One of Northern Ireland's coastal routes has been named in the top 10 summer road trip locations in the UK.
A study by Moneybarn ranked the Causeway Coastal Route on NI's north coast as one of the top stops to explore in 2022.
The research aims to inspire people to take to the road and explore some of the truly spectacular road trips that the UK has to offer.
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Moneybarn analysed the top 40 recognised scenic drives in the UK on Tripadvisor and investigated reviews and factors for these road trips - looking at their reviews on Tripadvisor, the number of searches on Google, hashtags on Instagram, the total number of sunlight hours in the sunniest month, accident data and the number of attractions available in the nearest towns or cities.
The Causeway Coastal Route ranked 9th on the list with the Jussaric Coast in the south of England topping the table.
Northern Ireland's Causeway Coastal Route had:
- 59,746 Instagram hashtags
- 46,200 TikTok views
- 11,590 annual Google searches
- 98.11% Tripadvisor reviews
Describing the Causeway Coastal Route, Discover Northern Ireland said: "The rugged, raw elemental beauty of the Causeway Coastal Route truly captures the thrill of an adventure in Northern Ireland.
"Maybe it’s the sheer breadth and beauty of its landscape. Perhaps it’s the mythical stories, shaped and inspired by the dramatic coastline.
"It's certainly in the warm and hospitable people you will meet along the way."
Moneybarn's methodology took the top 40 scenic drives recorded on Tripadvisor and ranked them according to several factors.
These factors included:
- Tripadvisor reviews, which were taken as the % of reviews that were Excellent and Very Good
- The average sunlight hours for the locations sunniest month taken from Weatherandclimate.com
- The accidents on local roads taken from gov.uk and pnsi.police.uk
- Instagram hashtags which were recorded directly from Instagram
- TikTok views were taken directly from TikTok
- The annual Google searches which were recorded as the total annual searches for these trips made in the UK over the last year from Google Keyword Planner
- The number of local attractions taken from Tripadvisor
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