The city that built the Titanic, lived through the Troubles and now pours one of the best pints in Ireland. Five days in Belfast.
A little over a century ago, Belfast was one of the great industrial cities of the world. Its linen mills, rope works and the Harland and Wolff shipyard made it the fastest-growing city in these islands, and on its slipways the yard built the Titanic. Then came partition in 1921, the Blitz, the decline of the yards and, from the late 1960s to 1998, the Troubles, three decades of conflict that cost about 3,500 lives across Northern Ireland, more than 1,500 of them in Belfast.
The Belfast of today is a different place: friendly, funny and proud, with a lively pub and music scene, two Michelin-starred restaurants and a waterfront reborn as the Titanic Quarter. But the past is visible everywhere, in the murals and the peace walls that still divide some streets, and understanding it is part of the visit. Five days give you the city, its history told from both sides, and the most spectacular coast in Ireland.
This plan keeps each day in one part of town. Day one is City Hall and the Cathedral Quarter, day two the murals, the peace walls and the Ulster Museum, day three the Titanic Quarter, day four St George's Market and Cave Hill, and day five the Giant's Causeway and the Causeway Coast. It starts on a Wednesday, because of the days that the tours, the market and the museums open. For the bigger picture, see our page on the United Kingdom.
Every stop from the plan below, colored by day. Pick a day to see its route.
A tour of the Edwardian City Hall, the oldest library in Belfast, the leaning clock and the Big Fish, a cathedral with a steel spire, the most beautiful pub in the world and a night of trad music.
The two communities of west Belfast told by people who lived it, the walls that still divide them, the Victorian jail where both sides were imprisoned, and the Troubles gallery at the Ulster Museum.
The museum on the slipway where Titanic was built, the last White Star Line ship, the dry dock the liner sat in, a Jutland cruiser, a whiskey in the old pump house and dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
An Ulster fry, the Saturday food market in a Victorian hall, a climb to Napoleon's Nose for the view over the whole city and lough, a castle on the hill and a last night in the pubs.
A rope bridge to an island, the Iron Islands harbor from Game of Thrones, 40,000 basalt columns, a castle on a cliff edge, the oldest whiskey license and an avenue of beech trees.
Everything today is within 15 minutes' walk of City Hall. Tour tickets are sold at City Hall reception on the day, and the Linen Hall Library is open on weekdays only.
Belfast became a city in 1888 and celebrated with City Hall, opened in 1906, a huge white Portland stone palace with a copper dome, built to show that this was the richest city in Ireland. The guided tour takes you up the marble staircases and under the dome, and tells the story of the city from the linen barons to power sharing.
In the grounds, the Titanic Memorial Garden lists the names of all 1,512 people who died when the ship sank, passengers and crew alike, the only memorial in the world to do so.
Across Donegall Square, the Linen Hall Library, founded in 1788, is the oldest library in Belfast, a members' library in an old linen warehouse with creaking floors and a cafรฉ. During the Troubles its librarians collected everything: posters, leaflets, badges and newsletters from every side. That Northern Ireland Political Collection is now unique in the world. Ask about the current exhibition.
Walk past Victoria Square, a shopping center with a glass dome you can climb for a free view over the city, to the Albert Memorial Clock, a Victorian clock tower that leans because it was built on wooden piles in reclaimed marshland. Belfast says it has the time and the inclination.
On the river, by the Lagan Weir, lies the Big Fish, a ten-meter salmon covered in ceramic tiles printed with the history of the city, made by John Kindness in 1999. From here you can see across the river to the Titanic Quarter and the yellow cranes of the shipyard.
The Church of Ireland cathedral of St Anne was begun in 1899 and took most of the 20th century to finish. Inside is the tomb of Edward Carson, the leader of Ulster unionism, the only person buried in the cathedral, and the Titanic funeral pall, made in 2012. Since 2007 a 40-meter stainless steel spike, the Spire of Hope, rises from the roof and lights up at night.
Across from the Europa Hotel, once called the most bombed hotel in Europe, the Crown Liquor Saloon is a Victorian gin palace remodeled in 1885: colored tiles, carved wood, stained glass, gas lamps and ten snugs, private wooden booths with bells to call the barman. The National Trust has owned it since 1978. Try for a snug, and order a Guinness.
