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Until very recently, the city of Belfast has only evoked images of guns, bombs and misery. Those of us who have lived through the "Troubles" know that the city's charm has often been overlooked by this dominance of gloomy news, while visitors who braved this corner of the country were always surprised at how much there was to see and do. Now, of course, we're in different times and tourists flock to discover Belfast for themselves. Belfast has even been termed "Europe's friendliest regional capital", at once provincial and outward looking. It now offers a sumptuous range of dining and drinking experiences, excellent accommodation and every kind of entertainment possible.
Albert Clock
You can easily see the city center on foot and in a day. Kick off your morning at the City Hall, in the heart of the city center. This opulent Victorian pile was built in the last days of the 19th century as a symbol of the city's industrial might, and it remains Belfast's most recognizable landmark. The compact city center surrounds the City Hall. One of the curious side-effects of the Troubles was that the center of Belfast—gated and barred to all traffic for fear of bombs—became by accident a most attractive pedestrian zone, and it remains so today.
The center of Belfast is a hotchpotch of Victorian architecture—the best examples are the carefully preserved facades of the (now sadly defunct) department stores of the city, and the leaning Albert Clock. The gleaming Castlecourt shopping complex is the most potent symbol of the city's new prosperity.
City Hall
The main cultural institutions are housed in the heart of the city and can easily be taken in during a morning's stroll. From the City Hall, stroll past the Royal Courts of Justice down to the waterfront. Enormous redevelopments are taking place here, from new apartments to a new Hilton Hotel. The pride of the redevelopment goes to the Waterfront Hall, a great circular glass and limestone edifice and home to one of the best auditoriums in the British Isles. This is a most attractive place to stop for a peek about and a coffee.
Golden Mile
A few minutes walk away lies the so-called Golden Mile, stretching from the city center to Queen's University and home to Belfast's best nightlife. The Europa Hotel lies on the Mile and is famed as the most-bombed hotel in Europe, but the greatest attractions are the Opera House—19th-century, domed and vaguely mosque-like—and the ornate and lavish Crown Liquor Saloon. Some of the city's best concerts and opera are performed in the one, and the most serious drinking goes on in the other! The Crown is an excellent stop for lunch, and will give you the opportunity to discover the marvelous interior of the bar, which is owned by the National Trust.
Queen's University
The handsome university area is now just a few minutes' walk away. Queen's University lies in leafy south Belfast and the main building is constructed in warm red-brick, around a quiet and very fine quadrangle. The college was founded in the middle of the 19th century and is home to the Belfast Festival, the second-largest arts jamboree in the British Isles. Close to the university stands the Ulster Museum, which holds a fine and extensive collection of art, and the pretty Botanic Gardens. If it's raining, press on at this point to Stranmillis Village which is full of shops and cafes; but if it's not, then linger in the Gardens and take a moment to admire the impressive Palm House, sister to the great glasshouses at Kew.
Belfast Castle
One of the best ways for the visitor to catch all that the city has to offer is to try a tour. Here are some of the tours currently on offer that aim to capture those aspects of the city worth taking home with you. Politics, of course, is with us still, and if you're interested in seeing the trouble spots of both Protestant and Catholic West Belfast, try a Black Taxi Tour. The murals you'll see painstakingly painted on gable ends are a unique expression of communities in crisis, and it's fascinating to compare the Loyalist Shankhill Road murals with the Republican Falls Road ones—same medium, but very different messages. The Black Taxi Tour will also show you the Peace Line, designed to keep two communities apart, as well as taking you round some of the most famous building in the city center. Intimate and informative, it's a great way to see for yourself the issues and the energies that have shaped the conflict in Belfast since 1969.
If you want to see the city from the vantage point of a luxury bus, the Belfast City Tour run by Citybus will bring you to every major attraction in the greater Belfast area in the space of an afternoon. The tour has been thoroughly thought out, with stops for refreshments included in the price. You'll see the shipyard Harland & Wolff, where you can stand in the shadow of the two largest cranes in the world, Samson and Goliath. (Belfast, we say, builds Big, take for example The Titanic!) The elegant Parliament buildings at Stormont are on the agenda, and you also get taken up to the quiet, wooded slopes of the Cave Hill to Belfast Castle, stately home of the Chichester family who owned practically all of North Belfast. This is the tour of Belfast as the regional capital of Northern Ireland, and you'll see all the state institutions you would expect of a capital in all their pomp and architectural splendor.
Lagan
Belfast developed as a city around its waterway, the Lagan, and there's a great Lagan Cruise running from the re-vamped, swish Waterfront docklands area up to Stranmillis Weir by Queen's University. There's something very calming about boats and water, and this tour is a great way to learn and relax at the same time. You'll see very different faces of Belfast again, from the yuppie filled expensive new business developments, to the old cottages of Ulster on the banks higher up the river. Your tour guide is friendly and infectiously enthusiastic, and you'll be guided slowly up river in a ship called The James Joyce. What more could you want?
And of course no trip to Belfast would be complete without visiting that worldwide famous institution, the Irish Pub, the very place to dive straight into the proverbial heart of the Irish Welcome. There's a Historical Pub Tour of the city that has already done all the hard work for you—picked out the brightest, best and liveliest of Belfast's bars and strung them together into the most enjoyable tour around. Everything you could want is here, Irish music, endless craic, a chance to get off your feet at regular intervals and of course the inviting prospect of imbibing the local poison. If this tour drags on for longer than it's supposed too, don't blame the organizers.
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