You don't need to leave at dawn or book a cottage. Twelve proper days out sit within easy reach of Belfast — and five of them you can do by train. Out after breakfast, home for dinner.
How the times work — every journey below is an honest rough figure from Belfast city centre on a normal day. Most are under an hour; even the furthest — the north coast and Derry — run to roughly 90 minutes.
The train five — Cultra (the Folk & Transport Museum has its own halt), Carrickfergus, Helen's Bay for Crawfordsburn, Portrush for Whiterocks (change at Coleraine) and Derry. Everywhere else is easiest by car. Check Translink for times before you set off.
Cost — six of the twelve are free to walk into (a couple charge for parking), and every entry links to our full guide with current prices, hours and parking.
Two need booking ahead.Hillsborough's State Rooms run on timed guided tours and Armagh's dome shows say pre-booking is essential — sort both online before you travel.
Mind Mondays. The Folk & Transport Museum, Carrickfergus Castle and Armagh Planetarium all close on ordinary Mondays — aim for any other day.
When — long summer evenings are made for this list: the big sights go quieter after 4pm, and with these journey times you can chase the good weather on the morning of the day itself.
1
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Cultra, Holywood · £12 adult · under-5s free
The easiest escape on this list — the train stops at Cultra halt and the museum is right there. One side of the road is a rebuilt old town of cobbled streets, turf-fired cottages and costumed folk; the other is a hall of steam giants, the Titanica story and the Belfast-built DeLorean. It's a big, hilly site: most people give 2.5–3 hours to one museum or make a full day of both. Closed Mondays.
About 15 min by car · train to Cultra halt£12 adult · £7.45 child · under-5s freeTwo museums, two tickets now — pick one or budget for both
An 800-year-old Norman keep rising straight out of Belfast Lough, said to be one of the best-preserved Norman castles in Ireland. Cannons line the battery, figures in armour hold the banqueting hall, and the climb up the keep's tight spiral stairs ends with a view right back to Belfast. An hour to an hour and a half does it — then the marina and the town are on the doorstep. Pay at the gate; no online booking.
About 25 min by car · train on the Larne line£6 adult · family £18 · pay at the gateClosed Mondays (bar bank holidays)
Two sandy beaches, a wooded glen with a waterfall, a towering old railway viaduct and the North Down Coastal Path — all free to walk into, with a playpark and a visitor centre café thrown in. The train does this one beautifully: hop off at Helen's Bay station and you're a short stroll from the sand. Beach in the morning, glen walk after lunch, grand views over the lough the whole way.
About 25 min by car · train to Helen's BayFree to enter · pay-and-display parkingTwo beaches, a waterfall and a viaduct
Ards Peninsula, Newtownards · £16 adult · NT members free
Palms and eucalyptus thriving on the shore of Strangford Lough, open-air garden rooms that drift from Italian to Spanish to Sunken, and a terrace of grinning cement dodos — Mount Stewart is said to be one of the world's great gardens, and it wears it lightly. The great house is still full of the Londonderrys' treasures, nothing roped off. Give it most of a day, and finish with a scone from the tea room on the lawn.
About 45 min — easiest by car£16 adult · £8 child · NT members freeGardens from 10am · house from 11am
Royal Hillsborough · gardens from £11 · house & gardens £21.50
A working royal residence you can actually walk into — the King's official home in Northern Ireland. The guided State Rooms tour runs about 45 minutes (the Throne Room is the show-stopper), then a hundred acres of gardens take the rest of the day: the Walled Garden and its glasshouse, the Glen's streams and rhododendrons, and the Imaginary Menagerie trail to keep the kids hunting while you take the long way round. Free parking, café by the car park.
About 30 min by car, just off the A1 — easiest by carGardens from £11 · house & gardens £21.50State Rooms are guided-tour only — book a time slot online
Long ornamental canals lying dead-still between towering hedges, a bright parterre, and a 12th-century motte you can climb for the view — said to be one of the few surviving Anglo-Dutch water gardens in the British Isles, and it's all completely free. Clotworthy House sits at the heart of it with a café and exhibitions, the paths are flat and buggy-friendly, and there are two fenced dog parks. An easy, elegant hour or two that costs nothing.