Walk back to the Cathedral Quarter, the cobbled lanes around St Anne's where most of Belfast's nightlife is. Commercial Court, under its umbrellas and murals, leads to the Duke of York, a pub crammed with old signs. The Dirty Onion, in a timber warehouse from around 1780, has live traditional music every night. Kelly's Cellars, which claims 1720, and White's Tavern, which claims a licence from 1630, are two of the oldest pubs in the city.
The morning is in west Belfast, the afternoon in the leafy university area south of the center. The Coiste walking tour of the Falls Road runs on Thursday mornings among other days, which is why this plan puts this day on a Thursday.
Two roads run west from the center side by side: the Falls Road, Catholic and nationalist, and the Shankill Road, Protestant and unionist. During the Troubles they were front lines, and their gable walls became canvases for murals, of hunger strikers and paramilitaries, of the Queen and of King Billy, and today increasingly of local heroes and international causes.
See them with someone who lived here. A black taxi tour (around 60-90 GBP for one or two people) takes you through both communities with a driver who'll tell you their story. Coiste's walking tours of the Falls Road are led by former republican prisoners, three hours for about 16.50 GBP, and the Belfast Political Tour hands you over at a peace wall gate from a republican guide to a loyalist one, the most balanced way to hear both versions.
Between the two roads runs the longest of Belfast's peace walls, steel and concrete barriers up to eight meters high, first put up by the British army in 1969 as a "temporary" measure. Many were built or extended after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the number has grown rather than shrunk since, and some of their gates still close at night. On Cupar Way, visitors write messages of peace on the wall. Surveys find that most people living next to them still feel they're needed for now, even as support for taking them down one day grows. These are residents' streets, so take photos with respect.
Designed by Charles Lanyon and opened in 1846, Crumlin Road Gaol held suffragettes, รamon de Valera and, during the Troubles, republican and loyalist prisoners, kept apart on separate wings, until it closed in 1996. The self-guided visit takes you through the cells, the tunnel under the road to the courthouse, and the condemned man's cell, where 17 men spent their last night before execution. In the old A-Wing, McConnell's has brought whiskey distilling back to Belfast.
Take a bus or a taxi south to the Ulster Museum, free and the best place to make sense of what you've seen this morning. Its Troubles gallery lays out the conflict carefully, from civil rights to peace. Elsewhere are gold from the Spanish Armada ship Girona, wrecked off the Antrim coast in 1588, an Egyptian mummy called Takabuti, and good Irish art.
It's in the Botanic Gardens, whose curved iron-and-glass Palm House was built between 1839 and 1852, one of the earliest of its kind, next to the red-brick Lanyon Building of Queen's University.
For dinner, stay south. The Lisburn Road and the Ormeau Road are where Belfast actually eats and drinks, away from the center. The Errigle Inn on the Ormeau Road is a big, old local pub with music in the back bar, and the restaurants along the road are good value.
The Titanic Quarter is a 20-minute walk from City Hall across the Lagan, or a few minutes on the Glider. HMS Caroline is open only from Friday to Sunday, which is why this day falls on a Friday. Book Titanic Belfast online for an early slot.
Titanic Belfast, opened in 2012, stands at the head of the slipways where the Titanic and her sister the Olympic were built. The building is as tall as the ship's hull and clad in silver shards. Nine galleries tell the whole story: boom-town Belfast, a ride through the shipyard, the launch on 31 May 1911, the luxury, the sinking on 15 April 1912 and the inquiries, and the discovery of the wreck.
One myth to drop: the builders never advertised her as "unsinkable". A trade journal called her "practically unsinkable" in 1911, and the word stuck after the disaster. Belfast's own line is better: "She was all right when she left here."
Outside, walk down the slipways, marked out on the ground at full size. The ticket includes the SS Nomadic, the little tender that ferried first-class passengers out to the Titanic at Cherbourg, the last White Star Line ship left in the world.
A short walk along the quay, HMS Caroline is a light cruiser launched in 1914 and the last surviving ship from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the biggest naval battle of the First World War. Guided tours take you through the engine rooms, the captain's cabin and the mess decks.
