The Belfast Edit
The city that built the ship, and the coast that outranks the Cliffs of Moher. Eight chapters, each of them walked, driven or eaten before it was published.
The Quick Answer
Belfast deserves two nights, not a day trip from Dublin. The Titanic Quarter takes half a day, a black cab tour of the murals takes two hours, and dinner on the Ormeau Road shows you a city eating very well. It is also the smart base for the Causeway Coast: the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede and the Dark Hedges all sit within 90 minutes. The Enterprise train from Dublin takes two hours.
Related:the Causeway Coast Editthe Dublin Editthe Northern Ireland Edit
A Note From The Editors
For our first two years living here we did what every American guidebook does with Belfast, which is give it a half day on the way to somewhere else. Then we spent a week and understood that we had been treating the most interesting city on the island as a rest stop.
Belfast is a working city that spent thirty years being described in headlines and has spent the last twenty rebuilding itself in public. That combination produces something unusual: a place that is genuinely candid about its own history. A black taxi driver will take you along the Falls and the Shankill, tell you which side of it he grew up on, and then tell you the other side of it too. Nowhere else in Ireland offers that.
It is also, practically speaking, the best value luxury in the country. A five star room in Belfast costs what a good four star costs in Dublin, the restaurants are punching well above their reputation, and an hour north the Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Coast Road do everything the Wild Atlantic Way does with a fraction of the traffic.
Start Here
Sleep, understand, drive, bring, time. Answer them in this order and Belfast stops being a stop on the way north and starts being the reason you went.
Weekly Refresh · Wk 38Belfast is twenty minutes across on foot, so nowhere is far. What changes is what happens when you walk out the door at seven. The Cathedral Quarter puts you in it. Holywood, ten minutes out, gives you twelve acres and a view of it.
The shortlist
Some of what happened here is not written on the buildings. A ninety minute black taxi tour along the Falls and the Shankill is the single most valuable thing an American visitor can do in Belfast, and it should be on the first afternoon, not the last.
The Giant's Causeway takes forty minutes. The Antrim Coast Road takes three hours and is the actual trip. Go up the coast, come back on the M2, and take the stones after four when the coaches have gone.
Unusually well, and nobody plans it that way. Titanic Belfast and the W5 science centre are four minutes apart in the same quarter, the Ulster Museum is free, and the Causeway is the best climbing frame in Europe.
June, for daylight until nearly ten and the Causeway workable after dinner. September for value. Know about the Twelfth of July before you book it rather than after.
And by place
The Collections
Each collection stands alone. Read them in order if you are planning from scratch, or go straight to the one you need.
“A city explaining itself through one object.”
Collection · The Ship
Which hour to book, how long it really takes, the SS Nomadic that half of visitors skip, and the free slipway out the back that finishes the story.
“The stones take forty minutes. The road is the trip.”
Collection · The Coast
Drive or tour, the Antrim Coast Road versus the motorway, Carrick-a-Rede, Dunluce, Bushmills, and the late afternoon hour that changes the whole day.
“Here a tour is not a shortcut. It is the point.”
Collection · The Guides
The black taxi political tour first. Then the Titanic Quarter walk, Bushmills, Crumlin Road Gaol and the food walks. Honest notes on each, including what to skip.
“Two world class attractions, one short walk.”
Collection · The Family
Titanic Belfast and W5 four minutes apart, the free Ulster Museum, the rope bridge, and the hotels with the space that solves the six o'clock problem.
“Belfast prices well below Dublin for the same quality.”
Collection · The Bed
The Merchant, the Culloden, Grand Central, the Titanic Hotel and the Fitzwilliam, plus the two coast hotels that turn a Causeway day trip into a Causeway trip.
“A Michelin conversation, fifteen years in.”
Collection · The Table
OX, the Muddlers Club, Deanes EIPIC and the Great Room. The Crown, the Duke of York and Kelly's Cellars. St George's Market and the Belfast bap.
The Belfast Week
Reported from Belfast
The Merchant, the Culloden, the Titanic Hotel and Grand Central are effectively the top tier, and on the coast it is the Bushmills Inn and Ballygally. For June to August, book by February.
Where to stayIn June there is usable light until nearly ten at 54 degrees north. Take the stones at six, eat at Bushmills at eight, and drive back down the Coast Road the next morning with the sun on the other side.
The Causeway dayWe resisted recommending it for two years because touring a conflict felt wrong. Then we took it twice with two different drivers. It is now the first thing we tell any American visitor to book, ahead of the museum.
The toursIndex
The fixed route and the practical chapters. Two of them do most of the work. The rest are listed as they should be: names, one line, nothing more.
Experiences in Belfast
Curated by us, booked through Viator. Small groups, sensible departures, and the local knowledge that turns a checklist day into a memorable one.
Belfast black taxi political tour
90 minutes, private car
The Falls, the Shankill and the peace walls with a driver who lived it. Book this first.
Book on ViatorBushmills distillery tour and tasting
1 hour plus tasting
The world's oldest licensed distillery, still working, an hour from the city.
Book on ViatorBelfast food and whiskey walk
3 hours, small group
St George's Market, the Cathedral Quarter and the bars worth returning to alone.
Book on ViatorWhere to stay near Belfast
Real bases for visiting Belfast, vetted by us and bookable through Hotels.com. We earn a small commission if you book through these links, at no cost to you.
The Merchant Hotel
Cathedral Quarter
A Victorian bank turned into the most theatrical room in the city. Ask for the Art Deco wing if you want quiet, the Victorian wing if you want the ceiling.
Check availabilityRead our reviewCulloden Estate & Spa
Holywood, ten minutes out
A Gothic mansion above Belfast Lough with twelve acres and a proper spa. This is where we put family who want the city near, not around them.
Check availabilityRead our reviewGrand Central Belfast
City centre
The tallest hotel in Ireland, and the Observatory bar on the 23rd floor is the only place you see the whole city and the Lough at once.
Check availabilityTitanic Hotel Belfast
Titanic Quarter
The old Harland and Wolff drawing offices, where the ship was actually designed. Stay here if the Titanic story is why you came.
Check availabilityRead our reviewCommon questions
The Ireland Edit
A Belfast publication for travellers who would rather understand a city than photograph it, and who suspect that the best hour on this island happens at six in the evening on a basalt shelf in Antrim.
How we choose: every room is booked, every road is driven, every tour is taken and paid for. Nothing here is paid placement. If we would not send our own visiting family, it is not on the page.
This page belongs to The Ireland Edit.
We answer every note personally, usually within a day.
