Belfast

Belfast sits where the River Lagan meets its sea lough, ringed by the green shoulders of Cave Hill and the Castlereagh Hills, and for a city with such a heavyweight history it feels remarkably easy to get around. Most of what visitors want is within a twenty-minute walk of the City Hall: the shipyard where the Titanic was built, a cathedral quarter of cobbled lanes and live music, and a pair of neighbourhoods, the Falls and the Shankill, where the murals painted during the Troubles still stop people in their tracks.

What marks Belfast out from Dublin or Edinburgh is the speed of its reinvention. Twenty-five years ago the docks were derelict and the city centre emptied after dark; today the old Harland & Wolff drawing offices house a boutique hotel, the slipways where the Titanic and her sister ships were launched form a public plaza, and the Cathedral Quarter's Victorian warehouses are packed with bars, galleries and independent restaurants. The city hasn't smoothed away its history to do this. Black taxi tours still take visitors along the peace walls, and the murals are maintained rather than removed, because Belfast has chosen to present its story rather than paper over it.

It also makes an efficient base for the wider province. The Causeway Coastal Route, the Giant's Causeway and the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede are all within a couple of hours by car, as are the Mourne Mountains to the south and the Ards Peninsula across Belfast Lough. For a short break that mixes a proper city, with decent restaurants and a serious pint of Guinness, against some of the best coastal scenery in the British Isles, Belfast is hard to beat.

Getting to Belfast

Belfast has no direct rail link from Great Britain, so most visitors from England, Scotland or Wales arrive by air or ferry. Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove), around 19 miles northwest of the city, and George Best Belfast City Airport, a short hop east of the centre, both handle frequent flights from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh, with journey times of well under an hour from most British airports. Stena Line runs a car ferry from Liverpool (Birkenhead) to Belfast, roughly eight hours overnight, while P&O Ferries sails Cairnryan to Larne in about two hours, useful for anyone driving up through Scotland.

From within Ireland, Belfast is well connected by rail. Translink's Enterprise service links Belfast Lanyon Place with Dublin Connolly in around two hours, with up to eight trains a day, making a day trip or onward journey from Dublin straightforward without a car. Road access is via the M1 from Dublin and the southwest, or the M2 and A2 from the Causeway Coast and Antrim. Multi-storey car parks cluster around Victoria Square and the Cathedral Quarter, and on-street parking in the centre is metered and actively enforced.

Best time to visit Belfast

Spring brings the Botanic Gardens and Ormeau Park into bloom and a calmer, cheaper city before the main summer crowds, though showers are frequent. Summer is peak season: long evenings, outdoor terraces along the Lagan towpath, and a full festival calendar including Belsonic's outdoor concerts and the TradFest traditional music gathering, but book accommodation well ahead around July's Twelfth commemorations, when parades and bonfires affect some neighbourhoods and transport. Autumn is arguably the sweet spot, with the Belfast International Arts Festival through October, mild walking weather on Cave Hill and the Mournes, and noticeably thinner crowds. Winter is short on daylight but atmospheric, with a Christmas market around the City Hall, log fires in the Cathedral Quarter's older pubs, and the lowest hotel rates of the year.