Next door is the Thompson Graving Dock, the huge dry dock where the Titanic sat in 1912 for her final fitting out. You can walk down to the bottom and stand where she stood, and feel how big she was. The old pump house beside it is now Titanic Distillers, making whiskey since 2023, with tastings at the end of the dock tour.
From the dock you see the two yellow cranes of Harland and Wolff, Samson and Goliath, built in 1969 and 1974 and still the symbol of the city. The shipyard still works, now owned by the Spanish shipbuilder Navantia.
Belfast has two Michelin-starred restaurants, and Friday is a good night for one of them. OX, by the river on Oxford Street, cooks local produce simply and precisely, and the Muddlers Club, hidden in an alley of the Cathedral Quarter, named after a club of 1790s radicals said to have met nearby, is more relaxed. Book well ahead. For something cheaper, have a drink in the bar of the Titanic Hotel, in the old Harland and Wolff drawing offices where the ship was designed.
Saturday is the day for St George's Market, which has its food market only on Saturdays. In the afternoon, take a bus or taxi north to Cave Hill, about 6 km from the center.
St George's Market, built in 1890-96, is the last of Belfast's Victorian covered markets. On Saturdays it fills with food stalls: local cheese, fish, bread, Portavogie prawns, coffee and street food from all over the world, with live music in the middle. Have breakfast here: an Ulster fry, or a bap filled with bacon and egg.
Cave Hill rises 368 m over north Belfast, and its cliff, seen from the city, looks like the profile of a sleeping giant, known as Napoleon's Nose. Local legend says it inspired Jonathan Swift, who lived nearby in the 1690s, to write about Gulliver and the giants, but there's no evidence. At the top is McArt's Fort, an Iron Age earthwork, and the view takes in the whole city, the shipyard, Belfast Lough and, on a clear day, Scotland.
The path up from the castle is steep and takes about an hour to the top. Wear proper shoes.
On the slopes below, Belfast Castle is a Scottish baronial mansion built in 1870 for the Marquess of Donegall, given to the city in 1934. The gardens look over the lough, nine cats are hidden around them for luck, and there's a cafรฉ in the cellar. Belfast Zoo is nearby on the same hillside.
For the last night in the city, go back to whichever pub you liked best, or try Kelly's Cellars on Bank Street, a low whitewashed pub where the United Irishmen are said to have plotted the rebellion of 1798, with traditional music most nights. If you want fish and chips, go at lunchtime to John Long's, the oldest chippy in Belfast, open since 1914, with its booths and wire cages on the windows from the Troubles: it closes at 5:30pm on Saturdays and all day Sunday.
The Causeway Coast is the best day out from Belfast, and the easiest way to do it is a full-day coach tour, which leaves every day and stops at all of the sights below. By public transport, take the train to Coleraine or Portrush and the 172 or 402 bus along the coast, but outside summer, and above all on a Sunday, the buses are few, so from October to May a tour is the realistic choice.
Salmon fishermen first strung a rope bridge across this 20-meter gap to the rocky island of Carrick-a-Rede more than 350 years ago. The National Trust's bridge today is safe and sturdy, but it still sways 30 meters above the sea. The walk out along the cliffs is beautiful in itself.
Down a steep lane, Ballintoy is a tiny limestone harbor that played the Iron Islands in Game of Thrones, much of which was filmed in Northern Ireland. Even without the dragons, it's one of the prettiest spots on the coast.
About 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, most of them hexagonal, step down into the sea: the Giant's Causeway, formed when lava cooled and cracked about 60 million years ago, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986. Legend says the giant Finn McCool built it to cross to Scotland and fight a rival, and fled home when he saw how big the other giant was.
The visitor center has the story and a good audio guide, but the coast path is free. Walk down to the stones, then climb the Shepherd's Steps to the cliff-top path for the view back down.
The ruins of Dunluce Castle stand right on the edge of a basalt cliff, so close that a famous story says part of the kitchen fell into the sea one stormy night in 1639, though the kitchens are in fact still standing. It was the seat of the MacDonnells, Scottish lords of the Antrim coast, and it's one of the most dramatic ruins in Ireland.
The Old Bushmills Distillery claims the oldest whiskey license in the world, granted in 1608, although that license covered the whole district, and the company itself dates from 1784. Either way, it's still making whiskey, and the tour ends with a tasting.
