Day Trip From Belfast: Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and Giant’s Causeway

Written ByThe Stickered Suitcase

Published OnJune 16, 2024

One of the best reasons to visit Belfast is that it is the perfect home base to explore Northern Ireland’s famous beautiful coastline. In this post, we’re sharing how you can take a day trip from Belfast to visit Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and the Giant’s Causeway! This day trip was our favorite part of our 4 day itinerary for Belfast.

These two landmarks give stunning views of the region’s craggy coast and are only a 15 minute drive apart, making them ideal destinations to combine in a single day trip. Along the way, you’ll get to drive along an incredibly scenic route and stop in the cutest town for food and shopping.

Your day trip from Belfast will be a day filled with nature, jaw-dropping views, and unforgettable memories made!

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Timeline

Below is the exact timeline we followed during our day trip from Belfast. We’ll dive into the main stops more in this post. Keep in mind, we had a toddler with us which slowed down the timeline a little. However, we also purposefully moved at a leisurely pace. We wanted to truly take in the places we were visiting and not rush through them!

8:15-9:30am – Pickup rental car from Hertz. This took longer than expected but didn’t impact our day overall. The overall checkout time was a little lengthy, and then it took us some time to get the car seat installed and the GPS up and running.

9:30-11:30am – Drive to Ballycastle

11:30-1pm – Lunch and shopping in Ballycastle

1:15–3:45pm – Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Reservations are required, so we recommend booking your time slot and then building your schedule around it.

4-6:30pm – Giant’s Causeway

6:30-7:45pm – Drive back to Belfast

9am The Following Day – Return rental car. We didn’t ask to be able to return the rental car the following day, but it was offered to us at no additional charge as long as we had it back as soon as they opened. Otherwise, we would have had it back by 6pm, which would have significantly cut our time exploring!

There are some cool stop opportunities along the way – The Dark Hedges, Dunluce Castle, and The Gobbins to name a few. We were worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to fully enjoy the rope bridge and Giant’s Causeway if we spent too much exploring along the way though, so we bypassed them altogether. This was a good choice for us, because we filled up our day between the bridge and the Giant’s Causeway.

What You’ll Need for Your Day Trip from Belfast

Comfy walking shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty – This is a day filled with nature hikes. While the paths are well maintained, they are not all paved. If you want to go out on the hexagonal stones at Giant’s Causeway, you will encounter wet slippery stones and some puddles. You can see our favorite walking shoes in our post 15 of Our Favorite Items for Travel.
Refillable Water Bottle
Driver’s License – If you are renting a car, you’ll need to present your drivers license at the time of pickup.
Sunscreen
Snacks for the road

Renting A Car in Belfast & Driving in the UK

Kayla was quite proud of herself for parallel parking on the lefthand side

There are plenty of Giant’s Causeway tours from Belfast, and honestly, they’re a great choice if you don’t want the stress of driving. You can sit back, take in the views of the Causeway Coastal Route, and let someone else handle the logistics with no worrying about maps, parking, or navigating narrow roads. Most tours also include stops at scenic spots like Dunluce Castle or the Dark Hedges, so you’ll still see a lot in one day.

That said, if you want more freedom to explore, renting a car for your Giant’s Causeway day trip from Belfast is absolutely worth considering. Driving yourself means you can set your own schedule, spend as much time as you’d like at each stop, and even visit places tours can’t go, like Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which is closed to large tour groups (& totally worth doing!).

The tradeoff? You’ll need to feel comfortable driving on the left side of the road, parking can be limited at popular spots, and rental costs can add up (especially with insurance). But for travelers who love flexibility and being on their own timeline, it’s worth it.

If your main goal is simply to see the Giant’s Causeway without the hassle of driving, a guided day tour from Belfast is the easiest option. You’ll get transport, commentary, and a stress-free way to check a world-famous UNESCO site off your list.

If you’d rather build your own adventure, stopping for photo ops, side detours, and extra time along the cliffs, go for the rental car. Either way, the Causeway Coast is one of those drives (or rides) you’ll never forget.

Driving in the UK was a bucket list item checked for us!

We rented a car from Hertz in Belfast and had an overall really good experience. They provided a car seat for Kayla’s toddler which was much appreciated and allowed us the flexibility to return the car the following morning when they opened, which gave us a lot more time to explore during our day trip from Belfast.

When giving your card information at the time you pickup the car, we recommend putting a credit card on file instead of a debit card. The hold put on our card took several days to clear, which isn’t ideal when you’re traveling abroad and the hold is for almost $3k!

We were initially a little worried about renting a car in the UK. We had zero experience renting a car abroad, much less driving on the left hand side of the road!

Thankfully, our worries were for nothing. We had an absolutely fabulous experience navigating the roads. Amanda read off the GPS instructions and constantly reminded Kayla to stay on the lefthand side of the road at every turn, which definitely helped. Other than Kayla having a tendency to hug the lefthand side a little too much, we didn’t run into any issues!

It was much easier than we expected and gave us the confidence to rent a car abroad again a week later in Wales.

If traveling with a child that will need a car seat: The UK does not use chest clips on car seats. So if you’re an American renting one, don’t be alarmed if a chest clip isn’t present. Kayla felt that her child was very secure! Check out our post on Must Have Travel Gear for Kids Under 3 if you’ll be traveling with a little one.

The Route

We recommend hitting the road early. We did, and this helped with not having to deal with much traffic coming from the opposite direction (we don’t know how those big tour buses navigate the narrow roads!). And again, you want to maximize your time in the beautiful places you’ll be seeing!

