Strangford sits at the mouth of Strangford Lough on its west bank, in the Lecale peninsula of County Down. The most direct approach is Bus 16 from Downpatrick, which takes 25 minutes and runs hourly Monday to Friday, but only four times on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. Downpatrick itself sees frequent buses from Belfast, so the connection from the capital takes about 90 minutes total. The more scenic route is Bus 9 or 10 from Belfast's Laganside terminal, which winds north through Newtownards and down the Ards Peninsula to Portaferry, where you take the eight-minute car ferry across the Narrows. The whole journey runs to a little over two hours, but the ferry crossing is part of the appeal. It runs every 30 minutes from 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM.

The major sight on Strangford's side of the channel is Castle Ward, the National Trust property a mile and a half from the village. The house is famously schizophrenic - one half built in eighteenth-century Classical style, the other half built in eighteenth-century Gothic - reflecting an arranged marriage where the husband and wife could not agree on architecture. The grounds run down to the lough, and the Castle Ward farmyard supplied the Winterfell exteriors used in early seasons of Game of Thrones. Closer to the harbour stands Strangford Castle, a 16th-century tower house with a defensive drop-hole at roof level above the main door. A mile northeast lies Audley's Castle, another 15th-century tower house overlooking the lough. Two miles northwest is the Audleystown Court Tomb, a Neolithic dual court cairn whose stone chambers were already ancient when the Vikings arrived.

Strangford's culinary calendar revolves around Little Wolf, the fish-and-chips takeaway on The Square that opens only on Friday evenings. The Hole in the Wall, at 12 Downpatrick Road, is the village pub - cosy, open every day from noon to 10:30 PM, the natural gathering place after a Castle Ward walk. For sleeping, the village offers self-catering at The Red Door at 22 Downpatrick Road and the Old Rectory at 5 Shore Road. Castle Ward itself has camping, caravan pitches, glamping pods, and the self-catering Potter's Cottage. If you want a slightly larger village, Portaferry across the channel has the Portaferry Hotel directly beside the ferry pier. The village shop is a Mace at the start of Downpatrick Road, open Monday through Saturday 9-7 and Sunday 10-7.

Strangford is small enough that an afternoon's hike covers most of the castles and the Neolithic tomb, and National Cycleway 99 passes through the village on its way from Newtownards down the Ards Peninsula and on to Downpatrick and Newcastle. The cycleway is all on-road but lightly trafficked outside summer weekends. From Strangford you can also head south along the coast to Ardglass, a fishing village ringed by medieval turrets, or north up the Ards Peninsula to Grey Abbey and the eighteenth-century Mount Stewart house and gardens. Downpatrick, fifteen minutes inland by bus, contains several prehistoric and early religious sites and is believed to be the burial place of St Patrick himself. As of October 2025, mobile coverage in Strangford and along the approach roads is 4G with EE, Three and Vodafone, and 5G with O2.