The island of Ireland is one of the top destinations for visitors who want to experience beautiful nature combined with history. Over 11 million oversea tourists have visited the island in 2019, ready to see castles, beaches and monuments all over the country.
When visiting the island of Ireland, many travellers start their journey at the island’s capital, Dublin. The city contains a lot of the Irish culture with museums, green spaces, hundreds of restaurants and a wide-ranging nightlife. Especially the Temple Bar area seems to be a hotspot for tourists with 3.5 million people visiting the famous Temple Bar Pub every year.
Even though visitors have a variety of options for what to do in Dublin, people still associate a trip to Ireland with a visit to the green island. Instead of the green island, Ireland is also called the land of the 40 shades of green. It is also associated with wide green fields and little hills with Kerrgold cows and sheep. Not to forget, there is a beautiful rainbow waiting behind the clouds.
In order to experience some of Ireland’s beautiful nature, visitors can either rent a car and start a roundtrip on their own. Those who don’t feel comfortable driving on the left side of the road can also take a guided bus tour. There are different bus companies around Dublin which offer tours to any destination around Ireland and Northern Ireland, check out Viator, Paddywagon or Wild Rover to find inspirations for yourselves.
Here is one of my favourite trips so far:
Only a two hours ride by car or train is the second most popular city on the island, Belfast. We left the Republic of Ireland and entered the United Kingdom in less than two hours. Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland and is famous for its turbulent past. If you decide to take a trip to the city where the famous Titanic was built in 1912, you need to make sure to bring a credit card or to change your euros into pounds. The city has a lot of different attractions ranging from the Titanic experience to a stroll through the Cathedral Quarter to St George’s Market as well as many monuments reminding us of the Bronze Age. Whoever loves walking can discover everything the city has to offer within two days and enjoy the evening in one of many bars and restaurants.
In order to see more of the island, I booked a guided bus tour from Belfast along the Antrim coast. We left early in the morning and stopped at different photo places, e.g. Dunluce Castle, Carrickfergus Castle and the Caves of Cushendun. The Game of Thrones fans enjoyed the stops at The Dark Hedges and Carnlough Harbour to see filming spots of one of their favourite TV shows. The most amazing stop was at the Giant’s Causeway where we had two hours to go for a hike and enjoy the Unesco World Heritage site right at the edge of the Antrim plateau.
Pictures say more than a thousand words, that’s why I summed up the most amazing impressions of my trip in the TikTok below. While we were on the bus, the bus driver told us about Northern Ireland’s history and he shared a lot of impressive facts about the history. We were driving along the ocean when we suddenly saw dolphins in the water! It was just astonishing and does happen quite often when driving up north, the bus driver told us. What I loved, even more, was the beautiful rainbow appearing right at the Giant’s Causeway, making the place seem more magical than it already is.
I didn’t prepare a lot for the trip apart from food and warm clothes because it was the middle of March. Wolters World offers a deeper insight into what ‘not’ to do when travelling to Northern Ireland. Have a look at his recommendations and create your own list!
The island of Ireland offers a lot of beautiful places with the ocean close by wherever you travel to. My favourite journey was when I travelled up north for a weekend. Let me know which of the places you liked the most and tell me your favourite destinations in Ireland and Northern Ireland in the comments!
