Day 1
We depart from London Gatwick airport on our flight to Belfast (flights from other regional airports may also be available at a supplement - please contact us for details). Upon arrival we will join our coach and transfer to our first visit, the award winning Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. We will begin at the Titanic People's Story in the open-air Folk Park, where guides in period costumes will bring to life the intriguing story of the building, launch and ill-fated maiden voyage of this iconic ship. Later, we will visit the adjoining Transport Museum, one of the finest in Europe, which will feature a special Titanic Exhibition alongside its permanent transport collection, which features every form of transport from horse-drawn carts to Irish-built motor cars, tractors, steam locomotives and aircraft.

Later we will continue to our accommodation at the comfortable Dunadry Hotel, County Antrim. The hotel has an indoor swimming pool, spa pool, steam room, gymnasium and beauty salon. Dinner will be served in the hotel's restaurant in the evening.

Day 2
Enjoy your full breakfast. This morning we begin with on a panoramic tour of Belfast, a city whose fine civic architecture, reminiscent of Glasgow or Liverpool, is often overlooked. We will then have a guided walking tour of the new Titanic Quarter development, built on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyards. The tour includes access to the former HQ of Harland & Wolff; the drawing offices where Titanic and her sister ships were designed by Thomas Andrews; the dock where Titanic was built and the slipways where she was launched in 1912. (The tour is a gentle stroll on level ground, covering about a mile.)

We will then visit the Titanic Signature Project, a state-of-the-art, six storey living monument to Belfast's moving maritime legacy, built at the head of the slipways from which Titanic was launched. The stories of the two great sister ships built and launched here, RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, are told in a series of displays, including a 'Titanic Experience' exhibition and an 'immersive theatre', which simulates diving underwater to explore the wreck. Learn about the men who built the ship that was hailed as the 'new wonder of the world' and gain an insight into their daily lives during the construction.

Dinner is served in the evening back at the hotel.

Day 3
Enjoy your full breakfast. This morning we travel north of Belfast and drive along the wild and scenic Antrim coast, stopping in the village of Cushenden, with its distinctive, picturesque Cornish-style village square and cottages designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis of Portmeirion fame. Following this we continue to the Giant's Causeway. The 37,000 hexagonal basaltic columns were created by ancient volcanic eruptions some 60 million years ago, along the same chain of seismic activity that created Fingal's Cave on Staffa, a hundred miles or so to the north. Of course, there is also a more romantic explanation - that it was built by the giant Finn McCool, as the consequence of a gargantuan spat with a Scottish adversary, although another version of the legend has it that he was merely trying to reach his girlfriend. Either way it is an impressive sight.

In the afternoon we visit the nearby Bushmills Distillery, which gives us the opportunity to see how Irish Whiskey is made at Ireland's oldest working distillery in County Antrim. The production creates a unique combination of smoothness and richness. Bushmills celebrated the 400th anniversary of the original licence to distill whiskey granted to the area in 1608. Watch whiskey making take place and enjoy a wee taster too as we unlock the secrets of 400 years of distilling at the home of Irish whiskey.

We return to our hotel where once again dinner is served in the evening.

Day 4
Following breakfast we will check out of the hotel and depart for Mount Stewart, the dazzling and idiosyncratic gardens which bask in the micro-climate of low rainfall and humid coastal air that exists here. The Italian Garden south of the house is in the form of a giant parterre, edged in startling golden thuja or smouldering purple berberis and filled with plantings of carmine, yellow and scarlet on one side, with cooler blue, lavender and grey on the other. Elsewhere, there is a Spanish garden with huge eucalyptuses looming in the woods behind, and an exuberant and formal sunken garden surrounded by a fine pergola planted with clematis, honeysuckle and roses. The entrance fa?ade of the house overlooks an entirely different landscape, a scene of serenity with noble trees leading gently uphill to a lake. East of the lake are blood-red and orange rhododendrons and the banks of the lake are planted with long drifts of arum lily. This is one of the most attractive and stimulating gardens, where traditional features are carried off with exuberance and panache, and we have allowed plenty of time here to take everything in.

In the afternoon we will return to Belfast airport in time to check in for our return flight.

3-star Dunadry Hotel, Dunadry, Co Antrim