy and Rosapenna in the north or Portnoo and Killybegs in the west. Great pubs!

1 night Co, Fermanagh, lakes and walks galore. From there inland to Dublin.

That, IMO would be doable.

Helen

As you are interested in walking I think the Antrim coast is a good option. There are good walks along the coast from Ballycastle to Giants Causeway. Another option in Co. Antrim is the village of Cushendall. Good pubs/nice village and close to the Glens of Antrim which is wonderful walking country.
Another option would be the Mourne Mountain area in County Down, south of Belfast. Newcastle (seaside town) or Rostrevor (smaller village) are good places to stay for walking in the Mourne Mountains.

Agree that your plan is too aggressive. The North coast is really spectacular, and having been to Dingle (spectacular in its own right) and Kerry (less impressive except for one stop 1/2 way around) penninsulas first, then the northern coast. I can say in my opinion the North Coast wins hands down - that is to say that if you don't have much time I would recommend spending a good deal of it there. We innocently stopped at a car park along the coast road to take a few pics. I walked to the end of the parking lot and found a barely noticable staircase/path that led down to Murlough Bay. This is an area of huge boulders/sheer jutting rock edges that spill into the ocean. There is a long path along the top ridge of this area, and you can also hike down onto the rocks in certain places. This is one of our favorite places we visited, and we found it by accident. It was really spectacular and gorgeous. I'd go back and spend the day there in a heartbeat. If you want to walk/hike, find this place. All I can tell you from memory is that the car park is on your right as you drive W. on the northern coastal road - A2 I believe - a bit before Ballycastle - I want to say 5 miles or so, but we hadn't been to Ballycastle yet, so I didn't yet know how close we were to it.