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Giant's Causeway Luxury Private Day Tour
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From €1495 per person
No fussing with maps or timetables - you get your own personal driver and a tour shaped entirely around what you want to see. The suggested route can run 8, 10 or 12 hours, and if you’d like longer, that’s possible on request too. This one genuinely bends to fit your plans.
The tour heads north from Dublin on the M1, swinging along the Mourne coast road with the Irish Sea on your right and the Mourne Mountains rising to your left. It’s a proper introduction to what’s to come.
Your first stop is Carrickfergus, a port town with a lot of history packed into it. The castle here has been at the centre of centuries of conflict - including an episode in 1778 when American naval captain John Paul Jones attempted to capture the port during the War of Independence. The castle held firm, but Jones returned days later in his ship the Ranger and drew the British flagship HMS Drake into open battle - and won. Your driver will walk you through all of this before you continue north along the dramatic eroded coastline of east Ulster. Allow around 60 minutes here.
The Giant’s Causeway needs no hype - 40,000 perfectly formed hexagonal basalt columns rising to 40 feet above the sea, with the lava cliffs soaring behind them. The geology alone is extraordinary, but the folklore is what really gets people. The legend of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Scottish giant Benandonner - and the great causeway they supposedly used as stepping stones to fight each other - is one of the best stories Ireland has to offer. Allow around 60 minutes to explore.
In the village of Bushmills, on the banks of the River Bush, you’ll find Ireland’s oldest working distillery. It’s been operating here for over 400 years, producing hand-crafted small-batch Irish whiskey in the way that family businesses in small Northern Irish villages have always done it. Please note: the distillery was temporarily closed until end of 2021, so it’s worth confirming current opening arrangements ahead of your visit. Allow around 60 minutes.
Dunluce Castle is a drive-by but it’s worth slowing down for. First built around 1500 by the MacQuillan family on the dramatic clifftop of north County Antrim, the earliest written record of it dates to 1513. Even as a ruin it’s one of the most striking things on the north coast.
Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge stretches across the Atlantic, connecting the mainland to a small island that’s home to nothing but a single fisherman’s cottage. The bridge was first put up by salmon fishermen around 350 years ago and hangs almost 30 metres above the sea. Allow around 60 minutes.
On the way back south you’ll pass through one of the most photographed spots in Northern Ireland - the Dark Hedges. This atmospheric avenue of beech trees gained a whole new audience when Game of Thrones used it as the King’s Road. You’ll stop for a look as you head home to Dublin.
Carrickfergus deserves the full 60 minutes. The castle at Carrickfergus is one of the best-preserved Norman keeps in Ireland - John de Courcy built it around 1177 and it changed hands between Normans, Scots, English, and French (very briefly, in 1760) before the British army handed it over in 1928. The waterfront walk from the castle around to the marina is flat and takes about 45 minutes if you want to stretch your legs before heading north. The Dobbins Inn Hotel on High Street is a good option for a quick coffee in a building with bits going back centuries.
Use Bushmills as your lunch stop. Bushmills village sits three kilometres from the Causeway and has the best sit-down options on this stretch of coast. Tartine at the Distillers Arms (140 Main Street) does modern Irish with local seafood in summer - Wednesday to Sunday, with a two-course early menu around £25. The Bushmills Inn Restaurant in the old coaching inn is the grander option, with an all-day menu from noon. Both need a reservation in summer. The village itself is far quieter than the Causeway visitor centre - worth a wander down the main street before or after your distillery visit.
Go to the Causeway early or late. The stones themselves are free and open, but the visitor centre car park fills quickly. As a private tour with your own driver you can time the Causeway arrival strategically - before ten or after four is the locals’ advice. The Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Railway (narrow-gauge, Easter to October) runs the two miles between the village and the stones - your driver can drop you at the village end and collect you at the Causeway, or vice versa.
Book the rope bridge ahead in summer. Carrick-a-Rede is popular and has a ticketed system in high season. Your driver will know the current booking arrangements, but it’s worth double-checking before the trip if you’re visiting between June and August. The bridge sits on the coast road between the Causeway and Ballycastle - if you ever have a spare half-day on the coast, the town at the eastern end of the Causeway Way has the Ould Lammas Fair in August and the ferry to Rathlin Island year-round.