About Belfast
Belfast has changed faster in the last twenty years than any city on the island. The Titanic Quarter, where Harland and Wolff built the great liners, is now a museum district worth a full afternoon. The Cathedral Quarter has the live music venues, the murals and the bars locals actually go to. Stormont, City Hall and the Botanic Gardens give you the rest of a long weekend.
It is also a city that is honest about its history. The Black Cab tours of the political murals along the Falls and the Shankill are run by people who lived through the Troubles, and they will give you a clear and non-romanticised account of what happened. It is one of the most powerful tours you can take in any city in Europe.
Belfast is two hours from Dublin by train, fast and comfortable. George Best Belfast City Airport is ten minutes from the centre by taxi.
Stories & guides
Reading from Belfast and beyond
Ulster Museum Belfast: what's actually inside the city's best free museum
Here's what most people do in Belfast: Titanic Quarter, murals tour, a feed in the Cathedral Quarter, maybe St George's on a Saturday. Here's what…
St George's Market, Belfast: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
On a Sunday morning in Belfast, the queue for coffee at St George's Market starts somewhere around the fish stalls and generally ends with you having…
Belfast's murals and the peace walls: what a Black Cab tour shows you
The murals in Belfast are not decorative. They are the city talking to itself, and to you, and they have been doing it since the 1970s. There are…
Titanic Belfast: how to make the most of a visit
Belfast built the Titanic. That's the bit that usually gets dropped from the story in favour of the iceberg and the lifeboats. The ship was designed…
Game of Thrones locations near Belfast, a fan's day
Most of Game of Thrones was filmed in Northern Ireland and most of the exterior locations are within a ninety-minute drive of Belfast. The Paint Hall…
Belfast food scene 2026, the local list
Ten years ago Belfast was an Ulster-fry-and-chips town. The food scene now is one of the most exciting on the island, with a generation of chefs who…