How to Get Around Northern Ireland Without a Car

Look, I love a good road trip as much as anyone.

On some trips, it’s a real pleasure to rent a car and drive around, free to stop wherever you like and go at your own pace.

But I love public transit even more. It’s efficient, environmentally friendly, and — as a solo traveler — often much easier and more cost-effective than renting a car.

That’s why I was so delighted to discover that Northern Ireland has an excellent and easy public transportation system that would get me just about anywhere I wanted to go for a reasonable weekly fee. For ten days, I explored Northern Ireland from Derry to Belfast and many places in between, all without ever getting behind the wheel myself (or even hiring a taxi or rideshare).

In this post, I’ll tell you what to know about traveling Northern Ireland without a car, including the types of transportation you can find in Northern Ireland and the most cost-effective transit card to buy.

An Overview of the Translink System

Northern Ireland’s transit company is called Translink. Here’s what to know about the types of transportation Translink offers — plus, how to find the transit routes you need.

Transit Options

Translink offers both trains and buses.

Trains are best for traveling between Northern Ireland’s cities and largest towns. From Belfast, there are train lines heading in several different directions: to Derry (via Coleraine), Portrush (also via Coleraine), Larne, and Bangor. There are also trains between Belfast and Dublin.

For other destinations, buses are best. There are several different bus operators with a number of routes in and around Belfast, and more bus operators traveling around the whole of Northern Ireland. For example, here are the routes offered by Ulsterbus, one of the bus operators:

You can find current routemaps for all the train and bus lines here.

Planning Routes

While routemaps for trains and buses are available, you don’t need to use them to plan your route.

Thankfully, Translink makes it easy to figure out how to get from point A to point B — just enter your starting point, your destination, and your day of travel here, and Translink will give you various route options and timelines.

I used this route planner for all of my travel in Northern Ireland (except for my day trip to Rathlin Island, which required a separately operated ferry boat), and it couldn’t have been easier.

Translink Travel Cards

There’s another thing that makes public transportation in Northern Ireland so easy: transit cards.

Translink’s travel cards allow riders to make discounted or unlimited journeys within specific areas, zones, or even the whole of Northern Ireland — depending on the card.

Here’s a quick overview of just a few of Translink’s travel cards:

• The Belfast Visitor Pass covers travel within Belfast for 1, 2, or 3 days — plus discounts and special offers at certain attractions, restaurants, and more within the city.
• The free yLink card gives young people between the ages of 16 and 23 a 50% discount on all bus and rail services within Northern Ireland.
• The Multi Journey Smartlink card gives you a discount for purchasing a block of journeys in advance.
• The iLink card offers unlimited travel for a specified period of time within the zone of your choice.

Learn more about all of Translink’s travel cards here.

My Recommendation: The iLink Card

For most visitors to Northern Ireland — particularly visitors like me, who are simply traveling around Northern Ireland as regular tourists for a few days, a week, or more — I recommend the iLink card.

If you are planning to regularly use transit during your time in Northern Ireland, the iLink card can be a fantastic deal, and certainly makes travel much easier.

Here’s how it works: the iLink card gives you unlimited rail and bus travel in (1) the zone of your choice for (2) either one day, one week, or one month. The broader your chosen zone, and the longer your period of travel, the more your card will cost.

iLink zones are follows:

• Zone 1: Belfast and the immediately surrounding area.
• Zone 2: Everything in Zone 1, plus a broader area that includes Bangor, Lisburn, Carrickfergus, and more.
• Zone 3: Everything in Zone 2, plus an even broader area that includes Ballymena, Larne, Antrim, Portadown, Downpatrick, Portavogie, and more.
• North West Zone: The north west area of Northern Ireland, including Derry, Strabane, Colerain, Ballymoney, Ballycastle, Giant’s Causeway, Portrush, and more.
• Zone 4: All of Northern Ireland.

Or, check out this map for a visual depiction of the zones:

So, if you’re only traveling in or around Belfast, you will want to get an iLink card for Zone 1, 2, or 3 (depending on how far outside of Belfast you plan to go). If you will only travel around Derry and the northern coast, you should get an iLink card for the North West Zone.

If you plan to travel throughout Northern Ireland, you should likely get a card for Zone 4 — the whole country. (This is what I did!)

As for the length of your card: if you’re planning to travel for exactly a week, that makes it easy — just buy a week-long card. But even if you’re traveling for a different period of time, it’s not a problem, as you can top up your card with extra days as needed. So, if you need an iLink card for 3 days, you can buy a one-day card but then top it off with two more days. Or, if you need a card for 10 days, you can buy a one-week card but then top it off with three extra days — and so on.

Find more information about iLink cards — including places where you can buy a card, more precise descriptions of the zones, and current pricing — here.

How to Use Your iLink Card

Here’s what’s really great about the iLink card: you just use it when you board the bus or train of your choice. No need to buy tickets for a specific train or bus journey ahead of time!

This means that you have flexibility to change your plans on the fly, which can be very helpful. For example, once I was transferring buses at Coleraine, but my second bus was running late. I simply looked at the screen in the bus station to find the next on-time bus to Ballycastle and hopped on that one instead!

Here’s how to use your iLink card:

Sometimes, train stations will also have spots where you need to validate your card before boarding the train — just tap your card against the reader, and a green light should appear. Find a station employee to help you if you’re not sure how it works!

My iLink Experience

I traveled Northern Ireland from Derry to Ballycastle (which I used as a base to explore the coast and Rathlin Island) to Belfast.

Accordingly, I purchased an iLink card that covered Zone 4 — all of Northern Ireland.

I was visiting Northern Ireland for 10 days, but didn’t need an iLink card for that entire time — specifically, I didn’t need it for the first couple of days, when I was exploring Derry on foot, or for the last day, when I was departing Belfast — so I purchased a week-long iLink card and did not use it until the day I left Derry.

I bought my iLink card in Derry, at the Visit Derry office near the Guildhall. (The Translink site lists other places you can purchase an iLink card.) It cost me £66.00 for one week of unlimited travel throughout Northern Ireland, plus a small additional fee for the physical card itself.

Using my iLink card throughout my time in Northern Ireland could not have been easier. I used many buses and several trains, all without incident. (Well, no incidents other than a few delays — but as discussed above, I could always just hop on another bus or train!).

With my iLink card, I traveled from Derry to Ballycastle. There, I took the bus to Giant’s Causeway, hiked along the coast, and returned to Ballycastle by bus. (I also took a day trip to Rathlin Island, but my iLink card did not cover that ferry trip, unfortunately!) From Ballycastle, I traveled to Belfast, which I explored for several days.

Final Thoughts

Public transit can be intimidating to people who haven’t used it often — and figuring out a new destination’s transit system can be tricky even if you’re an experienced traveler.

But I promise: Northern Ireland’s transit system is exceptionally easy, and worth the effort. Plus, given that Northern Ireland is an English-speaking country, you’ll never struggle to find someone to help you if you do encounter hiccups.

Give it a try, and experience beautiful Northern Ireland without a car!

pin this post