I didn’t think I could plan a trip to Northern Ireland without visiting the Giant’s Causeway. This naturally occurring phenomenon is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland. When I was booking my trip to Belfast to see my favourite band, The National, I made sure I put a day aside for this excursion.
What is Giant’s Causeway?
Giant’s Causeway is known to the Irish as the 8th Wonder of The World. It is an area of around 40,000 interlocking basalt salt columns which formed 6 million years ago next to the North Atlantic Ocean. This phenomenon is the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. The name comes from the belief that Irish giant Finn MacCool built it as a way to cross over from Scotland to Ireland.
How much does a trip to Giant’s Causeway cost?
No matter where you go in Ireland, there will be companies offering organised trips to the north coast. I saw them being offered from Belfast city centre for £35 and also from my hostel in Dublin for 60€. My trip was booked through booking.com who offered me the excursion for £20. This is because I booked my Belfast hotel through them. The actual tour is ran by Allen’s Tours and I can highly recommend them if you’re in Belfast.
How long does it take to get to Giant’s Causeway from Belfast?
From Belfast city centre to Giant’s Causeway, it’s just 61 miles. If you were to drive, this would take around 1 hour 15 minutes by road. However, with the excursion that I booked, we had several other stops along the way. The tour starts at Allen’s Tours in Belfast city centre at 9:30am. It then ends around 5pm with a drop off at Belfast City Hall. That’s 7.5 hours in total, including 90 mins at Giant’s Causeway itself.
Top tips for a trip to Giant’s Causeway
- Wear sensible shoes – there’s a lot of walking from the visitor centre; you may also want to climb the rocks to get a better view. The rocks are likely to be slippy due to the ocean. So, you’ll want something with a good grip. A comfy pair of trainers or walking boots would be ideal.
- Take a waterproof jacket – Northern Ireland along with the rest of the UK is known for its rainy climate! Taking a decent waterproof with you is a very sensible idea. You’ll be spending a lot of time outdoors and you don’t want to be soaking wet on the way back. I took a packable jacket that I could just stick in my backpack. Luckily, the weather was fine when we went so I didn’t need it.
- Take a packed lunch – while the tour I was on did stop at a place for lunch, it would be much better to take your own. We had a half hour break to eat but the place was very busy. As you can imagine with coaches constantly arriving throughout the day. We stopped at The Giant’s Barn which had a limited set menu. Meals and a drink cost around £15 per person. It costs £3.25 for just a packet of crisps, so I’m glad I took some food with me.
- Avoid the visitor centre – Giant’s Causeway is completely free to visit. However there is a National Trust visitor centre on site which charges for admission. National Trust members can access the visitor centre for free. For everyone else, it costs £13 per adult or £6.50 per child. This includes access to the cafe and gift shop and audio guides. In my opinion, audio guides are not needed, especially if you’ve arrived on a guided tour. There’s a pub and a cafe close to the visitor centre and public toilets are available. When you arrive at the Giant’s Causeway, just walk past the visitor centre so it’s on your left hand side and continue down towards the coast.
Extra stops on the tour
The tour that I did had a few extra stops along the way – including places that were made popular by Game of Thrones. The places we stopped at were:
- Carrickfergus Castle – we had a 20 minute stop here, so there wasn’t time to go inside the castle. However, we were able to admire the grounds and the coastline.
- Portaneevy viewpoint – we were unable to stop here due to the car park being full. Our guide took us a bit further down the coast to another viewpoint which was just as spectacular. We stopped at White Park Bay viewpoint instead, which was overlooking Portbraddan.
- Dark Hedges – this place has been made famous by the TV series Game of Thrones. This is essentially just an avenue of beech trees along a road leading up to a Georgian mansion. As I’ve not seen Game of Thrones, it didn’t mean much to me.
We loved visiting Giant’s Causeway and I also recommend it to people. Your post is super helpful for anyone planning their visit, well done! Great pictures too!
Heading to Northern Ireland in 2024, Giant’s Causeway is definitely on my list! Thanks for the helpful information.
Northern Ireland has been on my bucket list for a long time, so this guide is super helpful! Thank you for sharing 🙂
It looks amazing!
Danielle | thereluctantblogger.co.uk
Great tips and overview. I’ve not visited yet but it’s on my list as looks spectacular
Giant’s Causeway is one of my favorite places in the world! It’s so worth doing a tour! (Also, I LOVE your hair!)
I have never heard about Giant’s Causeway so this is a really educational article for me.
Great post! Visiting the Giant’s Causeway is right up there on my bucket list so I’ve pinned this for reference.
PS Love that you love cat cafes too 🙂
Great post! I loved visiting the Giants Causeway when I was in Northern Ireland a few years ago, the scenery is just amazing. Your photos brought back some great memories from my trip!
I’m so glad you mention the ‘free way’ to visit! So many people see the visitors center and think its the only way to access the site. Also, another amazing nearby spot is Carrick-a-Rede! It recently reopened with advanced booking.
We visited this a while ago but didn’t get very good photos. You’ve made me want to go back though and spend more time here!
Id love to visit here! Weve had to cancel our Northern Ireland trip 2 years in a row, hopefully we can go soon. Thanks for a fun post!
I had never heard of Giant’s causeway before. Great learning for me actually.