Tourists often don’t know the best way to get between two cities. Perhaps hiring a car is best, stopping off along the way at your own leisure. Maybe it’s the bus, or train or even flying.

People travelling between Dublin and Belfast have the option of a bus, driving a car or taking the train. Hands down the best way to get between the two cities is by train.

Enterprise Train Service

The best thing about taking the train is the views. The service between Belfast and Dublin runs along the coast, so you get rural Irish scenes on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. There are eight trains daily apart from Sunday where there are five.


Journeys take around 2 hours and 15 minutes and train tickets are €17.99 each way for standard class and €39.99 each way for first class. By comparison, buses depart hourly, take exactly the same amount of time and are marginally cheaper at €10.00 each way.

Is First Class The Best?

Seating is two seats on one side and singles on the other as you can see at the top of this post. In standard class, it’s two on each side, so it’s not all that different. First class is generally less busy and more private.


Complimentary welcome drinks are provided and you can purchase meals which are delivered to your seat. Trains before 12:00 feature a breakfast menu and after that there is an all day food menu. A full review of First Class on the Enterprise train is here.

Overall Thoughts

Since the road between the two cities is inland, taking a bus or driving is not nearly as great. Also, train travel is better due to the fact you can buy food on board, plus there are spacious toilets and big picture windows. It is worth the slight price premium.

Have you travelled between Dublin and Belfast before? Do you prefer train travel when not flying? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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