Ireland with a 2 year old & a 4 year old

We will be visiting Ireland for a week in the summer flying into Dublin & out of Belfast, preferably travelling by public transit.
Any suggestions would be great.

Hello Marilyn,

The summer is usually a popular time to visit but at the moment there is so much uncertainty around traveling, I would suggest that you have a look at our Traveller Health page for links and up to date information.

That said, are you looking for things to do both in Dublin and Belfast as well as during your time travelling between the two places?

Public transport is currently operating as normal, please take a look at our page for details on providers as both train and bus journeys can be taken depending on your preference. It takes about 2 hours from Dublin to Belfast directly with either method.

Please let us know your thoughts and we will try to fill in your itinerary with some suggestions on what to see and do.

Speak soon,

Martin

Hello, 

We will be arriving August 9 in Dublin & leaving from Belfast on August 16th. I am British but live in the USA, & we will be attending a wedding in England before our Ireland trip
We are actually 7 adults & the 2 kids. We may rent a car for some of the adults, but the little kids don't particularly like car travel & the car seats is another issue, so we had thought of travelling by coach or train with them.
How does that work on the coaches, would they still need car seats?
We had thought a day or 2 in Dublin, 2 days in Belfast & were trying to find options for the other days

Thanks
Marilyn

Hi,

Thanks for getting back with some more details of your plans!

When traveling by coach you will not need child seats so this will indeed be the best way for your kids to get from Dublin to Belfast. Bus Éireann operates a service from Dublin Busaras to Belfast Europa that would be perfect for you. Please have a look at their website for detail, they operate a rolling timetable so dates in August are not available to view just yet.

Dublin has plenty to see and do to keep you all busy, easy to walk around or take the hop on hop off bus to visit all the major attractions. There are also lots of smaller towns and villages nearby if you fancy getting out of the city too.

Once up in Belfast, again the city has plenty to offer and also the City Sightseeing bus to take you all out to some of the great places along the Causeway Coastal Route.

It would also be a great idea to take a journey over to Derry~Londonderry while up along the north coast. A popular thing to do is a walk around the walls and over the peace bridge. Translink operates the train and bus service in Northern Ireland so again, check their website for details of times and tickets.

We have an approved accommodation search page that you may also find helpful. I have pre-selected Dublin to get you started, please feel free to change the type and location from the drop-down menus.

I hope this helps and that you have a super time at the wedding and your time with us is enjoyable.

Again, feel free to get back to us, hopefully some of our fellow members and industry partners may have some suggestions too.

Regards,
Martin

Hi Marilyn,

I see that Martin has already given you plenty of useful information for your proposed visit to Ireland during the month of August.  He mentioned about the possibility of visiting the Causeway Coast and Glens from Belfast.  If you decide to do that I can give you a couple of pointers in advance, regarding the public transport here.  There is a regular train service that runs between Belfast and Coleraine.  From Coleraine there is a bus called the Causeway Rambler (number 402 / 172) that operates frequently along the beautiful Causeway Coast.  It is a hop-on, hop-off service and when you pay for the day, you can stop off as many times as you like.

The bus route services many of the famous attractions along the coastline such as Dunluce Castle, the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills Distillery, Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge and Ballycastle where you can catch the ferry to Rathlin Island.  It really makes sightseeing along the Causeway Coastline very easy using public transport and your children will not have to spend long periods on a bus as everything is located very close together. You can find more information about our area here - https://www.visitcausewaycoastandglens.com/

I hope everything works out and that you are able to come to Ireland later on this year.
Regards,
Anne