Full-Day Giant's Causeway & G.O.T Experience from Dublin

I took this trip with my boyfriend a couple weeks ago, and we were a little disappointed with it. Pros: - We got to see the highlights we wanted in Northern Ireland without having to drive ourselves or figure out the logistics. - Everything was timed out to the minute, making everything very punctual. - Photo stop at Dunluce Castle and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge visit were as expected. The Rope Bridge area is gorgeous and definitely worth a visit. - We chose to take an optional guided walking tour of the Giant’s Causeway for an additional 10 euro that the driver set up for us. It taught us about the local myths and geology behind the Causeway. We really enjoyed it. - Driver had interesting facts about Ireland and personal experiences to share about the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. - The seats were comfortable. Cons: - A schedule with this much drive time needs to have more flexibility to allow for traffic and other delays, while not taking away from the customers time at the stops. We were rushed at our 2 main attractions so the driver could get home on time. - We were guaranteed a 2-hour stop at the Giant’s Causeway, and were instead given 1.5-hours. Seeing as this was the main attraction of the trip, this was very frustrating. - I wish we would have been given more time at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. We had just enough time to power walk to the bridge, wait in line to cross it, spend 10 minutes on the little island, then power walk back. It was very rushed. - The driver treated the passengers like kids on a school bus more than paying customers. He scolded people when they talked while he was talking and was constantly warning us against tardiness in a slightly threatening manner, threatening to leave people behind if they were late. - The photo stop at the Dark Hedges was extremely overrated. The bus wasn’t allowed to stop without paying 60 euros as an entrance fee, so we did a slow cruise drive-by instead on a perpendicular street, while looking out the windows. It was raining so everything outside the windows was blurry, and the Dark Hedges start down the road a bit, so we actually didn’t see the Hedges at all, and this was 1 of the 4 attractions of the trip. - WI-FI on the bus didn’t always work.

This was meant to be the highlight of my trip to Ireland with my sister, and it was better than trying to make our own way around, but it would have been a lot better if they did what they said they would do, If you're going to "guarantee two hours" at the Giant's Causeway, don't spend 45 minutes at a restaurant (how much do they pay you to bring 50 tourists there?) and then only give people 70 minutes at the site. And considering it takes 25-30 minutes to walk there, that means we had 10 minutes. They didn't pay for the bus to enter the parking area, so that also added 5-10 minutes that could have been saved. And when they say they pay for everything, what they mean is, they pay for nothing because the only things that cost are parking and the visitor centre, which THEY DONT'T PAY FOR. At the Carrick-a-Rede bridge, they mis-informed us of the time we had to be back, so we ended up almost running to make sure we could cross it, but we then immediately turned around. They were off by an hour, so we actually did have enough time to go up the small island, but we didn't know that. Dunluce Castle was a pleasant photo opportunity, and the sights overall were magnificent, but we really missed out on enjoying the best parts of the trip. The rain, we expected. Not having time to visit the advertised sights? The driver and guide chatted constantly to each other, but what information they passed on was useful and interesting. For the operators, please skip the restaurant, I can bring my own food. Let us see the sights we pay for!

Couple of things - tour says "admission to Giant's Causeway".....well yes the bus dropped us off there but there was no admission paid. My daughter went to purchase a post card and they told her she hadnt paid admission. That was $12.50 euros in order for her to buy the postcard. Also, there was no guided tour - everyone on the bus had to spend an additional $10 euros for that. The tour also listed Dark Hedges as a stopping point, but the bus driver told us he wasnt allowed to stop....

If your main goal is to see Giant's Causeway like it was ours I suggest you book another Tour. We were disappointed on how little time we actually spent at this stop. Along with not enough time the driver/Tour guide didn't give us enough information about where to go and we feel like we missed much of it. As we were told this was one of the best places to see we were sad the Tour didn't focus more on this stop. We did thoroughly enjoy the rope bridge at Carrick a Rede though.

It's a long drive but the scenery was beautiful. There was a bathroom stop on the way there but not one on the way back, but I'm sure the driver would have stopped if there was a request. The Giant's Causeway is very impressive but the walk can be very taxing, although there's a National Trust shuttle from the top of the hill and I would advise you to make use of it since the next stop at the Rope Bridge has a much harder walk. The time at the locations can be a little tight if you walk slowly, so plan to take pictures on your walk back so you can make use of resting stops.

I really enjoyed every amazing place we visited on this trip. The only change I would suggest is allowing a little more time at the bridge it's quite a walk out to it and back, and I would have liked to walk around about 10 minutes on the other side of the bridge, and we probably should have had a restroom break about halfway back to Dublin. Also, I had taken sandwiches because I realized they don't use Euros in Northern Ireland, but at the restaurant stop for lunch I did find that they would accept Euros, and if I'd known that, I would have just eaten there. Lastly, I wasn't aware I needed to check in at the agency with the green door - I found out by asking the bus driver, which caused me to be late for the tour tours with other companies just had us checking in at the bus.

We knew this was just transportation but on the almost 4 hour drive on the way back the driver wasn't going to stop at all until we asked him. After another 45 minutes he found a place to stop.