Northern Ireland Road Trip: A 5 Day Itinerary (and How to Do It in 3)

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Most Northern Ireland road trip guides send you Belfast, the Causeway, Derry, and back to Belfast. It is a good trip. It is also the same trip everybody else is doing, and it stops at a border that is no longer really there.

This is the version I actually drive. It goes over into Donegal, spends the best day of the trip on Inishowen, and comes home on a boat.

Five days does it properly. If all you have is two nights, here are five weekend breaks that each stick to one region instead. Three days does it if you leave early and give something up, and I will tell you what to give up.

One thing to be straight about first. I live here. So on my own trips I do not stay in Belfast or Derry, because I have stayed in both more times than I can count and I would rather be up the road. If you are coming from somewhere else, you should stay in them. I have written this as the trip you should do, and flagged where I do it differently.

Which direction to drive it

There are two sensible ways round and neither is wrong.

Anticlockwise. Belfast, Derry, over the border into Donegal, then back across the Lough Foyle ferry and home along the Causeway Coast. This is the one I do. You get the cities out of the way early, the best scenery is at the end, and the last day is the one you will remember.

Clockwise. Belfast, the Causeway Coast, cross into Donegal, home through Derry. This works better if you are flying out of Belfast on a tight schedule, because the last leg is motorway rather than coast road.

The ferry is what decides it. It only runs in season, and it only makes sense in one direction on any given trip. More on that below, because it is the part everyone gets caught out by.

Day 1: Belfast

Titanic Belfast is the obvious one and it earns it. Give it two to three hours, more if you are the sort who reads every panel.

The black taxi tours are the other thing I would not skip. You get the murals, the peace walls and the Falls and Shankill, with a driver who lived through it telling you what happened on the street you are standing on. It is better than any museum for understanding the place.

If you have time left, Crumlin Road Gaol and the Cathedral Quarter for the evening.

There is more detail in my guide to things to do in Northern Ireland.

Where to stay. Anywhere in the Cathedral Quarter or around the city centre puts you in walking distance of dinner, which matters more than it sounds when you have been driving. Here is the full list of Belfast hotels.

Day 2: Derry

Belfast to Derry is about seventy miles on the A6, and it is quicker than it used to be since they dualled it. Call it an hour and a half and do not plan anything tight at the other end.

Walk the walls. They are the only complete city walls left in Ireland, it takes about an hour, and it is free. From up there you look down into the Bogside, which is the point.

Then go down into the Bogside itself for the murals, and across the Peace Bridge. If you are there in late October the city does the biggest Halloween festival in Europe and it is genuinely worth planning a trip around, which I have written about in Derry Halloween.

Where to stay. Derry is small enough that anywhere central works. Derry hotels are here.

This is the day I skip, for what it is worth. I drive through. You should not.

Day 3: Over the border, and Wild Ireland

This is the bit people are most nervous about and it is the bit that turns out to be nothing.

There is no border post. No barrier, no passport check, nobody to talk to. The road signs change from miles per hour to kilometres per hour and the road markings change colour, and that is how you know. Most people miss it entirely and only notice when their phone pings. I have written the whole thing up in crossing the Irish border, including the insurance question, which is the one that actually matters.

About ten minutes over the border at Burnfoot is Wild Ireland. It is a sanctuary rather than a zoo, and the animals are the ones that used to live here and do not any more: brown bears, wolves, lynx, wild boar. Most of them are rescues.

It is open every day, ten until five with last entry at four, and they ask you to book ahead. Adults are €18.50 online and €22.50 at the gate, children €14.50 and €18.50, family tickets €64 and €74. Book online, it is a straightforward tenner saved on a family. Give it two hours. The paths are flat, so this is one of the few stops on the whole trip that works with a buggy or a wheelchair.

I loved it, and I am not usually the one enjoying the animal place. My two went for the wolves and talked about them for the rest of the trip.

Then keep going north into Inishowen.

Day 4: Inishowen

This is the best day of the trip and it is the one nobody else’s itinerary includes.

Inishowen is the peninsula at the very top of Ireland, and the reason it stays quiet is that it is past Derry and most visitors turn round at Derry. Their loss.

You cannot do all of it in a day. Here is what I would actually fit:

• Grianan of Aileach. A ring fort on top of a hill with a view over two loughs. Twenty minutes from the border and worth doing first thing, because the light is better early and the car park is small.
• Malin Head. The most northerly point in Ireland. Windy in a way that is hard to describe and easy to underestimate.
• Five Finger Strand. Enormous dunes, almost nobody on it.
• Kinnagoe Bay. Where a ship of the Spanish Armada went down in 1588. The road down is steep and narrow and the beach at the bottom is worth it.
• Mamore Gap. A mountain pass with a holy well at the top. Not one for a nervous driver.

If you have more time there is Fort Dunree, Carrickabraghy Castle, Glenevin Waterfall and the Doagh Famine Village. The full list is in things to do in Inishowen, and there is a map if you would rather see where everything sits before you commit.

