Holiday in Northern Ireland - where to stay and what to see?

[ThursdayNext]

Thought we might go to Northern Ireland for a holiday this summer. Would love to see the Giant's Causeway and the coast is meant to be beautiful?
Does anyone know of any nice 2 or 3 bed holiday cottages? We're quite fussy, usually like Rural Retreats type thing, but I can't seem to find anything similar in Northern Ireland.
And what should we see?

[ThursdayNext]

Anyone? Someone must have been? Is this a really bad idea?

[Rumpel]

ballymena is really nice - it's been 11 years since I was there but it is lovely. There is/was a really beautiful restaurant with the most scrumptious food. The Giant's causeway is in N Ireland. We travelled all over South and North - Kinsale in the South is beautiful too. You'll need to wait 'til some Irish folk come on!

[ThursdayNext]

Thanks, glad you think it's worth a visit. Anyone stayed there self-catering? Not had a holiday for ages, so would really like something nice.

[fireflyfairy2]

Hi.. I'm from NI.

Not far from Ballymena, and please, there's nothing to see here Not a lot of interest at all. You're right in thinking along the Causeway coast, Portballintrae, Portrush, Portstewart & Giant's Causeway, there's the rope bridge too.

Some links for you

some cottages here


more here

Portstewart


Carrickfergus Castle

more self catering

[fireflyfairy2]

Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge Worth a visit with a picnic

[ThursdayNext]

Thanks folks, thats great.
FFF, some of those cottages look really nice. Much better than anything I'd found so far. I was drowning in a sea of chintz..

[MrsBoo]

Sorry no links, as i am useless at that type of thing - but i have friends who normally rent out cottages in the Bushmills area and Portballintrae - they are both popular areas in the North Coast.
Alternatively, if you stay around the Mourne Mountains area, plenty of cottages for hire in the mountains - and then you could do day trip to Giants Causeway (BTW like all of these wonders of the world they say something like "It's worth seeing, but not worth going to see" ) Prepare to be a bit underwhelmed.
Depending on what you're interested in, Fermanagh and the lakes is a lovely part of NI

[Lilymaid]

The National Trust has holiday cottages in Northern Ireland which should be up to their usual high standard.