Day Trips from Dublin: Which Ones Are Actually Worth the Day

Nearly every list of day trips from Dublin is written by somebody selling a coach seat. That is why they all tell you where you can go, and none of them tell you how long you will be sitting down.

So here is the version nobody puts in the brochure. I live in County Down, I cross the border most weeks, and I have driven and been driven on most of these routes. For each one, the honest answer to the only question that matters: is this a day out, or is this a day in a coach with a view.

The thing to decide before you book anything

A day trip from Dublin is really a sum. Drive time out, drive time back, and whatever is left in the middle.

Most people book on the middle and then get surprised by the two numbers on either side of it. Here is roughly what you are signing up for.

Day trip	Each way	Realistic door to door	Worth it?
Howth	30 min by DART	4 to 5 hours	Yes, easiest win in Ireland
Glendalough	About 1 hour	6 to 7 hours	Yes
Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange)	About 45 min	5 to 6 hours	Yes, book ahead
Belfast	About 2 hours by car, 2 hours 5 by train	9 to 10 hours	Yes
The Mourne Mountains	About 1 hour 45	8 to 9 hours	Yes, and nobody does it
Giant’s Causeway	About 3 hours	12 to 14 hours	Only if you understand that number
Derry	About 3 hours	11 to 12 hours	Better as an overnight
Cliffs of Moher	About 3 hours	12 to 13 hours	Only if you understand that number

Approximate and traffic-dependent, as all of these are. The point is not the precise figure, it is that two of the most-booked day trips from Dublin are longer than a working day plus the commute.

Day trips from Dublin to Belfast

This is the one I would push hardest, and the one visitors skip most.

Belfast is about two hours by road. Better, since late 2024 the Enterprise train has run hourly between Dublin Connolly and Belfast Grand Central, and takes two hours five to two hours twenty. That changed this trip completely. It used to be four trains a day, which meant building your whole day around a timetable. Now you just go.

You get off in the middle of the city. Titanic Belfast, the Cathedral Quarter, the Ulster Museum and the Botanic Gardens are all walkable or a short taxi. A black taxi tour of the murals is the thing most people remember afterwards, and it is the one piece of the city you should not try to do by reading a plaque.

The honest catch: Belfast is in a different country with a different currency. You are moving from euro to pound sterling. Cards work everywhere, so this matters less than it used to, but do not change money specially and do not be surprised by it. Everything that actually changes when you cross the border is here.

The workaround: go by train rather than driving. You skip the hire car insurance question entirely, which is the part of the border that catches people out.

Day trips from Dublin to the Giant’s Causeway

I am going to be blunt about this one, because I have written a whole guide to these tours and I have taken the coach myself.

The Giant’s Causeway is about three hours from Dublin each way. A day tour from Dublin typically runs twelve to fourteen hours. You will leave in the dark for a good part of the year and come back in the dark, and a large portion of your day will be spent on a motorway you would not otherwise choose to see.

It is still one of the best things on this island. I just want you to book it knowing the number.

If you do it from Dublin, take the tour that includes the Dark Hedges, because it breaks the journey and you are passing anyway.

The much better version: stay a night in Belfast and do the Causeway from there. Belfast to the Causeway is about an hour and a quarter each way, roughly sixty miles up the coast road. A full day tour from Belfast runs eight to nine hours instead of fourteen, and the extra time goes into the Causeway Coastal Route itself, which is the part of the day people actually talk about afterwards.

Two things to check before you book any Causeway tour:

1. Whether the Visitor Experience ticket is included or extra. The stones sit at the end of a public right of way and walking down to them costs nothing. The visitor centre is £16 for an adult, £8 for a child aged 5 to 17, free for under fives and £40 for a family, and National Trust members go free. Everyone has to book ahead now, members included. The full Giant’s Causeway guide has the free walking route.
2. Whether the tour actually crosses the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge or just stops at the car park. Plenty do the second one and people are disappointed.

The Mourne Mountains, which nobody puts on these lists

About an hour and three quarters from Dublin, and almost never mentioned, which is exactly why I am mentioning it.

Tollymore Forest Park sits at the foot of the Mournes outside Newcastle. Parking is £5 per car for the day. Twenty minutes in and the world is gone. If you have watched Game of Thrones you have already seen it, several times.

Pair it with Newcastle for lunch and you have a full day that costs almost nothing and involves no coach, no queue and no timed ticket.

The honest catch: it is a forest in Ireland. Bring boots and bring a rain jacket, and keep a spare pair of shoes in the car. That is not me being cute, that is just what happens.

Day trips from Dublin without a car

You can do more of this than people think, and the train has quietly got better.

• Howth. DART from the city centre, about 30 minutes. Cliff walk, harbour, seafood. The best value half day in Ireland and it costs the price of a DART ticket.
• Belfast. Enterprise, hourly, about two hours five. No car needed at either end.
• Malahide and Bray. Both on the DART, both an easy afternoon.
• Glendalough. No train, but the St Kevin’s Bus runs from the city centre.

What does not work without a car: the Mournes, and most of the Causeway Coast beyond the Causeway itself. For those you either drive or take an organised tour, because the public transport will eat the day.

Day trips from Dublin by train

The train map is smaller than the road map, but what it does, it does well:

• Dublin to Belfast, hourly, 2 hours 5 to 2 hours 20
• Dublin to Howth, Malahide or Bray on the DART, 20 to 45 minutes
• Dublin to Galway, about 2 hours 30
• Dublin to Kilkenny, about 1 hour 30

Derry is reachable by train only via Belfast, which is why it ends up a very long day. It is a better overnight than a day trip, and if you are going to give it a night, give it the right one.

The long ones, honestly

Cliffs of Moher. About three hours each way, so a twelve to thirteen hour day. Spectacular, and the single most booked day trip from Dublin. If you have four days in Ireland, this is one of them gone.

Galway. More forgiving at about two hours fifteen by road and two and a half by train, and unlike the Cliffs there is a town at the end of it rather than a car park.

I do not write about the west, so I am not going to pretend to be your guide there. What I can tell you is the arithmetic, and the arithmetic says pick one long day, not two.

What I would actually pick

If you have one day: Belfast by train. Hourly service, two hours each way, a real city at the end of it, and you are back for dinner.

If you have two: Belfast, then stay the night and do the Causeway Coast from there. That is the same trip the fourteen-hour Dublin tour sells you, done properly.

If you have a car and one free day: the Mournes. You will have it almost to yourself.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best day trip from Dublin?

Belfast, if you want one day that works. It is two hours by train, it runs hourly, and there is a full city at the other end rather than a viewpoint.

Can you do the Giant’s Causeway as a day trip from Dublin?

Yes, but it is a twelve to fourteen hour day, with about three hours of travel each way. It is a far better day from Belfast, where it is about an hour and a quarter each way.

Do you need a passport to go from Dublin to Belfast?

There is no checkpoint, no barrier and no passport control on the land border, and there has been no physical infrastructure there since 2005. Carry ID as you normally would when travelling, but you will not be asked for it at the border.

Do I need to change money for Belfast?

Northern Ireland uses pound sterling, the Republic uses the euro. Cards work everywhere, so most people never handle cash at all.

What is the cheapest day trip from Dublin?

Howth on the DART. Half an hour each way and the only cost is the fare.