United Kingdom
Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, a compact, friendly city on the River Lagan where the world’s most famous ship was built and where the story of the twentieth century is written on the walls.
Harland and Wolff launched RMS Titanic here in 1911, and Titanic Belfast now stands on the very slipways, its ten galleries telling the tale from the shipyard to the seabed, with the little tender SS Nomadic moored alongside. In the centre, the domed Belfast City Hall offers free tours, St George’s Market fills a Victorian hall with food, crafts and live music from Friday to Sunday, and the free Ulster Museum sits in the Botanic Gardens. To understand the Troubles and the peace that followed, ride with a black taxi driver along the Falls and Shankill roads to the murals and peace walls, then walk the cells and the tunnel of Crumlin Road Gaol. Belfast is also the gateway to the north coast and to Westeros: the basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce Castle and the Dark Hedges are a day trip away, and the Game of Thrones Studio Tour, where the series was filmed, is a short coach ride south. This guide picks what to book, flags the November details, and matches you to a hotel, from a five-star former bank in the Cathedral Quarter to a budget base by Queen’s University.
Titanic Belfast
The landmark museum on the slipways where RMS Titanic was built, with ten interactive galleries that follow the ship from the Harland and Wolff shipyard to the seabed, plus SS Nomadic, the last surviving White Star Line vessel, moored outside and included in the ticket.
Crumlin Road Gaol
The Victorian prison on Crumlin Road that held more than 25,000 prisoners in 150 years, from suffragettes to loyalist and republican prisoners of the Troubles, with tours through the wings, the tunnel to the courthouse, the hanging cell and the prison graveyard.
Belfast City Hall
The domed civic heart of Belfast in Donegall Square, opened in 1906, with free guided tours of its marble halls and council chamber, a self-guided visitor exhibition in six themed zones, a café and grounds that hold the Titanic Memorial Garden.
Ulster Museum
Northern Ireland’s largest museum, free to enter, in the Botanic Gardens by Queen’s University, with art, history and natural science under one roof, from dinosaurs and an Egyptian mummy to treasure from the Spanish Armada and galleries on the Troubles.
The landmark museum on the slipways where RMS Titanic was built, with ten interactive galleries that follow the ship from the Harland and Wolff shipyard to the seabed, plus SS Nomadic, the last surviving White Star Line vessel, moored outside and included in the ticket.
The classic coach day out from Belfast along the Antrim coast: Carrickfergus Castle, Carnlough Harbour, Cushendun Caves, the Carrick-a-Rede viewpoint, the Giant’s Causeway with its visitor centre, Dunluce Castle and the Dark Hedges, with a guide who points out the Game of Thrones locations on the way.
The official Game of Thrones Studio Tour at Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge, where the series was filmed, with the original sets of Winterfell’s Great Hall, the Dragonstone throne room and Castle Black, hundreds of costumes and props, and a return coach from central Belfast included in this ticket.
The Victorian prison on Crumlin Road that held more than 25,000 prisoners in 150 years, from suffragettes to loyalist and republican prisoners of the Troubles, with tours through the wings, the tunnel to the courthouse, the hanging cell and the prison graveyard.
A guided ride of about an hour with a local cab driver who lived through the Troubles, along the Falls Road and the Shankill Road to the political murals and the peace walls, with stops to look, ask questions and add your name to the wall.
The royal residence in Northern Ireland, a Georgian mansion in the village of Hillsborough, a short ride south of Belfast, with State Rooms including the Throne Room, more than 100 acres of gardens, woodland and glens, and a garden ticket on Tiqets with optional castle entry.
FreeThe domed civic heart of Belfast in Donegall Square, opened in 1906, with free guided tours of its marble halls and council chamber, a self-guided visitor exhibition in six themed zones, a café and grounds that hold the Titanic Memorial Garden.
Northern Ireland’s first World Heritage Site, a headland of tens of thousands of interlocking basalt columns stepping into the sea on the north Antrim coast, free to walk on the public right of way, with a National Trust visitor experience, guided tours, trails and a shuttle bus.
FreeNorthern Ireland’s largest museum, free to enter, in the Botanic Gardens by Queen’s University, with art, history and natural science under one roof, from dinosaurs and an Egyptian mummy to treasure from the Spanish Armada and galleries on the Troubles.
FreeBelfast’s much-loved covered market, built between 1890 and 1896 opposite the Waterfront Hall, open Friday to Sunday with a variety market, a city food and craft market and a craft and antiques market, plus hot food and live music under the iron roof.
Hotels we would book ourselves, from splurges to good-value bases.
$$$$Cathedral Quarter
Belfast’s grandest five-star hotel, set in a former Victorian bank headquarters on Skipper Street in the Cathedral Quarter, with 63 bedrooms in Victorian and Art Deco styles, three restaurants, a multi-award-winning cocktail bar, a spa and a rooftop gym with a hot tub.
Rates on Expedia →
$$$Linen Quarter
A modern five-star tower hotel on Bedford Street in the Linen Quarter, a few minutes from City Hall, with The Observatory cocktail bar on the 23rd floor, the Seahorse restaurant and lounge, a spa and sweeping views across the city to the hills and Belfast Lough.
Rates on Expedia →
$$$Titanic Quarter
A luxury four-star hotel in the restored headquarters and drawing offices of Harland and Wolff, where Titanic was designed, beside Titanic Belfast in the Titanic Quarter, with 119 Art Deco nautical rooms, the Wolff Grill and the barrel-vaulted Drawing Office Two bar.
Rates on Expedia →
$$City Centre
A stylish, good-value city-centre hotel on Church Lane, named after the 1968 Steve McQueen film, with 74 rooms from compact Dinky rooms to spacious Biggy rooms, the Taylor and Clay restaurant, an espresso bar, a courtyard beer garden and the Babel rooftop bar.
Rates on Expedia →
$Queens Quarter
A dependable budget hotel on University Street in South Belfast, next door to Queen’s University and a short stroll from the Botanic Gardens and the free Ulster Museum, with simple double, twin and accessible rooms, a breakfast buffet, a bar and a 24-hour snack menu.
Rates on Expedia →The practical primer for a first visit to Belfast: what to book ahead, getting around on foot and by bus, how many days you need, and where Titanic Belfast, the black taxi tour, the Giant’s Causeway and the Game of Thrones Studio Tour fit.
How to choose your base in Belfast, from a five-star former bank in the Cathedral Quarter and a tower hotel in the Linen Quarter to the old Harland and Wolff offices in the Titanic Quarter, a lively city-centre hotel and a budget base by Queen’s University.
