Portrush—Don’t Stay Here! But Eating Here is Okay.

This old Victorian strucuture was a coverted coffeeshop
and really the only nice building in Portrush.

So County Antrim is pretty empty and wild.  Hotel choices are few and hotels that actually have Web sites are even fewer.  So I do understand why Kevin chose Portrush.  It’s one of the larger villages and the hotel we stayed in is recommended in the books by Rick Steves (a Rick Steves’ tour was actually there during our stay).  But based on my experience: Portrush is a seedy dump.  And that’s putting it nicely.  Trailerparks ring the city and there is an empty, decaying feel to the central section. There are a few Old Victorian buildings that still give the place a regal, vintage feel, but most of Portrush is rundown and filled with arcades and fish-and-chip shops.  We also had the misfortune of being in Portrush during some sort of annual air show.  I think all of Northern Ireland attended and traffic was a pure nightmare.  We seemed to be the only people not there for the air show.  I did learn an important travel lesson: if you are going to a rural location that cannot manage traffic, best to find out if there are any holidays/festivals/events happening.  Because we could not find parking in Portrush, we spent the late afternoon at a hotel on the highway outside of town and watched a wedding reception gather.  We also enjoyed a nice walk on the beach as the rainy morning turned into a sunny afternoon. 

Samples of the vast array of door signs.
Our favorite: "Hard of Hearing."

The hotel, itself, was tired and I found the staff unfriendly, which is pretty amazing as most of the Irish we encountered were among the friendliest people on the planet.  They had a parking garage, for instance, but wouldn’t let us use it to park during the air show.  Their attitude was: well, it was a well-publicized event so we (as foreigners not two days in the county) should have been well aware of it!

I would urge travelers to try to stay in the very tiny village right next to Portrush, Portballintrae.  They have at least one hotel, the Bayview Hotel, which has favorable reviews on Trip Advisor.

Being an easy 10-minute drive from Portrush, you can take advantage of more restaurant options.  We had a solid Italian Meal at Don Giovanni’s in Portrush and one of the better meals of the entire trip, an elegant dinner at 55 Degrees North . 

The tiny village of Portballintrae (standing on the outskirts) would have been a better place to stay in our view.

Giant's Causeway

Besides taking in the rural and rugged coast of Northern Ireland, The DINKs wanted to check out the UNESCO World Heritage site known as The Giant’s Causeway.  Folk legend Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhail) allegedly built the causeway to walk to Scotland and battle his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.   One version of the legend tells that Finn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Finn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. When Benandonner saw the size of the “infant,” he assumed the alleged father, Finn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Finn.  This legend corresponds with geologic fact: a portion of the same geologic wonder (aka “causeway) is visible in Staffa, Scotland. 

Giant’s Causeway is actually 40,000 basalt columns (some 12 meters high) created during ancient volcanic eruptions 50-60 million years ago.  I’m not going to go into too much detail, here.  I’ll let the pictures speak for our impressions, but hiking on and around Giant’s Causeway should be on everyone’s “bucket list.”