Official Belfast Tourist Information Trips to Belfast UK

From there, spend some time exploring the free museum before strolling through the gardens. When the weather’s on your side (invariably difficult to predict, irrespective of the time of year you visit Belfast) take a hike up Cave Hill, which rises a humble 368m above the low-lying city. As the late Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney once opined, “The end of art is peace” – a sentiment the Belfast black taxi tour echoes. On long summer evenings, retreat to the beer gardens at The Thirsty Goat or The Dirty Onion (patio heaters and awnings included).

What famous ship was built in Belfast?

• Museums and tours nourish history buffs, while enthusiastic hikers can find nature on the city’s doorstep.
• When the weather’s on your side (invariably difficult to predict, irrespective of the time of year you visit Belfast) take a hike up Cave Hill, which rises a humble 368m above the low-lying city.
• These sectors are now overshadowed by service activities, food processing, and machinery manufacture.
• At the same time, new immigrants are adding to the growing number of residents unwilling to identify with either of the two communal traditions.
• Visit the Titanic Memorial Garden, and tour one of the city’s most iconic landmarks – all for free.

From arrests to ambushes, this walking tour reveals the locations where the hit TV series was filmed. Glide around Belfast on a Belfast city bike tour for an exciting and eco-friendly way to see the city’s sights – don’t forget to stop off for some ice-cream at the docks. Spot the Belfast street art that brings the city’s art scene to life, on a creative walk around the city.

Belfast Metropolitan College ("Belfast Met") is a further education college with three main campuses around the city, including several smaller buildings. The Linen Quarter’, an area south of City Hall once dominated by linen warehouses, now includes, in addition to cafés, bars and restaurants, a dozen hotels (including the 23-storey Grand Central Hotel), and the city’s two principal Victorian-era cultural venues, the Grand Opera House and the Ulster Hall. The completion in 2023 of Ulster University’s enhanced Belfast campus (in "one of the largest higher education capital builds in Europe") and the determination of Queen’s University to compete with the private sector in the provision of student housing, has fostered the construction downtown of multiple new student residences. On the east side, a branch of the Ulster Bank is built behind the classical portico of a former Methodist church dating from 1846. These include Cupar Way where tourists are informed that, at 45 feet, the barrier is "three times higher than the Berlin Wall and has been in place for twice as long". At the same time, a British-funded welfare state "revolutionised access" to education and health care.

Learn more with a museum visit

But the presence of 18 selective grammar schools in Belfast is a further feature of post-primary education in Belfast that distinguishes it from that of comparable cities in Great Britain where academic selection was abandoned in the 1960s and 70s. Primary and secondary education is divided between (Catholic) Maintained Schools and (non-Catholic/ "Protestant") Controlled Schools. Despite the DUP’s derailment of devolved government in protest, local business leaders largely welcomed the new trade regime, hailing the promise of dual EU-GB access as a critical opportunity.

Ulster Museum

Saturday mixes specialty foods from around the world with stalls displaying handmade crafts, flowers, plants, local photography, pottery, glass and metal work. Compact, walkable and packed with friendly locals, Belfast delivers history, food, music and bold energy, all within easy reach for a weekend escape. Welcome to Belfast, Northern Ireland’s vibrant capital where rich maritime heritage meets cutting‑edge culture.

Board settings

Harland and Wolff, the chief shipbuilding firm in the city, built the luxury liner. Guided through the museum via a booklet or app, you’ll follow the Cúl-Trá-il trail and learn about the traditions of Hiberno-English, Irish and Ulster Scots and their respective fights for survival. Self-guided tours with audio guides and holograms are the best way to explore its cavernous tunnel, shoebox cells and macabre graveyard.

Experience an authentic black cab tour of Belfast and discover the murals and unique characters of both the nationalist and unionist communities. Any easy way to learn more about a place is to belfast cab take a tour and luckily Belfast has quite a few tours on offer. We often find that a city bus tour is the best thing to do on arrival at any destination so that you can quickly get oriented and Belfast is no exception to the rule. Over the years we’ve visited Titanic Belfast a number of times and while we’ve been impressed, our recent visit to the upgraded experience left us both awed and even a little bit emotional. The iconic Titanic Belfast visitor experience stands tall on the same spot that the world’s most famous sinking ship was built. You can learn more about the complicated history on one of the many tours or at Ulster Museum, or the Belfast City Hall Visitor Exhibition.

Cutting-edge food, traditional pubs and incredible Titanic history take Belfast to the next level. Cutting-edge food, traditional pubs and Titanic history take Belfast to the next level. From the city’s airport at Aldergrove, 13 miles (21 km) northwest, services are maintained with some principal international cities. Educational institutions in Belfast include Queen’s University at Belfast (founded in 1845 as the Queen’s College), the University of Ulster at Belfast (1849), and Union Theological College (1853). These sectors are now overshadowed by service activities, food processing, and machinery manufacture.

Take a black taxi tour of Belfast’s political murals

Significant projects included Victoria Square, the Cathedral Quarter, Laganside with the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall, the new Titanic Quarter with its Titanic Belfast visitor attraction, and the development of the original Short’s harbour airfield as Belfast City Airport. Northern Ireland’s peace dividend since the 1990s, which includes a marked increase in inward investment, has contributed to a large-scale redevelopment of the city centre. These include a new deepwater quay to accommodate, in addition to larger cruise liners, an expansion the port’s capacity for offshore wind turbine assembly and installation.