Most tours finish at the Dark Hedges, an avenue of beeches planted around 1775 whose branches meet over the road, the Kingsroad in Game of Thrones. Storms have brought down many of the trees, and only about half of the original 150 are left. The road is closed to cars, and without a tour there's no bus.
Five days cover Belfast and the Causeway Coast. With more time, Northern Ireland's walled city, its mountains and its gardens are within two hours.
A Norman castle begun in 1177 by John de Courcy on a rock on the shore of Belfast Lough, besieged by the Scots, the Irish, the English and the French. Further up the coast, the Gobbins is a dramatic cliff path on Islandmagee, open on guided tours in season and often closed after storms.
Getting there: 18 km north-east, 25 minutes by train
One of the finest gardens in Britain and Ireland, laid out in the 1920s by Lady Londonderry, with a grand house, on the shore of Strangford Lough. Castle Ward, across the lough, was Winterfell in Game of Thrones.
Getting there: 25 km east, by car or bus
Granite mountains said to have inspired C. S. Lewis's Narnia, crossed by the 35 km Mourne Wall. Climb Slieve Donard, the highest peak in Northern Ireland at 850 m, from the seaside town of Newcastle.
Getting there: 50 km south, about 1 hour 20 minutes by bus to Newcastle
The real sets, costumes and props from the series, in the Linen Mill Studios where much of it was filmed. Timed tickets only.
Getting there: 40 km south-west in Banbridge, by coach from Belfast
The only city in Ireland with its walls complete, built in 1613-19, which you can walk all the way around. Below them in the Bogside, the murals and the Museum of Free Derry tell the story of Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972, when British soldiers shot dead 13 civil rights marchers and wounded others, one of whom died later. The city's two names reflect the two communities, and many people just say Derry.
Getting there: 115 km north-west, about 2 hours by train
The other half of the city's story: C. S. Lewis Square, with sculptures from Narnia near the street where Lewis grew up, the loyalist murals of the Newtownards Road, Van Morrison's childhood streets around Cyprus Avenue, and George Best's family home. At the end of a mile-long avenue stand the Parliament Buildings at Stormont, opened in 1932, home of the Northern Ireland Assembly, with free tours on Wednesday to Friday.
Getting there: 3-8 km east of the center, by Glider bus G1
Ireland's ecclesiastical capital, with two cathedrals, Church of Ireland and Catholic, both named after Saint Patrick, facing each other from two hills, and the ancient royal site of Navan Fort just outside.
Getting there: 65 km south-west, about 1 hour by bus
Northern Irish food is hearty and local: breads from the griddle, the best potatoes in the world (locals say), seafood from the loughs and a fry for breakfast.
Northern Ireland's breakfast: bacon, sausages, eggs, black and white pudding, tomato and mushrooms, plus the two things that make it Ulster, soda farl and potato bread, fried in the pan. It's meant to last you until dinner.
Where to try it: Cafรฉs everywhere, and stalls at St George's Market (day four).
Belfast's chippies serve the usual fish supper, and also a local oddity: the pastie supper, a battered round of minced pork, onion and potato, with chips.
Where to try it: John Long's (day four), open since 1914.
Griddle breads unique to the north of Ireland. A farl is a quarter of a round of soda bread made with buttermilk, and potato bread, also called fadge, is a thin flat bread of mashed potato and flour. Both are best fried.
Where to try it: Any bakery, and in every Ulster fry.
Mashed potato with scallions, milk and a well of melted butter in the middle. It goes with sausages, stew or just a spoon.
Where to try it: Pubs and traditional restaurants.
Yellowman is a hard, golden honeycomb toffee, and dulse is dried seaweed, salty and chewy. Both are traditional at the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle. Cafรฉ counters are full of traybakes, like fifteens, made with fifteen digestive biscuits, fifteen marshmallows and fifteen cherries.
Where to try it: Sweet shops, cafรฉs and St George's Market.
Portavogie prawns, Strangford Lough mussels and oysters, and smoked salmon. The seafood here is excellent and underrated.
Where to try it: St George's Market, and seafood restaurants in the center.
Roast beef with champ and gravy is the classic Sunday lunch in pubs, and afternoon tea is a Belfast treat in the grand hotels.
Where to try it: The Great Room of the Merchant Hotel, a former bank, for afternoon tea.