There is a direct route straight through the country from Belfast to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which only takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes. There is also a more scenic route, known as the Causeway Coastal Route or Antrim Coast Road. If you choose this option, it will nearly double your time.

Why choose, when you can do both? Take the Causeway Coastal Road up and the more direct route through the countryside back! From the sea to the sheep, you’ll get to see it all!

If you opt for the Causeway Coastal Road, your GPS may try to pull you off of it to go the more direct route since it is faster. We fell prey to this and ended up giving in to the GPS, which meant we missed some of the highlights along the Causeway Coastal Road.

If you experience this though, the Coastal Road is well marked with signs, so you should be able to follow it through in its entirety with no problems. You’re also literally driving parallel to the shoreline, so it’s hard to get lost if you choose to ignore your GPS and stick with the coastal route.

Ballycastle

Ballycastle wasn’t originally in our plans, but your toddler needing to pee can lead you to unexpected places. The town was a really lovely surprise and one of the few instances we were thankful on our trip for an unplanned toilet break.

Ballycastle is only a 10 minute drive from Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It has a quaint downtown area lined with bustling shops and cute cafes. If you plug Ursa Minor into your GPS, there is a car park located on the street behind it.

Ursa Minor is actually where we stopped for the toilet and a bite to eat, and we highly recommend it for your trip too.

The cafe had a nice selection of freshly baked sweet and savory treats as well as some packaged items for purchase. It was a very welcoming environment with indoor seating, and they even had a small selection of toys for little ones to enjoy!

After filling your bellies, explore the town of Ballycastle if you have time before your rope bridge reservations. It’s only a 10 minute drive between the two stops, so Ballycastle is a great stop if you need to kill a few minutes before your reservation. Kayla’s favorite store was a little antique shop called Cobwebs. It was a wee treasure trove!

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

Reservations are required for Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, so you’ll want to book in advance to guarantee entry. Not only do we think the bridge is totally worth the visit, it stands out as one of our favorite travel moments of our 2 week trip around the UK!

A Little History

The rope bridge stretches 20 meters (75 feet) and connects the mainland to a tiny rocky island, called Carrick-a-Rede. A bridge was first erected here in 1755 by fishermen who were tired of having to take a boat such a short distance to catch salmon.

Up until 1960, it was common for fishermen to catch up to 300 salmon a day in this area! Nowadays, you won’t see any fishermen crossing the bridge. But you will see small groups of tourists making their way across!

The Trek from the Carpark to the Bridge

Although the number of visitors is limited by timed entry, there is ample parking in the carpark. Adjacent to the car park is a small cafe with restrooms beneath it. We recommend using the toilet before you start the short hike to the bridge, as there aren’t any others available onsite!

From the car park, you’ll walk around just over half a mile (1km) to reach the rope bridge. The first half of this is on fine gravel and considered accessible. After that point, the terrain is more uneven and there are numerous stairs.

The journey is suitable for children who are okay with walking, climbing stairs, and heights. Kayla’s daughter was just shy of turning 3 during our visit, and she loved every second. There are protective railings on the cliffside which was reassuring.

We were able to push the stroller for the first half, but there were some steep inclines! When we reached the first bit of stairs, we collapsed the stroller and made sure it was out of the way. We then continued onward toward the bridge!

Kayla’s stroller is an Ergobaby Metro Plus – it’s great because it collapses down to the size of a carry-on suitcase so is easy to stow away in situations like this! This is one of our must-have items for traveling with children under 3.

Crossing the Bridge

When you finally reach the bridge, you may be required to wait a while for the folks who are making their way across from the opposite direction. Staff do a great job controlling traffic flow and will let you know when it’s safe to cross.

The bridge itself has a planked walkway running up the center, making it easy to cross. However, it is suspended pretty high up in the air, so you’ll feel it swaying slightly as you cross.

Kayla was a little nervous crossing with her toddler – both because her toddler had never experienced a height related activity and because it’s nerve wracking as a mother to have your child cross a bridge dangling between two cliffs!

Her daughter absolutely loved crossing “the wiggly bridge” and did better than a lot of the adults who crossed ahead of us. Between the sturdy walkway on the bridge and the fairly close-knit webbing of the ropes, Kayla’s worries subsided once they are on the bridge (but she did keep a tight hold on her daughter’s hand!).

Carrick-a-Rede Island

Once you cross the bridge, you’ll have made it to the tiny island. The island has the best vantage points of the cliffs, and you’ll possibly see some wildlife in the water and on the cliffs if you look closely. We mainly saw hordes of seagulls though diving for food!

If you’re okay with climbing a short rocky incline without much to hold onto, the path continues on to a large grassy area with views not visible from the bridge. You can stay on the tiny island as long as you wish before heading back.

We recommend stopping in the cafe at the carpark on your way back if you need a snack or a drink. The proceeds go toward maintaining the park and combatting climate change by planting trees.

Giant’s Causeway

Parking

The last stop on your day trip from Belfast is Giant’s Causeway! From the rope bridge, it’s only a 15 minute drive. As you get closer to the Causeway, you’ll see signs for parking. We opted to park in one of the advertised lots hosted by the National Trust, but discovered afterward that we could have parked at the visitor’s center and been a little closer.

The walk from the National Trust parking lot wasn’t bad at all though. It only took around 5 minutes from the car park to get to the starting point of the Causeway Trails and was cheaper than parking at the visitor’s center would have been. So, we were ultimately happy with our decision to park here.

Be advised if you need to use the restroom though that the National Trust closes the one at their carpark at 4pm, so you’ll need to go to the visitor’s center.

If you park at the visitor’s center, its around £15 per adult and £7 per child. The cost includes guided tours or an audio guide and access to the cafe, shop, and restrooms.