Northern Ireland including Giant's Causeway Rail Tour from Dublin

Posted By : Alexa R
Overall it was a great trip, my mom and I loved it. Our tour guide, Paddy, was super sweet and helpful through the whole experience. The only downside was that we wanted to spend more time in certain areas and did not get to due to time constraints, but we knew that might be an issue. Also depends on who you are sharing the tour with as some of the people on our tour were not super considerate of other people nor were they kind to Paddy in the beginning. However, over time the other people on our tour were nicer. Ultimately great tour :)
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Posted On : 2024-06-17 03:52:19

Posted By : mikesN8231DQ
John was our tour guide. He was very invvrf and high energy. He took us to the bottom of the Causeways and squeezed in as much as we could. He also made sure we were always on time and together as a group.
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Posted On : 2024-05-23 14:52:41

Posted By : michaelwU8837CT
This was the highlight of my vacation in Ireland. I was staying in Dublin for my weeklong vacation and booked this tour to see Giant's Causeway and Northern Ireland. Railtours Ireland made traveling so smooth and hassle free. Peter was friendly and took care of us, offering tidbits of information along the way. This was such a great way to see many things in one day!
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Posted On : 2024-05-03 11:00:26

Posted By : kellyhC6298VI
My husband I booked the Giants Causeway tour and it was incredible! Definitely a must see if you’re visiting Ireland. We took amazing pictures and it was an experience we’ll never forget. Our tour guide, Paddy, was wonderful! He was with us for 13 hours and made the day so easy. He shared interesting Irish culture and history with us. He was very passionate, enthusiastic, and funny which made for a great day! Also making sure the entire group got into a taxi safely after the tour was over was greatly appreciated! Cannot recommend this company enough!
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Posted On : 2023-12-05 17:05:51

Posted By : Explorer19852849173
We left Dublin Connolly Station with our tour guide Marathon John at the helm heading for Belfast and onward to the Giants Causeway. Bad weather as a result of Storm Babette delayed our progress with a landslip requiring our small group of 6 to transfer to a coach for part of the journey. John organised things brilliantly. Having missed our connection at Belfast station for the tour along the Antrim Coast we were met by a luxury 8 seater Mercedes V class minivan. It was driven my Rodney and his wife, the owners of the coach company. They acted as tour guides on our journey to the lunch stop at the Fullerton Arms on the North Coast. Fuelled by a Guinness and a pie we travelled onward to the Giants Causeway with spectacular views across to the Scottish Isles. John our guide escorted us from the coach down to the causeway. He was very knowledgeable and informative and showed us the best photo stops on the loop down to the sea. Back on the coach Ray our driver took us to Dunluce Castle and the Dark Hedges, both well known Game of Throne Landmarks. That left us just enough time for a 25 minute stop at the Bushmills Distillery for a quick sampling experience in the visitor area. Rebecca from New York, one of our small group on the tour, beat us to cashier and treated us to a tasting tray of 3 shots of the good stuff.
Due to rail delays caused by Fridays storm we were keen to get back to Belfast for the slightly earlier 6pm train back to Dublin. Ray our driver cleared it with his boss and we made good time to the station arriving with 5 minutes to spare before departure. On our rail trip back to Dublin John our guide talked to us about the history of the land and its hidden treasures.
We had a brilliant day which ended around 9pm on arrival at Connolly Station. A special mention goes to John our guide for the day. He was full of information and facts and our small group had a fabulous day.
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Posted On : 2023-11-03 11:15:20

Posted By : Brenda_B
The description of this tour was a bit vague. First off the description says it is a 13 hour tour , which is a long day to begin with, but in total ours was about 15 hours.

The first and last 2.5 hours are on a commuter rail without much scenery (no scenery on the return trip since it is dark). When we arrived in Belfast on the rail a van picked us up to transfer to the bus tour already in progress.

Not sure we missed much on the bus tour but the drive in the van was about an hour to meet up with the bus. The views from this point were very nice. We did stop at various places for photos and then had a little under 2 hours to explore at giants causeway. This is a large group tour and, although the driver ask passengers to return to the bus at specific times, with that many people there was always some inconsiderate participants who did not comply.

For our second to last stop, we had a stop at Bushmills Distillery, which the driver said was an optional stop and up to the driver whether to stop or not. We had 25 minutes there, which really was just a rushed stop with barely enough time to slam down a few samples of whiskey (we are thinking the driver must get some sort of kickback from the distillery to include the stop)

In the end, we returned too late to catch the 6:00 train which is where the additional 2 hours comes in. There is not much near the train station food-wise other than the restaurant inside the Hilton. We grabbed dinner at the Hilton while waiting for the 8:00 train. Sounds like it is quite normal for participants to return on the 8:00 train rather than the 6:00 train.

We would not have chosen this tour had we been given the details above, so hopefully this will help others know what they are signing up for so you can make your own decision.
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Posted On : 2023-10-27 06:11:51

Posted By : 349kelseyw
John is the most AMAZING tour guide. My mom, brother and I had a great time. John chatted with us throughout the entire trip, he gave us information on everything we were going to see, he joined us on all the tours and took our family photos in the best spots. John clearly loves what he does!! We did another tour earlier in the week with a different guide but John stood out. It really made our trip!!!
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Posted On : 2023-10-07 16:41:06

Posted By : Melissa_G
It was a nice tour of the Irish country with some beautiful view points for photographs and exploration.
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Posted On : 2023-08-26 05:10:14

Posted By : David_L
Paul, the Driver and Ian our tour guide went above and beyond to make this a great experience. We stopped at a couple of extra places such as the Dark Hedges and had lots of time at every stop. It was an unforgettable tour.
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Posted On : 2023-08-22 04:34:12

Posted By : 111agust_nr
The development of the planning is fraudulent, since on our trip many aspects of the programmed were not fulfilled at all to be able to properly enjoy the wonderful destination offered:
1. Excessive intermediate bus stops, including one unscheduled for lunch and another at a distillery for no reason.
2. Short time to access the Giant's Causeway (1 hour and 20 minutes of the 2 hours offered, that is, 67% of what was stipulated!) without prior explanation that from the bus it was a journey of between 2 and a 3 km walk to the enclave and another 3 km back.
3.Cancellation of the stop at the Carrik-a-Rede rope bridge, supposedly because the bus could not access it (from the road it could be seen no more than 500 measly meters!).
4. Return to Belfast hastily to return to Dublin on the 6:00 p.m. train, when it was scheduled to do so on the 8:05 p.m. train.
5.A local guide (the driver) whom the accompanying guide did not even understand and who spoke like a parrot, without the slightest consideration towards the 42% of the passengers on his bus (5 out of 12) who were Spanish (he is from assume that English speakers should also be able to adapt and use a more standard format, like anywhere else).
In short, do not waste your time taking the trip with this company: look for other alternatives because the place is worth it.
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Posted On : 2023-08-19 15:48:33