Belfast was once a great whiskey city, and distilling is back: Titanic Distillers in the Thompson pump house, McConnell's in the Crumlin Road Gaol, and Bushmills on the coast.
Where to try it: Day two and day three, and any good bar in the Cathedral Quarter.
Guinness is the default pint, and Belfast pours it well. There's a good craft scene too, led by Boundary Brewing, a cooperative that also runs the John Hewitt bar.
Where to try it: Any pub for Guinness, the John Hewitt for local craft beer.
Like everywhere in the UK, Belfast loves a curry, and chicken tikka masala, which Glasgow claims to have invented, is on every Indian menu.
Where to try it: Indian restaurants on the Ormeau and Lisburn roads.
Northern Ireland's own cheese and onion crisps, made since 1956 in a castle in Tandragee, County Armagh, are a point of national pride. Have a packet with your pint.
Where to try it: Every pub and corner shop.
Belfast is compact, and the center, the Cathedral Quarter and the Queen's Quarter are all within walking distance of each other and the main sights.
Best for: First-timers and transport
Around City Hall and Grand Central station, close to everything, with the most hotels. Quiet at night outside the pub streets.
Best for: Nightlife on the doorstep
The cobbled lanes around St Anne's, with the best pubs and restaurants. The catch is noise until late on weekends.
Best for: A local feel and the museum
The leafy streets around Queen's University and the Botanic Gardens, with guesthouses, cafรฉs and the Ulster Museum. It's 15 minutes' walk from City Hall.
Best for: Modern hotels and the waterfront
New hotels by the river, including the Titanic Hotel in the old shipyard offices. It's a bit far from the pubs in the evening, but close to the main museum.
The practical stuff that makes the first day in Belfast easier.
Northern Ireland uses the pound sterling (GBP), not the euro, though some places near the border take euros at poor rates. Northern Irish banks print their own notes, which are legal tender but sometimes refused in Great Britain, so spend them here. Cards work almost everywhere.
People are generally happy to talk about the Troubles if you're curious and respectful, but let them lead. Avoid football shirts, flags and political symbols, and don't assume someone's background from where they live. Most people want the city to be known for more than the conflict.
Large shops can only open from 1pm to 6pm on Sundays. Around 11 and 12 July, bonfires and Orange Order parades mark the Twelfth, a public holiday, and many shops and some attractions close.
Walk in the center. Metro buses and the Glider take contactless cards, with a daily cap. For the Causeway Coast, the Mournes and the Game of Thrones sites, a day tour is much easier than public transport.
Order at the bar and don't tip for drinks. In restaurants, 10% is normal if service isn't included. Smoking is banned indoors.
The UK uses three-pin type G plugs, 230 V. Most visitors from the EU, the US and many other countries need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before travelling. There are no passport checks at the land border with the Republic of Ireland, but carry your documents.
It rains a lot, but rarely all day. Bring a waterproof, and dress warmly for the Causeway Coast, which can be wild and windy even in summer.
No. The city needs three or four days for the Titanic Quarter, the murals and the museums at an easy pace, and the Causeway Coast is a full day. With three days, do days one to three and add a Causeway tour.
Titanic Belfast and the Thompson Dock, City Hall, the murals and peace walls of the Falls and Shankill, Crumlin Road Gaol, the Ulster Museum, St George's Market, the Crown Liquor Saloon, Cave Hill and, outside the city, the Giant's Causeway. This plan covers all of them.
Yes. The Troubles ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and Belfast is now one of the safer cities in the UK. Take normal city precautions at night, and be aware of tensions around the July parades.
The easiest way is a full-day coach tour, which also stops at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, Dunluce Castle, Bushmills and the Dark Hedges. By public transport, take the train to Coleraine or Portrush and then the coastal bus, which runs less often outside summer.
Both, in a way. Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, on the island of Ireland. It uses the pound, and its people may identify as British, Irish, Northern Irish or several of these at once.
Most visitors from the EU, the US, Canada and Australia don't need a visa for short trips, but they do need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). If you're also visiting the Republic of Ireland, check its rules separately.
Mostly no. Prices are in pounds sterling, and only some shops and tourist places accept euros, at poor rates. Pay by card or change money before you arrive.
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