A Weekend in Belfast
Stepping into an old city with lots of charm, dangerous (recent) history, and full of charming villages, Northern Ireland is full of adventures, yet embraces a slower pace of life. If one can understand their accent, you’re in for some of the kindness people in the UK. Since this trip would make it our third attempt at seeing Northern Ireland, we were ready to embrace it!
Logistics:
Because some of the best parts of Northern Ireland lie in the countryside, navigating it can be quite tricky! Here is how we spent four days in Northern Ireland.
By Car
While Belfast doesn’t need a car, the surrounding countryside contains some of the best parts of the country! While there are some good bus routes, I do not think you can see it without a car. Because we would be spending a day or two in Belfast, we only rented a car for the next two days that we would need it rather than pay for parking and extra days. Picking up for Belfast City Airport, it was super easy to access from our Hampton hotel and we even walked to it from the Titanic Museum!
Travel Tip: I utilize Skyscanner.net to find the best rental car deals!
Lodging
Because we were splitting our time between Belfast and the countryside, we researched two different spots. In Belfast, I went with one of the cheaper options that earned points, yet would allow us to be familiar with a hotel.
We chose the Hampton by Hilton Belfast City Center. While we have been in a lot of Hamptons, this one was one of the better ones! With clean rooms, clean common areas, and even an open gym, we enjoyed our very comfortable room here for two nights.
Situated on the north Atlantic coast, Portrush is a terrific little town that is also home to the British Open. For us, it would become our second home as we stayed at the Avarest B&B! With quirky, quaint rooms, we enjoyed how close it was to city center without being too close and offering free breakfast and parking. While I did get trapped in the bathroom for 30 minutes due to a faulty door handle, we enjoyed our stay.
Travel Tip: For non-brand hotels, I use Hotels.com for their loyalty program, but look to book directly in case it is cheaper. Other sites such as booking.com and expedia offer similar programs!
Food & Drink
Yum! From classic English breakfasts to tasty burgers, we definitely enjoyed our food and drinks whilst in Northern Ireland. Our top favorites were Kiwi Brew Bar in Portrush for their huge tasty burgers to the Yardbird in Belfast which is a cool outdoor beer garden with a pub in the middle! However, there are also wonderful tea rooms in Glenarm and we even did an afternoon tea whilst in Belfast!
Check out our Northern Ireland Google map pins for all of our hard research of the top food and drink spots!
Activities
In Northern Ireland, there are plenty of activities for all sorts of people!
Here are a few that we did or wish we did:
- Coastal Causeway: Voted as one of the best road trips in the world, the coast causeway is a windy, narrow two lane road which hugs the Irish Sea. On a cloudy day, it is still spectacular, at least for the passenger! Read about our trip here!
- Paddy's Black Cab Tour: By far one of the highlights of our trip, drive into Belfast’s recent history and the troubles that still plague this city
- Titanic Museum: Built to remember the infamous unsinkable ship, the museum dives into the deep history of Belfast and goes into that fateful night.
- Game of Thrones Tour(s): As the base for one of the most iconic TV shows of all time, there are so many Game of Throne location tours. From half days to full days, there are all sorts of options! I went on one via McCombs Tours a few years ago and loved it!
- Crumlin Road Gaol: While we ran out of time to visit, this former jail use to house and became infamous in the Troubles.
The Unsinkable Ship
Built in Belfast in the early 1900s, the Titanic was the first of the new giant Olympic class luxury lines built to ferry both the rich and powerful and the common folk who want to restart in the USA. Then, on a fateful night in 1912, it was all over really before it began! Stunned by the news in Belfast, the people, more importantly the workers, were dismayed that it sank, yet they are still proud of this history over 100 years later.
Discovered on the deep ocean floors in 1986, the Titanic has come back into the public’s imagination. While we were there, I wondered why this particular ship still captures our minds when there are countless wrecks in the Atlantic, but it comes down to this - an iceberg sank it. After the ship was rediscovered, Belfast built this beautiful museum / memorial to the ship. Over 6+ stories high complete with a “Peter Pan” ride, the museum crammed everything in there.
Travel Tip: Even in COVID times, the museum is still very busy. While we arrived at 10:10am, we JUST barely beat the crowds. Aim early to avoid the crowds!
Exhibits and More!
While I do not want to ruin this great museum, the exhibits begin with the lesser known side of Belfast history in the early 1800s when the city became well known for textile and linen trade. The city boomed just as technology advanced and Belfast was well positioned for success for its port. Next came the important shipping trade as Belfast was one of the only cities with a deep enough port to accommodate the newer giant steel ships. At any one time, there were at least 10,000 people working on the ships and the noise could be heard throughout the city. Talk about “street noise!”
