Once in Dublin, you may start thinking: which way is the best to go out of the city and see something else around Ireland? That’s when the Wild Rover Tours come to the rescue! They have a wide variety of offers for you, from one day to 2 day tours. Our interns went on for the tour for Northern Ireland and it was… well, rainy. But that is part of the experience of the entire Ireland. Otherwise, it was just perfect! Note that you can book the tours through our Dublin International Hostel, but more on that later on.
www.wildrovertours.com
The Belfast and Giant Causeway tour takes you through a beautiful story of Belfast, beautiful natural sights and even a nice little pub with great fish’n’chips. Once you depart from Dublin, the guide (we had Jennifer on our tour – amazing!!!) starts talking a bit about what is going to happen and thus the story begins. Is not just a simple bus ride towards Belfast. You get to know basically everything that happened in the history of Northern Ireland. And it is important to know that because tourism means also learning about the culture of the country you are visiting.
Wild Rover Tours: Belfast
Once in Belfast, you get to choose between the Black Taxi Tour or the Titanic Experience. The Black Taxi gets you through the most important places in Belfast and gets you even more into the history of the country. The Titanic Experience takes place in the Titanic Belfast Museum, built in 2012, which is the world’s largest Titanic visitor experience.
From our 3 interns who went for this tour, two of them chose the Black Taxi Ride and one the Titanic. On the taxi ride, the two caught a glimpse of the city, even though it was a dark rainy day. They got to know the troubled past of the city in ways that, by themselves, they couldn’t be able to learn:
On the Titanic there is a different matter. The Museum is amazing and you start with a short history of Belfast and it’s industrial history and you end up slowly in the Titanic. Then you get to see how it was built, the conditions on which the workers did their job, getting to the launch of the ship and then to the disaster, ending with the discovery of the ship under the sea. Sad part is up on the section where they show the disaster day. All you get to see are the messages they sent for S.O.S… you can imagine how it feels.
View to Titanic Launch Site
Titanic Museum – wing has the same size as the original Titanic
Years and years of making the perfect ship…
Titanic Museum gets you on a trip of Belfast to the heart of shipbuilding.
But hey, enough with the sad part. There is a lot to learn from all these two experiences you can do in Belfast with Wild Rover Tours. After this, you get up in the country side. Fields of green everywhere, sheep and, well, rain. It’s cooler with rain probably.
Carrick A Rede Rope Bridge
We ended up at Carrick A Rede Rope Bridge. It depends on the season, sometimes this can be the last part we’ve been told.
The images speak for themselves:
That looks is one beautiful white beach!
Amazing views!
Slippery!
People were carrying fish across the two sides and it only had one handle back in the days!
Would you cross that on a windy rainy day?
From here, you leave towards the most beautiful place of Northern Ireland probably (if you disagree leave us a comment): The Giant Causeway!
Giant Causeway
Lots of distinctive rock formations there, from hexagons to pentagons and everything. It looks trully like a giant causeway, or Giant Boots as some people call it. The guide told us the entire story of how it was formed, starting with the legend of fighting giants and ending with the normal scientifical explanation. Have to say that the legend is much more fun. How often do you hear of giants fighting and ship racing in medieval times and creating pathways just so they can scream at each other?
How many rocks are there?
Again amazing rock cliffs and views!
All the rock formations here are interesting! Heaven for geologists.
We got rained a lot here as well, but honestly it couldn’t have gotten more better than this.
Beautiful pathway across the cliffs.
Thousands of rocks wait for you to discover them!
The sun came out once we where inside the Nook Pub, best one near the Giant Causeway. Great food, great atmosphere and great pints to choose from. We went with a traditional irish stew and Guinness. Best choice! Sun went behind the clouds when we left the pub, of course…
From there we had one last stop on the menu: Dun Luce Castle! Famous for being on Led Zeppelin covers or even in Game of Thrones, the place is an instant classic for photo lovers: ruins, rocky shores, rain. You can make cool photos here (better than ours for sure). If it is not pouring rain like it did for us, of course…
This is the last stop in the story of the Wild Rover Tours in Northern Ireland, and it is amazing. The guide, which is probably the most filled with energy guide you can get (Jennifer), explains the latest developments in the history of the country and all the good parts that recently happen. Is a good think to end on a positive note and understand how important it is not just to visit the places, but also to understand them. And Wild Rover Tours have the nicest way of doing this.
Want to book a trip?
Make sure to check their website out and also know that they can be booked through our Dublin International Hostel! Here you can get special discounts and you can also book for groups! The buses have a lot of space so you and your friends can have a wonderful time together. Just go on to anoige.ie and we can sort everything out for you! I you are arriving in our hostels with a group, our Groups Reservations Department can help you get the best out of the Wild Rover Tours.
Next trip, Glendalough! Stay tuned!
