Despite living in Belfast for 5 months, we didn’t explore much out of the city, except for the freaking amazing Game of Thrones tour we went on. However, seeing a couple of beaches in Northern Ireland and going on a day trip to the beach from Belfast was definitely on our bucket list. We checked which one was the most beautiful and easiest to go to by public transportation, and chose Whiterocks beach. It took us less than 2 hours with public transportation to get there, making it a perfect day trip to the beach from Belfast.
Post by : Alice & Simone
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Going to Whiterocks beach from Belfast
It’s hard to tell if Whiterocks beach is the best beach to go to from Belfast or even close to being one of the most beautiful beaches in Northern Ireland, but we aren’t going to lie: it was pretty amazing.
How do I go to Whiterocks beach?
Whiterocks beach is located in Portrush, a town in the North of Northern Ireland. It’s not very hard to get there from Belfast with public transportation. We used to live close to Botanic Station, so we took the train there, and it couldn’t have been easier. We bought our tickets directly at the station and went on to wait for our train to arrive. The return tickets are 18.50£ per person or 12.30£ if you take the train after 9:30am.
Finally a good excuse not to get up too early!
The comfort of the train surprised us, it made the hour-and-a-half-long trip even faster. You might enjoy just watching the landscape, but if you don’t: there’s usb ports so you can charge your phone while using it!
We left the train going towards Portrush at Colerain station, where we still had to take the bus 402 to Whiterocks. How do the fees work on the bus? Honestly no idea… We boarded the bus, told the driver where we wanted to go, and paid what he asked for a day ticket (it was around 6£, and depends on the destination). Which was less than we thought, so no complaint!
All in all, it took us 2 hours to get from Belfast to Portrush beach, and it cost us less than 20£ per person for the round trip. The Translink website is very helpful in planning your trip, don’t hesitate to use it.
Whiterocks beach: the perfect day trip to the beach from Belfast?
Whiterocks beach is damn beautiful!
You already have a pretty nice view of Whiterocks beach from the bus stop, which towers over the sea from pretty high. Therefore you need to walk down a bit to get to the beach in itself. Then… you can only admire the beauty of this Northern Irish beach.
We found Whiterocks beach breathtaking.
The seaside has this kind of very old, very powerful kind of feeling that grabs you at the guts. It’s pretty different from the Giants Causeway but they share this somewhat magical earth feel… The cliff against the beach looks incredible, and so are the colours of this place. I guess most of the Ireland beaches share this kind of mystical atmosphere, don’t they?
The million dollar question : So, did you swim at Whiterocks beach?
No way!!
The water was cold as hell (wrong comparison, but you get what we mean). We had our swimsuits on us but we didn’t get crazy enough to dip more than our toes in!! We did have a good time though, playing and enjoying the peacefulness Portrush beach brought us.
The weather wasn’t amazing, either. So after a while we decided to move on and hit the next town: Portballintrae.
7 comments
How beautiful is the scenery! Great captures! Seems like it was worthwhile the time spent to get there 😉
I had no clue Belfast was quite so close to the sea!! Looks like the perfect day trip – what a beautiful beach 🙂
Beautiful photos and I don’t blame you for not swimming bet it was icy!
What a lovely beach! Looks a nice day trip.
great pictures, it seems amazing beach and glad you had fun on the beach :)).
Thanks, it was great!
It such a Whiterocks Beach is a very popular location for surfing and surf kayaking owing to the presence of large strong powerful waves throughout much of the year. It is also a very popular beach for walkers, dog walkers and horse riders.