By far, my favorite exhibit was the theme park ride to show and describe how the Titanic was built. Similar to Peter Pan in Disney World, we jumped on and explore the inner workings of the giant ship. We enjoyed it!
As everyone knows, once the Titanic was built, it was the largest luxury liner in the world. Demonstrating how much pride the city had in the ship, over 100,000 people showed up to the unveiling. It received much fanfare for the release and I am surprised that 100,000 people could fit in the port!
The Ship Bay
Outside the museum, the original ship bay is still there and the museum has marked it with the exterior outline of the ship in the ground. The outline was really long and it almost surprised us in a weird way. While we knew it was big, walking the outline made it more real. The plot of land next to it had alternating patterns of grass and wood to show the percentage of saved (wood) versus died (grass). Beginning with crew, we noticed there were a lot of more deaths in the lower classes than first class… It is just sad!
Belfast City Center
Compared to our original pre-COVID trip, we had plenty of time to explore Belfast! Because our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the center, it was an easy walk especially on a sunny day. There are two main parts to the city center - your normal high street and then the cathedral area where all the fun pubs and bars are located. Since I hadn’t planned any activities, we just went shopping!
In the famous cathedral quarter, we found a great old pub called Dirty Onion / Yardbird. On many top lists, it has a great beer garden and tasty food! We figured this made up for my Nando’s purchase earlier in the trip...
Northern Irish Afternoon Tea
On the car ride back to Belfast, we decided to go to one last afternoon tea in the UK. We just really wanted a really nice scone and clotted cream with tasty jam! Although we could have had a really fancy afternoon tea, we went with a hip, new option in a high end cocktail bar, called AMPM. When we arrived, it seemed they were just as surprised to see us!
Thankfully, we were started to get served and the tall stack of afternoon tea goodies were presented! We had different take on the sandwiches, with egg cream and special AMPM special. Both were tasty - especially since we were hungry! On the more fun tea desserts, they were decent. We had an excellent lemon tart, chocolate brownies, lemon maringue, and summer fruit panna cotta. For tea, we managed to get three cups out of a teapot.
However, the supposed start of the show, the scone, was a complete dud! While the server said it was fresh, it felt frozen and it was hard as a rock, plus there was sadly no clotted cream. In the end, our food was decent, we had a delicious desserts and tea!
Black Cab Tour
On our last morning in Belfast, we squeezed the famous Black Cab Tour. Lasting only an hour and a half, the Black Cab tour is perfect for a rainy day activity or to fill a morning or afternoon. In our pre-COVID plan, it would be our first stop after landing because it is a terrific introduction to Northern Ireland history. For our tour, we had a great guy named Ciaran, who told us right away we should recognize that his name was Catholic.
While I am not going to “spoil” the tour or repeat the terrible history, the tour presents a fascinating side that we had not really heard in schools. In our head, the troubles were 20+ years ago and did not still exist today. Instead, we saw giant peace walls made of concrete and steel separating the Protestant/loyalists and the Catholics/nationalists. Even worse, some of the memorials on both sides were updated as late as last year so the hate still continues.
Loyalists
Because we were there in early August, there were still decorations hanging from the 12th of July celebrations. Known for the day that the English king beat James 1 in Ireland, it is widely celebrated by the loyalists and let’s just say they like reminding everyone! There are MASSIVE bonfires reaching 100+ feet in the air and made with plywood. I thought Americans were crazy!!
Nationalists
Meanwhile, on the nationalist side, it seemed more somber. With cages protecting backyards, it was a strange difference to the British flag draped loyalist side. While there are certainly efforts to make it more safe, it is a stark reminder of what could happen. In the place we stopped, it was a nice civilian memorial to those who had nothing to do with the conflict. They were innocent people, who were in the wrong place and the wrong time and it happened on both sides. Very moving!
Our last stop on the tour was the Shankill Road. Located next to a peace wall, the exterior has been transformed into many graffiti memorials for world-wide causes. Compared to the earlier sadness, this is a good way to end the trip on the hope in the world!
The UnChartered Summary
Offering a small town vibe in a big city, Belfast offers plenty of great food and activities for an excellent weekend or long trip.
- The Black Cab tour is a must-do, not only for the history, but understanding the conflict and current situation.
- In my mind, the Titanic museum is a once in a lifetime event… While it was entertaining, it was also pretty dry.
- There are plenty of awesome pubs, bars, and restaurants in the cathedral quarter. We stumbled upon Dirty bird because it looked awesome, and recommend a stroll and go with whatever strikes your fancy!