About 30 min — easiest by carFree entry · free parking tooCafé & house hours differ from the gardens — check before lunch
Newcastle, the Mournes · Free on foot · £5 per car
You enter under a castellated gothic gateway, and it only gets better — the Shimna River rushing over its famous stepping stones, old stone bridges and grottoes, giant redwoods overhead and the Mourne Mountains rising beyond the trees. Game of Thrones filmed its haunted forest here. Colour-coded trails run from a gentle half-mile loop to five-mile mountain legs; allow 2–3 hours for a good river-and-trees round, then chips in Newcastle, five minutes away.
About an hour — easiest by carFree to walk in · £5 per car to parkCar park fills fast on sunny weekends — start early
Strangford · around £13.20 adult · NT members free
A house with two faces — calm Classical at the front, pointed Gothic at the back, said to be down to Lord and Lady Bangor's clashing tastes — on 820 acres of woodland and lough-shore trails. The cobbled farmyard is the real draw for many: Game of Thrones filmed it as Winterfell, and in season you can loose arrows in the same courtyard (booked separately with Winterfell Tours). Half a day for the farmyard and a walk; a full day with the house.
About an hour — easiest by carAround £13.20 adult · NT members freeGrounds daily, house on limited days — check before you go
The big one north — an estimated 40,000 six-sided columns stepping down into the Atlantic, Northern Ireland's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Clamber the flat-topped stones, hunt out the Giant's Boot and the Wishing Chair, and take the clifftop path if the legs are willing. The shore itself is free, dawn to dusk — the ticket covers parking, the exhibition and the audio guide. Roughly 90 minutes up the road, and the stones go quiet after the coaches leave.
Roughly 90 min — easiest by carStones free · Visitor Experience £16 · NT members freeOn-site parking is pre-book — or use the Bushmills Park & Ride
A Blue Flag sandy beach beneath white limestone cliffs carved into caves, arches and sea stacks — buckets-and-spades sand for the little ones, proper rolling surf for the older ones, with board and wetsuit hire on site in season. Rock pools and caves come out at low tide (check the tide times before you explore). It even works by rail: train to Portrush with a change at Coleraine, and the beach sits just east of the town. Free, with free parking.
Roughly 90 min by car · train to Portrush (change at Coleraine)Free, with free parkingStrong sea — swim between the lifeguard flags, July & August
This is the one to do by rail. The Derry line runs along the shore for its final stretch and is often called one of the most scenic rail journeys in these islands — then the city hands you a complete 17th-century walled circuit, free to walk any time. A mile up on the ramparts past Roaring Meg and the old gates, with the Guildhall, the Bogside murals and the Foyle spread out below. About an hour for the loop at an easy pace; cafés everywhere when you come down.
Train on the Derry line · roughly 90 min by carFree — guided tours are the only paid extraSteps at most gates — the Magazine Gate ramp is the step-free way up
Armagh · around £10 adult, £7 child · under-3s free
A full-dome space cinema where the film curves right around your head — recline back and the whole ceiling fills with stars and planets, with shows of 25–35 minutes and a dedicated one for pre-schoolers. Hands-on exhibits, a meteorite gallery with real space rock, and the Astropark outside, said to be laid out as a scale model of the solar system. All indoors bar the park, so it shrugs off the rain. Allow 2–3 hours, free parking on site.
About an hour — easiest by carAround £10 adult · £7 child · under-3s freePre-book a dome-show slot · closed Mondays
The rail day: the Folk & Transport Museum from Cultra halt in the morning, then a few stops on to Helen's Bay for Crawfordsburn's beach before home.
The Strangford sweep: Mount Stewart's gardens first, then down the Ards Peninsula and over the short car ferry across the Narrows to Winterfell at Castle Ward.
The north coast classic: the Giant's Causeway from mid-morning, then Whiterocks for the sand and the surf on the way home.
Keep exploring
Every place in this list — and about 2,000 more across Northern Ireland — is on our free map, with full guides, live events and what's-on near you.
