This private full-day tour covers the two things most people want to see in Northern Ireland - Belfast’s remarkable story and the Giant’s Causeway - without having to plan two separate trips.
You’ll start with a Black Taxi-style tour of Belfast, taking in the political murals, peace walls, and the neighbourhoods that shaped the city’s history during the Troubles. Your local guide shares personal accounts of that era and points out how much the city has transformed in recent years. Along the way, you’ll visit key landmarks including Belfast City Hall, Queen’s University, and Belfast Castle.
From the city, the tour heads north to the Causeway Coast. Your first stop is Dunluce Castle - a quick photo opportunity at one of Ireland’s most dramatic cliff-top ruins. You’ll then continue to the Giant’s Causeway itself, with plenty of time to walk among the 40,000 basalt columns and hear the legend of Finn McCool at this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On the return to Belfast, you’ll take in the coastal scenery and, if time allows, stop at the Dark Hedges - the tree-lined avenue known as the Kingsroad in Game of Thrones.
The day ends at Titanic Belfast, widely recognised as one of the world’s best museum experiences. You’ll explore interactive galleries, historic artefacts, and the story of the ship built right on this site.
Pickup is available from Belfast hotels, Belfast cruise ship terminals, or Belfast Grand Central Station, making this a convenient option whether you’re on a shore excursion or arriving by train from Dublin.
The Black Taxi tour covers the Falls and Shankill Roads, where murals document the years of the Troubles. Belfast has around a hundred peace walls - the gates on some still close at night. If you want to understand what you’re seeing, the quality of your driver really does matter. Ask when booking who will be leading the tour and read the reviews for specific drivers rather than the average score.
Titanic Belfast sits on the original slipway where the Titanic was launched on 31 May 1911. The Titanic Quarter waterfront walk is free and flat - if you have thirty minutes between your taxi tour and your museum entry, the 3 km loop past the SS Nomadic, the Great Light, and the Glass of Thrones windows is worth doing. You arrive at the museum having already read the landscape.
If the Dark Hedges stop happens, go early in the day when the light comes through the branches. Mid-morning is quieter than early afternoon and the avenue photographs better. The Bregagh Road beech avenue is near Armoy and Stranocum - Ballymoney is the nearest town, about eight miles west on the Belfast-Derry train line, where Joey Dunlop is buried and his family still runs the pub on Seymour Street.
For food after the museum, skip the café inside Titanic Belfast itself. St George’s Market on May Street - a five-minute walk - is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with dozens of food stalls and a fraction of the cost. During the week, the Cathedral Quarter is a ten-minute walk north for everything from pub lunches to the Mourne Seafood Bar on Bank Street, which uses oysters from its own beds in Carlingford.
At the Giant’s Causeway, the stones themselves are free to walk on - the National Trust visitor centre is paid, the basalt columns are not. Bushmills village is three kilometres from the Causeway along the coast, and it’s where you get a proper meal and a quieter seat after the coaches leave. Dunluce Castle - a photo stop on this tour - is just five minutes’ drive west of Bushmills on its clifftop above the sea. The Bushmills Inn gas bar, still lit by gas, is the right place to stop if you have any time after the Causeway.