What Makes Belfast A Great City Break?

Being a middle-aged man living in England, I really should have visited Belfast before.  Well, I finally put that right recently, and so glad I did. So what makes Belfast a great city break?

I took a week-long solo Autumn break, flying from Southampton to Belfast for around £30 and set up base at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Belfast for around £80 a night, breakfast included.

If, like me, you’re visiting Belfast for the first time, I recommend taking a city bus tour. Two companies operate the tour for around £20 for a two-day ticket. Tickets are widely available online; just make sure your ticket covers both companies. I bought mine online via the GetYourGuide app.

The tours start in the centre next to City Hall and take a meandering route around the city; you can get on and off at any of the stops. Buses run roughly every 20 minutes, and a full circuit takes about an hour. A recorded commentary offers information on the various sites and locations as you pass, including a brief history. The double-decker buses are partly covered, so they’re ideal to ride in all weather.

Route highlights include the Titanic Belfast museum, Crumlin Road Gaol, Queen’s University, the Peace Wall and City Hall.

Belfast City Hall serves as the civic centre headquarters for Belfast City Centre, functioning as the city’s primary administrative and political centre. The building is a premier example of Edwardian Baroque architecture. It houses exhibitions, and guided tours are available. You can get married there too. I saw one happy couple on a particularly rainy afternoon!

I found the Peace Wall area in West Belfast particularly interesting. It serves as a monument to ‘the Troubles’ that blighted the country for three decades and a reminder that tensions remain within the opposing communities.

As you drive along the Falls Road, you will see Irish tricolour flags and the faces of the Catholic hunger strikers and others from the community who died while pursuing their cause. The walls also highlight more recent struggles, such as the plight of Palestine and support for it.

As you pass through the gates and move into the Protestant Shankill Road area, the murals change. Pictures of the British royal family and Union flags are everywhere. Union Flag bunting criss-crosses the Shankill Road as if they are preparing for an upcoming Royal Jubilee.

The gates dividing the communities are still closed every night, while other gates dividing them can be closed by remote control if there are any flare-ups. The walls between the communities are very high in places. They started with reinforced concrete, but they were not high enough. Therefore, a fence was built on top. However, this too proved not to be high enough. So fences were built on the existing fences, but even that has not beaten the stone throwers. Political murals can be seen all over the city, often depicting moments in the history of the Troubles, often tragic events with people lost.

The top-rated visitor attraction is probably the Titanic Belfast museum, and it’s not hard to understand why. The Titanic was built in Belfast, and the museum represents an interactive experience of its history. From the building of the ship, its tragic sinking in the Atlantic during its maiden voyage in 1912 and the subsequent rescue of the surviving passengers. Robert Ballard’s discovery of the location of the wreck in 1985 is also featured.

The experience presents the story in a highly sensory way, which enhances the tragedy and poignancy of the event. There is much information on those who were lost, including whole families. It’s still hard to believe it happened and that so many were lost. Bad planning, lack of care and bad luck all played their part in the tragic outcome.

The ticket also includes boarding and exploring the SS Nomadic. The ship was known as the Titanic’s ‘little sister’ as it was built in Belfast at the same time as the Titanic and was used for boarding its ‘big sister’ at Cherbourg.

A ticket to the experience will cost around £25, and you will be allocated a time slot. I booked online as I arrived. It does get busy, so I would suggest going later in the day.

If you’re in Belfast over a weekend, try visiting St Georges Market. It is situated indoors on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. I visited on a Friday, and it really was a sensory overload. Loads of fresh food stalls, Artisan breads, fish, vegetables, etc. Plenty of arts and crafts stalls. There really was something for everyone, and when you’ve had enough of looking around, you could sit down with a beer and enjoy the live music.

I loved the Botanic Gardens. Take a relaxed stroll before entering the ornate cast-iron Palm House with its array of exotic plants. The glasshouse is separated into three sections. The domed central zone has sub-tropical plants from floor to ceiling. The East Wing houses tropical plants, while the West Wing is the cool wing with plants such as orchids.

A short walk away is the Tropical Ravine, a restored Victorian glasshouse and multi-level living conservatory. It features lush fauna, waterfalls and grottos. Features include 200-year-old cycads, a Japanese fibre banana tree (dating from 1904), and 150-year-old tree ferns. Some of the flowers were stunning.

Walking out the back door will lead you to the Ulster Museum. The museum covers five floors and provides a fascinating insight into this country’s past and present. It originally opened some 200 years ago under a previous name.  It includes fine and applied art, archaeology, ethnology, botany, zoology and geology. I particularly liked the life-size bear which once roamed these parts. A great place to visit for a couple of hours on a rainy day.

If you’ve come to Belfast for the ‘craic’, you won’t be disappointed; there are numerous bars with music and dancing. Belfast has a young population, with many students adding to the numbers. This gives the city a lively vibe that blends well with the local culture. Be sure to check out The Crown Bar, Belfast’s oldest bar with its cosy snugs and ornate stained-glass windows and the quirky Bittles Bar, the city’s narrowest bar.

Belfast has a complicated and troubled past which still hasn’t truly gone away. However, the feel of the city is generally positive and friendly; it’s really the people that make this place so unique, and it’s this aspect that will stay with me and why I hope to return soon to make more discoveries.