Be honest with yourself about how many of those you will do. Three is a good day. Five is a forced march. Nine is a lie somebody else’s blog told you.

Where to stay. We stayed at the Redcastle Oceanfront Golf and Spa, which is on the water between Muff and Moville, ate there, and the girls were in the pool most of the evening. It is the obvious base for this end of the peninsula and it is five minutes from the ferry the next morning.

It is a lovely hotel and I would go back. One honest warning: there was a wedding on the night we stayed and we were woken up for a good part of the night. That is bad luck rather than a fault, but it is a big wedding venue, so if you are a light sleeper it is worth asking whether there is one on when you book, and asking for a room away from the function room.

Day 5: The ferry, and the Causeway Coast home

Here is the bit that makes this trip different.

From Greencastle, five minutes up the road from Redcastle, a small ferry crosses Lough Foyle to Magilligan Point. It takes about fifteen minutes, it costs from around €20 with a car, and there is no timetable. You drive down, you join the queue, you get on the next one.

On the other side you are in County Londonderry, at the start of the Causeway Coast, and you have skipped the entire drive round the head of the lough.

The catch, and it is a real one. The ferry is seasonal. In 2026 it ran through summer and finished at the end of September, and there is no winter service. If it is not running, the same hop is an hour and a half by road through Derry and over the Foyle Bridge. So check before you build a day around it. In winter, do this trip as an out and back rather than a loop.

Once you are across, the Causeway Coastal Route takes you home. Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple are right there at Magilligan. Then, in order:

• The Dark Hedges, which is five minutes and a photograph, and busier than you think
• Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, book ahead, it is timed entry
• The Giant’s Causeway, which needs two to three hours
• Dunluce Castle on the cliff, which you can see properly from the road if you are running out of day

If you would rather not drive it on your last day, there are coach tours from Belfast that do the Causeway Coast in a day, which is also the answer if your group cannot agree on a driver.

Causeway to Belfast is about an hour and a quarter.

If you only have three days

Cut Derry. Not Donegal.

I know that sounds wrong, because Derry is the famous one and it is a great city. But Donegal is the best part of this trip and it is the part you cannot get anywhere else. If you only have three days, do Belfast, drive straight up to Inishowen the next morning, and do the Causeway Coast on the way home on day three. Leave early on that last day and you will make it.

You will drive past Derry to do it. Go back another time.

If you have a week

Add the south. The Mourne Mountains, Tollymore Forest Park, Strangford Lough and St Patrick’s country are all within an hour of Belfast and they are completely different country to the north coast. Two extra days covers it comfortably.

Practical things nobody tells you

You need a car. There is no version of this trip on public transport. Inishowen in particular has almost no buses and the good bits are not on the ones there are. Compare hire cars for Northern Ireland here, and book earlier than you think, because the north coast in July is not the time to be finding out what is left.

Tell the hire company you are crossing the border. This is the one that catches people. Most Northern Ireland hire cars are insured for the Republic but some charge a cross-border fee and a few do not allow it at all. Ask before you book, not at the desk. It is worth comparing across suppliers for that reason alone, because the cross-border terms vary more than the price does.

Two currencies. Pounds in the north, euro in the south. Cards work fine everywhere and you will barely touch cash, but do not be the person trying to pay for petrol in Buncrana with sterling.

The speed limits change at the border and the signs do not shout about it. Miles per hour in the north, kilometres per hour in the south. Your hire car’s speedometer will be in one of them and not the other.

Your phone will roam. Depending on your provider you may pick up a Republic network while still in the north, or the other way round, and get charged for it. Worth checking your plan before you go, particularly on the Inishowen coast where the nearest mast is often across the water.

Signal is patchy on Inishowen. Download your maps offline before you leave Derry. The road down to Kinnagoe Bay is not somewhere to discover your phone has no bars.

Fuel up before the ferry. Greencastle is small.

Northern Ireland road trip FAQ

How many days do you need for a Northern Ireland road trip?

Five is right if you want Belfast, Derry, Donegal and the Causeway Coast without rushing. Three works if you cut Derry. A week lets you add the Mournes and County Down.

Can you drive from Northern Ireland into Donegal?

Yes. There is no border post and no check. Tell your hire company in advance, because insurance and cross-border fees vary by company.

Do you need a passport to cross the border?

There is no passport control on the land border. Carry photo ID anyway, because you will need it for hotels and it is sensible.

Is the Lough Foyle ferry running?

It is seasonal, roughly spring through September, with no winter service. There is no fixed timetable during the season, you join the next sailing. Check before you plan a day around it, and allow an hour and a half to drive round via Derry instead.

What is the best time of year for this trip?

May to September, mainly because of the ferry. Long evenings help too. Autumn is beautiful and quieter but you will probably lose the crossing.

Which direction should I drive it?

Anticlockwise, Belfast to Derry to Donegal and home along the coast, if you want the best day last. Clockwise if you have an early flight out of Belfast at the end.

Can you do this without a car?

Not really. Belfast, Derry and the Causeway are reachable by bus and organised tour. Inishowen is not.